I hesitated a bit in the first few chapters. While I'm a huge fan of Rosamunde, I wasn't sure that her son Robin's writing would suit me as well. Another reviewer said the characters were boring and evidently gave up.
I am so very, very glad that I did not let this doubt win.
Each chapter takes a look at a different character and the mundane melancholy of the first character seemed like just another woman with a fabulous job (international festival office in Edinburgh)and a complicated relationship that did not draw me into the story.
Pilcher is very good at character and relationship tho so I continue to give it a go.
By the end I'll admit to shedding a tear and am now bereft that I've finished the novel. It picked up pace significantly as the festival performers, organizers and a host of others melded together in an altogether believable plot.
A world class violinist comes of age under the management of a obsessed man who is jealous of her every moment away from the violin and from him; a firework company owner produces his 25th and final display at the end of festival; and an unknown comedian from a poor English neighborhood rises to meet the extraordinary opportunity presented to her by her hometown fans. There's also a retired film photography director in ill health who undertakes to tutor a car thief in the filming industry; a young freelance writer who must find a way to make the mortgage payments during the festival by renting rooms; and a young festival employee who must struggle thru the consequences of a long over affair that could possibly destroy her new marriage.
It all comes together well and I'm already missing the story. I'm off now to find another of his books.
I am so very, very glad that I did not let this doubt win.
Each chapter takes a look at a different character and the mundane melancholy of the first character seemed like just another woman with a fabulous job (international festival office in Edinburgh)and a complicated relationship that did not draw me into the story.
Pilcher is very good at character and relationship tho so I continue to give it a go.
By the end I'll admit to shedding a tear and am now bereft that I've finished the novel. It picked up pace significantly as the festival performers, organizers and a host of others melded together in an altogether believable plot.
A world class violinist comes of age under the management of a obsessed man who is jealous of her every moment away from the violin and from him; a firework company owner produces his 25th and final display at the end of festival; and an unknown comedian from a poor English neighborhood rises to meet the extraordinary opportunity presented to her by her hometown fans. There's also a retired film photography director in ill health who undertakes to tutor a car thief in the filming industry; a young freelance writer who must find a way to make the mortgage payments during the festival by renting rooms; and a young festival employee who must struggle thru the consequences of a long over affair that could possibly destroy her new marriage.
It all comes together well and I'm already missing the story. I'm off now to find another of his books.
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