Caragh BellRecensioni

A decent read that I enjoyed

A charming saga of a family in Cornwall. This is a long, absorbing story of love and drama spanning a generation, with enough villains and heroes to add spice to the mix. The characters are believable if their behaviour is a little over the top… and the surprise ending gave the story an interesting twist.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from LibraryThing in return for an honest review.

This story follows the life of Aurora Sinclair. It opens on Aurora as a child living with her father, Henry, and nanny, Maggie in a large old home on the Cornish coastline. Aurora's mother, Grace, was a famous actress and singer who died giving birth to her. When Henry falls in love and remarries Aurora's life changes for the better. She gets a new life in London with two new step-brothers and a step-sister.

Fast forward ten years and Aurora's career is starting to take off. Like her mother, Aurora is a talented singer and actress. She is still close with her family, especially her older step-brother James. After tragedy strikes, Aurora learns a secret about her past that could change her future.

While the book primary follows the life of Aurora it does also explore the lives of her step-siblings. I did find it could be slow and drag in parts but I still enjoyed the story overall.

Plot:
Lydia loves her boyfriend Dominic with whom she's been quite a long time already. When she moves away to do a Master's degree, the separation isn't easy to take. Plus, there's Luca right there beside her: gorgeous, flirty, American, he is as intriguing to her as he is off-limits. But the effect he has on her makes her start to question her life's decisions so far.

Indecision, unfortunately, didn't work for me. It was badly written and full of unlikable and/or clichéd characters. I found it an exhausting read.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2018/11/22/indecision-caragh-bell/

Review of the book is in Dutch on my blog: https://alimolenaar.nl/stukjes/theater-in-romans-echoes-of-grace/
Disclaimer: I got this book in the Librarything Early Reviewers.

This book has a lot of promise and I enjoyed the setting and the build up of tension in the story. The story, once unfolded, progresses slowly. I did enjoy the main character, Aurora's, progression and character arch in the story, but the story itself doesn't, for me, reach a satisfactory conclusion.

This was an interesting book! It's not something I would generally read, but I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the interaction of the characters and the storyline. The only criticism I would offer is it seems to be a little slow at some parts of the book. However, it was a good book overall.

I loved the opening chapter to the story as it captures the nuances of a deliciously gothic tale, what with a stately manor house situated on the wind swept coast of Cornwall, a young girl (Aurora) raised in seclusion by her playwright father and secrets of her theatrical singer/actor mother who died in childbirth. Oh, yes, I was soooo excited at the prospect of a good gothic tale. Sadly, the story grew into a more contemporary story of family, relationships and love. Yes, there are two evil step-brothers (evil in that they want nothing to do with their father's daughter by his second wife - always amazing how greed comes into play when an inheritance is in the offering) and a new "instant" family when Aurora's father marries for the third time. Aurora as a character has some very naive, childish views, even when she is an adult living in London and New York as she follows in her mother's footsteps to become a singer/actor, and those were a little difficult to take in. While the author tries to wrap the story and the various plot lines at the end, my overall impression is a story that was a tad too long to get to where it was headed.

This story will probably best appeal to readers of contemporary family/romance stories that provide glimpses into the lives of wealthy families with a connection to the theatre world.

I won this book as an Early Reviewer at LibraryThing
I liked the story and the main subjects, the interplay of families coming together and their ways when they are getting older. The two eldest stepbrothers were very flat characters, but I did not mind that too much.
I liked the heroine, I really did, but in the end she was too childish for my liking.
The story of her past is being unfolded too slow for my liking and really, I do like a slow pace in a book.
Sometimes the author writes to cliché, that is a pity.
Notwithstanding that all, it was a nice read.

This book is one that you might want to keep reading. It starts out a bit slow to introduce you to the characters and what is going on. It does have some situations and language that was not for me.

Echoes of Grace by Caragh Bell is an easy to read book, with a predictable storyline. I sometimes struggled with the British slang seeing that English is not my first language. It started a bit slow with a lot of details, often about things that did not enhanced the storyline. The first 35 chapters were just a story. Not much happened and if it was not that I have received a free copy from the publisher for reviewing purposes, I might not have finished it. Although - at the end the pace picked up, and I enjoyed the quicker unfolding of the story. I did not appreciate the cursing in the book.. The storyline included some “taboos” that I felt were unnecessary and did not enhanced the story. Right through the book I felt distant from the characters and although an enormous amount of details were provided, I never fell in love with any of them.

