Lost Girls of Devon --by Barbara O'Neal

 Fiction / Women’s / beach book / mother-daughter relationships

Lake Union Publishing

July 14, 2020

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B082SXNWX8

2945 KB

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1542020727

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1542020725

351 pages (paperback)

$0.00 Kindle Prime as of date of review (4 Jun 22)

$7.49 (paperback)

5 Stars

 

What happens when a young mother abandons her young daughter to Grandma and goes traipsing off around the world? The mother is mourned, until finally shoved aside in anger at the abandonment. It’s the grandmother who raises the girl, who becomes her mother. Then the mother returns to a home of only her mother, her daughter being overseas with her own daughter. (Believe me, the story isn’t as complicated as what I just wrote!)

 

The youngest daughter went through a nightmarish situation at school and refuses to talk about it. The grandma isn’t well. So, granddaughter and great granddaughter return to Devon, where the Grandmother lives, but so does the runaway mother. And people need to solve a crime or two as well as grow up.

 

If you enjoyed the stories by Maeve Binchy, I think you will enjoy the books by Barbara O’Neal. Complex characters, complex stories, most satisfying endings. 

 

Previously read and reviewed books by Barbara O’Neal:

http://lenoragood.blogspot.com/search?q=barbara+o%27neal

Memories of the Lost --Barbara O'Neal

 ASIN: B0CQ8AQZJ16

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (July 30,2024)

Language: English

Also available in print

Sibling Fiction/Friendship Fiction/Sisters Fiction

5 Stars

 

Every Barbara O’Neal book I read is better than the one I read before. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the late Maeve Binchy so my comparison may be way off base, but in my mind, O’Neal is Binchy reincarnated. At least, I enjoy O’Neal’s books as much as I did Binchy’s.

 

This story, about a young lady, an artist, Tillie Morrisey who was a single child to her single mom, discovers, once her mother dies, and she’s cleaning out Mom’s house her own death certificate as a young child. 

 

As if that’s not bad enough, just a few days prior, she goes to an art gallery to support her best friend who has his first showing, and while there all but falls into a painting by an unknown artist and is helped by a handsome stranger. 

 

So, we have a mystery, several mysteries. Why did Tillie find her death certificate? She was very much alive and had not been in a fire when she was a child. At least, she didn’t remember it. Who is the handsome Aussie who has entered her life? When she contacts the artist who painted the picture she tried to fall into, she finds out it’s in England.

 

Busy, getting paintings finished and together for her up-coming show, she finds she is getting lost in her paintings and when she returns, she has no memory of painting the changes, but those who have seen them think they might be her best yet.

 

She decides to take a few days to visit England, see if she can find the house in the original painting and instead, she finds the most marvelous answers to all of her mysteries. It’s so nice to read a HEA book where no one dies, where no one resorts to violence. And I really do enjoy a good story, and a Happy Ever After ending.

When We Believed in Mermaids: A Novel --by Barbara O'Neal

fiction / literary

348 pages / 1612 KB

4 Stars

I read this book a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't put it down. She gets 5 stars for the story, 3 stars for the editing. Had it been edited, 5 stars would have been awarded. So, the bad news first: I was totally tossed out of the story half a dozen or so times with the phrase, "Me and Josie..., me and...." Perhaps Ms. O'Neal is from the UK? I understand that is common grammar there, but not here. At least it's common in their tv shows.

Second, the good news: As I said above, I had a hard time putting it down. I loved the story (when not being thrown out), I could relate to the people involved, I maybe didn't like them all, but I could see them. They were human. I very much enjoyed O'Neal's writing style, or voice. It's what I would call relaxed and accessible. Hence my frustration at being tossed out now and then.

If you want a thriller, or a bodice ripper, this isn't your cup of tea. Kit and her mother have lived for 15 years with the knowledge that Josie, Kit's older sister, is dead. And then they see her on a news clip from New Zealand. Anyone can look like her sister, but no one else would have the scar in exactly the same place, with the same shape. 

Much of this story is told in memory of happier days from the POVs of both sisters. And the mystery of why Kit became an MD, and Josie a drug addict. I found the ending quite satisfactory and on that, I'll say no more.

Do I recommend the book? Yes.

The Art of Inheriting Secrets --by Barbara O'Neal

Fiction / mystery/romance

359 pages / 1898 KB

5 Stars

I was a tad trepidacious about reading this book. I read her later novel, When We Believed in Mermaids and loved it, and I so did not want to be disappointed in this one. I wasn't. I will now look for more of her books.

As a little girl, I was sure I was a real princess, and had been kidnapped and raised by my parents, and someday... Of course, it was fiction that I grew out of. But can you imagine being an adult, in an abusive relationship, your mother dies, and you discover you're not a princess, but a countess with your own estate in England? 

Olivia couldn't, but she had to check it out. And it was true. She was a countess, and the estate is in a sad state of repair, but she hopes to salvage it. Many of the village detest her, as an American, they are sure she will sell the estate to a developer. Some in the village truly like her, and are willing to help her. And her solicitor has been robbing her blind for years. And where is her uncle? The one who disappeared in India? Puzzles within puzzles. 

And the romance is a breath of fresh air. True romance, not a bodice ripper.  A most delightful book!