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The Cornish House (2012)

by Liz Fenwick(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1409142744 (ISBN13: 9781409142744)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Orion Books

review 1: A recently-widowed woman artist, still in deep grief, inherits a large house in Cornwall from an unknown relative and moves there with her stepdaughter, who is a teenager with major behaviour problems. The heart of the book is the stepmother-stepdaughter relationship, and the way both of them end up transformed. It is difficult to write a novel in which one of the central characters is consistently horrible for most of the book, and I don't think Liza Fenwick has pulled this off. I found the stepdaughter tedious, and for me there was too much repetitiveness in her behaviour and the description of her thoughts and feelings. I did enjoy the setting - the old house and the sense of a small community where everyone knows everyone else's business.
review 2: I had pr... moreeviously read and enjoyed 'A Cornish Affair' by the same author, but this book blew me away. The story is well woven as intricate secrets are slowly revealed, and the descriptions of the house and the breathtaking Cornish landscapes are simple but oh so effective. The story centres around lead character Maddie and her rude, sulky stepdaughter Hannah trying to come to terms with the loss of Hannah's father to cancer, tight finances and a move from London to Cornwall. Hannah is selfish and obnoxious in a way that only a teenager can be, and it would have been easy to dismiss her as a nasty piece of work had the author not given enough glimpses of the hurt and vulnerability that lay behind the façade for us to feel for her instead. The relationship between Hannah and Old Tom is particularly moving. I read 'A Cornish House' while feeling poorly which gave me a splendid excuse to devour this book in one go, and the story certainly gave me a lift. Of course, you don't have to be ill to read it, but I do recommend you put aside plenty of free time as you won't want to put it down. less

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