The Distant Hours - Book Review

Even though I do not remember how my love affair with books started, I LOVE to read!  I think it had something to do with my teachers, of course, and my Papo, my mom's dad.  He had an office that was full of books.  Two of the walls were floor to ceiling books.  I remember going in there as a little girl just sitting at his desk looking at the books of Hemingway and Faulkner.  Such stories and such adventures everywhere I looked.  Thankfully, I still have lots of his books lining the shelves of my home.  And so thankful I have a few weeks off each summer to read more books.

The latest book I checked out at the library (Yes, the library!!!  You can check out FREE books.  It is amazing!) was Kate Morton's The Distant Hours.  I found her name on a must read books list.  I had never heard of her before so I was intrigued.  Here is what Barnes and Noble website says about it:

"The #1 internationally bestselling author of The Forgotten Garden mesmerizes readers with this haunting tale of long-buried secrets and the twists of fate that can alter lives forever.It starts with a letter, lost for half a century and unexpectedly delivered to Edie’s mother on a Sunday afternoon. The letter leads Edie to Milderhurst Castle, where the eccentric Blythe spinsters live and where, she discovers, her mother was billeted during World War II. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives caring for their younger sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiancé jilted her in 1941. Inside the decaying castle, Edie searches for her mother’s past but soon learns there are other secrets hidden in its walls. The truth of what happened in “the distant hours” has been waiting a long time for someone to find it. In this enthralling romantic thriller, Morton pays homage to the classics of gothic fiction, spinning a rich and intricate web of mystery, suspense, and lost love."

 

 

 

At first, the storyline confused me because it goes back and forth from the past to the present and then to the past again.  I found myself just wanting the stories to get finished instead of the jumping around in time.  My aunt told me how much she loved this author so I just kept reading. 

By the middle of the book, I was hooked.  The characters were haunting and so complex. They stayed on my mind even when I was not reading.  The characters were not especially likeable but they all contained such sorrow and mystery.  The castle mentioned in the book had just enough creepy in it to be intriguing. 

At the end, I thought I had it all figured out only to realize that I was wrong.  The ending was perfect and made sense.  I was sad and relieved to find out what had happened to the characters.  They are still with me, even though the 562 pages are done.

Prepare to be drawn into the depths of this story.  I cannot wait to pick up another Kate Morton story.