Echoes of Grace is a well written book, I loved the detail of places, scenarios, and the conversations between characters. It made you feel you were there, like everyday occurrences. My only complaint is I did not like some interactions between characters and the ending. (Like life, not everything turns out like "you" want it)

This was given to me as an ARC for my review.
I feel like it started off slow with the mystery easy to see but I enjoyed the story as a whole and read it fairly quickly. I didn’t know it was part of a world with 3 books already but it was a great stand alone novel. I had to use context clues for some of the British slang since I’m not familiar with it but it wasn’t a turn off. A couple of things that bugged me: The repetitiveness of telling me that Aurora was “the spitting image of her mother” or “answered in a clear voice”. I’m also not too sure about the relationship at the end. I saw it coming but didn’t feel it.

It took me a while to get trough this book and if I hadn't received it as a part of Early Review I think that I wouldn't have finished it because all trough the book it felt flat and no described event or the main mystery of the book had me thinking "oh, I have to continue reading to see what happens next".
At moments I got really frustrated with the characters, including the main character Aurora who was written as a stereotypical good princess like role - so beautiful and perfect and missing "human factor".
Overall this book is written much better than some other books I have rated with two stars but because I felt so frustrated at moments and bored with it sadly I can't rate it higher.

So I'm gonna say for now I can not get into this book. I made it to chapter 8 and that's as far as I can go. At this point it's very lagging. I will try again at a later date to read it again.

Echoes of Grace is the fictional story of Aurora Sinclair, daughter of late Grace Malloy, as she develops from childhood into early adulthood. If you enjoy dramatic books with several stories going on at once, this one is probably for you. I found myself wanting the author to stay more with Aurora´s story, rather than stray to the development many other characters. At one point, I considered not finishing the book because it seemed to drag on with various storylines. The ending was not to my liking and some may find it distasteful and/or offensive. Unfortunately, I don´t think I would recommend this book. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Aurora's mother died when she was born, and she was raised by Henry. When he remarries, Aurora's life changes and she begins to follow in her mother's footsteps.

To be honest, I thought this was going to be about Aurora growing up and how she resembled her mother (in personality and character and life choices). Instead, we not only follow her, first as a child and then mostly as an adult, but we also follow her step-siblings in their romantic entanglements. Adultery is not romantic in my book, which made up one such relationship.

There were frequent four-letter words, which also lessened what little enjoyment I had with this book. Also, an attempted rape scene. I could have overlooked these last two if I had enjoyed the characters. I just didn't care about any of them.

The only thing I did enjoy was the settings. The descriptions of each scene made me feel like I was right there.

Overall, this book was not my cup of tea and I honestly don't know who I would recommend it to. I received a free copy from the publisher for reviewing purposes.

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Christine's review Feb 06, 2019 · edit
really liked it

I won this book as part of a giveaway. This is an honest review.

A very alluring read. Although a bit long at times, the premise was good. I would recommend this book.

Aurora lives alone with her father and nanny in a dilapidated mansion in Cornwall. Her life is isolated and old fashioned, but she doesn't realize how lonely she is until her father falls in love with a woman from London with a large family of her own.
This novel spans several decades and dips into several points of view. It tackles taboos that took me completely by surprise, but the characters and the writing were both compelling enough that I found myself enjoying nearly every scene, save the very last which seemed rushed and cliched.

I enjoyed this book once the plot started. The whole first section of the book doesn't really seem to have a plot it is just exposition. In part two once the story really began it was a much easier read. The book was a little convoluted and a few of the side stories could have been removed to make the book a little easier to read. A few grammatical errors throughout the book.

This story introduced us to a young girl who was essentially brought up by a family caretaker with a father who kept her sheltered and didn't show her a lot of closeness and two step brothers who were always terrible to her. She wasn't able to really get to know life until her dad met and married a woman who came along with her own 3 children. We get to see how the children grow up in their own ways and the choices they make as they come into adulthood.

This is the story of a young woman and a family drama, a long, absorbing story of love, jealousy, unrequited love, blended families. I read this book during the Christmas holiday break and although I do not read many romantic novels, I enjoyed this one very much and I’m happy to give it four stars. A good read.

I received a copy of the ebook from LibraryThing for an honest review.

Loved this book. The story line was different and the dialogue was appropriate for the Cornwall area. Tackling a subject that some people would say is taboo - the relationship between step brother and step sister - was brave and well written.

I normally only read Christian books. But I was drawn into this book, and was not able to put it down. I was put out by the F bombs, and some of the other swearing. I agree with the other reviewer that there was a lot of immoral behavior, but I did enjoy most of the book.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I misunderstood what this book was going to be about and wouldn't have read it if I had known. It is full of people cheating on each other and those relationships are portrayed as romantic. The beginning seemed sweet and innocent about a little girl who is old fashioned and naive and gains a stepfamily that is loving and I thought this might be good though there were hints of some dark mystery (which ended up being so predictable that I thought that couldn't possibly be the mystery). But then it's all about who is sleeping with who and messed up relationships for the rest of the book. I want to wash out my brain.

Content warning: lots of swearing that gets more frequent as the book progresses, an attempted rape scene, and a lot of adultery.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.