Book Description
Ruby blinks back tears and gazes across the violet-studded moors from the doorstep of Heather House before she turns and lifts the key. What heart-wrenching secret will she discover in her childhood home?
When Ruby inherits her family’s crumbling old house in the wild English countryside, she is devastated to think it might be sold. Heather House was once an artists’ haven filled with Ruby’s family and their colorful friends. Ruby has always been captivated by the glamorous Clara, a famous pilot whose love story came to a tragic end. Now black-and-white photographs transport her back to World War Two…
With the future of Heather House uncertain, Ruby loses herself in history. But it seems romance is not only a thing of the past when Jake, a jumper-clad American author with silver-flecked hair turns up at her door. Jake is investigating a wartime mystery about Clara, and he soon falls in love with the historic home. But when Clara shows him a view of the moors ablaze under the setting sun, his dark green eyes cause another flame to spark …
Together Ruby and Jake begin to unravel the secret hidden in the past. But can they find a way to save Heather House, or will Ruby be forced to sell it before the truth about Clara is at last unearthed and her new love has a chance to bloom?
***
My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
MEMORIES OF HEATHER HOUSE (Wildflower Secrets Book #2) by Rebecca Alexander is an emotional dual timeline women’s fiction story featuring generations of strong, independent woman. While this is the second book in this series, the books are connected by their small village location on the moors in the English countryside with minimal character crossover so they each easily stand alone.
Ruby is a genealogist and historian who has inherited the run-down countryside mansion of her childhood when her mother dies of cancer. For many years she just wanted to get away, but now it is her only connection to her matriarchal line of artistically talented women. Once an artists’ haven filled with bohemian characters, now only two of the elderly occupants remain.
With the future of the mansion uncertain, Ruby is also dealing with a handsome American who is researching her family’s famous WWII female ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) pilot for an American who believes she is also related to the mysterious Clara. As the two work together to dig up Clara’s secrets and try to come up with a solution to save Ruby’s home, they discover not only secrets from the past, but possibly a new love in the present.
This is a wonderful dual timeline story featuring Ruby in the present and Clara during WWII. While Ruby’s story is interesting with its search for Clara and her growing interest in Jake at times, I was frustrated with her always fluctuating in her beliefs that Jake had ulterior motives. It got to be a bit too often and should not have lasted as long as it did in the plotline because it felt repetitive. I was really pulled into the story when it switched to Clara’s WWII story. The WWII research is skillfully slipped into the story without feeling like a data dump. Clara is an amazing and compelling character that lived life to the fullest even in the middle of a terrible war and the tragic ending of her life, which is not a spoiler, was still so sad.
I highly recommend this dual timeline second book in the Wildflower Secrets series and I am anxiously looking forward to the next.
***
About the Author
Rebecca Alexander was born in Malta and grew up on the south coast of England, becoming a psychologist. She escaped parenting six children to study writing in 2011, and the Secrets series of novels was published in 2013. A Baby’s Bones and sequel followed. Rebecca lives in a haunted 300-year-old cottage in Devon where she grows fruit, paints, and bakes. She reads and writes all sorts of genres, from women’s fiction to fantasy to crime. She is married with four chickens, two grandchildren and a cat.
Social Media Links
Website: http://www.rebecca-alexander.co.uk/
Bookouture Page: https://bookouture.com/authors/rebecca-alexander-366/
Email sign up: https://www.bookouture.com/rebecca-alexander/
