Miller’s Island, Leona Bryant
Miller’s Island, Leona Bryant
Genre: Romance, Mystery, Paranormal
Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews
Well, this books contains so much….once you really get into the story. To begin I felt it was a little slow, but once I got to grips with the story and the characters I understood that slow start actually set a solid backing. Anyway Mari – mum to Miller – is lovely. Her sister Theresa, wife to Jake ( that man is a saint) has three kids, but has always felt second best to Mari and is very resentful of everything she has. When their parents died they were both left homes, Theresa the family one and Mari the family beach house ( not a shack but what sounds like a huge, sumptuous home) Under the terms of the will Theresa is allowed to spend two weeks at the beach house every other year, providing she notifies Mari first. The two now have little to do with each other, and Theresa hasn’t bothered to do that for the past few years, just telling the solicitors she’ll be there and turning up each year. She’s invited various friends too, giving them the impression its her house….and of course this year she doesn’t know that Mari has plans to stay there the whole summer, for the first time since she inherited it. Firecrackers in store!
That starts off a chain of events, with Theresa’s feelings about Mari quickly coming out – she wants to pack up and leave, but Jake and the kids have looked forward to coming and he refuses. The house is big enough for all of them to stay and not have to have close contact, and Mari is happy for that. She can see how disappointed the kids and Jake would be to leave, and she’s always got on well with him. Their aunt too is staying, and she’s a huge part of the story and a great character. Theresa’s anger and oddness get worse, some of the awful things she’s done in the past come out, Miller can see someone no-one else can, though others feel strange about certain parts of the house, and there are some odd happenings. Theresa has become someone Jake doesn’t recognise, not the wife he’s known all these years, the mum that loves the kids and does so much, the loving person he married, the woman everyone so much admires, she seems to have gone and this termagant taken her place. Everyone is upset and on edge, and then someone from the past appears, and that just tops off all the wicked things Theresa has done and brings them all to the edge.
Its a packed novel, full of everyday problems and things we all have to deal with, along with a mystery to be puzzled out and some very real dangers to some of the characters. Its a tale of love and loss, revenge and retribution – showing how anger in the end hurts the person concerned more than anyone else. Theresa’s anger and slighted feelings end up doing her real harm, and she faces losing everything that she has. It all felt very real, even the paranormal elements if you’re an open minded reader. I am, so had no problem believing that part.
Stars: Four, it’s a solid read, packed with multi layered plots that bind together, and come to a head in a shattering but satisfying climax.
ARC provided by Netgalley and publishers.
Recent Comments