A Midwinter Promise by Lulu Taylor
Genre: Historical fiction, General fiction
Read: 10th March 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 14th January 2020)
★★★★ 4 stars
I'm not sure what lead me to request A MIDWINTER PROMISE by Lulu Taylor as the premise didn't appear at all exciting but I'm glad I did. It was a surprising read that intrigued me on a journey of secrets and discovery. As an epic contemporary novel, it really draws you in from the start and consumes you as the story unfolds.The story surrounds the Pengelly family set in one of my favourite locales - Cornwall. It almost has an historical feel of another century with a huge stately home of turrets and gothic architecture that is at the centre of the story. The descriptions of Tawray made me feel as if I was really there, watching everything unfold. It was simply breathtaking.
Alex and Johnnie Pengelly lost their mother Julia tragically when they were just children afterwhich her best friend Sally moved in with such haste that was indecent. Within two years their father David married Sally, wiping any memory of their beloved mother from the house. As their stepmother, Sally removed any trace of Julia and seemingly created a wedge between David and his children, isolating them further and favouring her own horrid son Edmund, known as Mundo.
As Alex and Johnnie grew up, there seemed little reminder of their beautiful mother almost as if she were never really there. They longed for a closeness with their father but Sally was always there to keep them apart. And Mundo was always there to torment them. Of the three children, he was given the best of everything - the best schools, the best university - while all Alex and Johnnie wanted was their father's love and attention. Instead, David faded to somewhere beyond their reach...with Sally always hovering in between. They hadn't only lost their mother, they had lost their father as well.
When Alex wanted to continue her mother's tradition of decorating Tawray with boughs and baubles of dried flowers (gathered in the summer) and opening the house to the public at Christmas, Sally refused. Was there to be nothing of her mother or her legacy left? This was her mother's house - not Sally's. Or did Sally think Tawray belonged to David and that she would become lady of the manor once she married him? Which then begged the question...what part did Sally play in her mother's tragic death? She was supposed to be her best friend...but what if she was only after David and the position he would give her as mistress of Tawray?
As the years go by, the children grew and left the nest. Mundo went to university and became a hotshot lawyer in London, Johnnie also went to London, married Netta and had three boys - Bertie, Nathan and Joe - and Alex...well, Alex remained in Cornwall. She renovated the Old Barn on the edge of the Tawray estate, made it into a home for her and her girls - Scarlett and Jasmine - and created a thriving business of growing flowers and supplying the local village and surrounds. She lived her mother's legacy and continued the tradition of decorating Tawray in the festoons of dried floral arrangements each Christmas and opened the house for the public to enjoy.
But then Tawray is sold - their father cutting out any remaining link with Julia or the past, leaving Alex and Johnnie with only a lingering memory of their mother.
Now, in the present day, their father David has suffered a stroke and Alex and Johnnie have been summoned to his bedside. His prognosis looks grim but Sally remains confident of him making a full recovery by Christmas. For over two decades, David has been the centre of her world and she cannot imagine her life without him. Alex is torn between grief for her father and her irritation that Sally didn't call her as soon as her father had had the stroke...instead of waiting till morning. Like his sister, Johnnie is also torn but his feelings toward his stepmother are of anger at the indifferent way she has treated them - belittling them and allowing her horrid son Mundo to consistently torment them and then siding with him - over the years. And by ostracising them from their father when they needed him most after the death of their mother and keeping them apart in the years thereafter. Johnnie is angry and bitter and has no intention of showing Sally any sympathy or kindness.
Then when Mundo makes his appearance, it seems nothing has changed and he is still the obnoxious overbearing entitled oaf he was when they were growing up. But instead of looking out for his mother, he shifts that responsibility over to Alex to care for Sally in her aging years while h continues to live the high life in London. When all hope of David ever recovering looms, Mundo takes the opportunity to begin planning for the dividing of David's assets between them, languishing in his own sense of entitlement and self-importance that he and Sally will benefit far greater than that of David's own children.
But for Alex and Johnnie, the grief at the impending loss of their father rouses a myriad of other emotions tied up in the skeletons rattling around in Tawray's halls and the secrets it holds. Should their father never wake, the realisation that the truth about their mother's death will die with him fills them with an unimaginable hopelessness.
But then a stranger appears, stirring up the ghosts of the past with news that rocks their world and changes everything they ever knew about their father, their mother and the secrets of Tawray.
However, this is not the only story told here. There is also Julia's, interspersed between the present day and the past. And perhaps the most important story of all.
When we first meet Julia she is a 12 year old living in the sprawling estate that is Tawray and the year is 1975. As an only child, she is incredibly lonely and longs for a "parcel of brothers and sisters" to share her childhood with. She has Lala, of course, her older half-sister from her father's first marriage but Lala lives in France with her mother and she doesn't see her as often as she would like. Then overhearing her aunt Victoria quip to her grandmother one day that Julia was nothing but "a pup from the second litter", left her in a state of confusion. It was no secret that Aunt Victoria found her mother of unsuitable stock for Tawray but why did she dislike Julia as well?
Julia's childhood was a lonely one. She hardly saw her parents - her father always working and her mother taking to her bed whenever she became pregnant which was often but always ending with the same result. No child. Julia grew to hate whatever child her mother was carrying for making her so ill. It wasn't until the last time a few years later that Julia was home alone and she heard the screams from her mother's bathroom that she found a sight that would never leave her for the rest of her days. It sets off a chain of events that was to become like a talisman for Julia as she vowed she would never have children, not wanting to go through what she witnessed her mother endure in her efforts to give her father a son and heir to Tawray. It leads her down a dark path as she becomes more unstable with the years in her attempts to be happy.
When Julia meets David, her life seem to turn a corner. He provides her with a stability and happiness that she has never known before and within months they are married on a midwinter's day. Her distasteful aunt saw it as an omen to marry on such a day which came to play on Julia's mind in the years to come, leaving her to question if her marriage and happiness was doomed from the start. Which only intensifies when Julia discovers she is pregnant. This part of the story was brutal to read. It was raw, it was horrific and it was completely heartwrenching as we watch Julia grow ever more fragile and vulnerable.
David is at her side for the most part when he can get time away from his demanding and somewhat secretive job as an aide to the Prince and Princess of Wales. Alongside Julia's story we see snippets of Charles and Diana's life played out (of which we are all familiar with) despite David remaining tight-lipped about his employer's private lives. As news of the royal couple's separation and divorce becomes public knowledge and the focus moves to the princess and her humanitarian works, the queen of people's hearts' tragic death in Paris ultimately overshadows Julia's own at Tawray.
I think it is Julia's story that fascinated me the most and really drew me in. From being a lonely child and coping with her mother being constantly unwell during her pregnancies to her rather unloving aunt and grandmother. Julia lived for Lala's visits and who became such an important part of her life. From childhood to her chaotic new life in London to her marriage to David to her friendship with Sally to her return to Cornwall, the darkness of the past never entirely leave her. The memories of her mother affected her more than anyone ever truly realised, particularly with her own struggles with pregnancy. The themes of mental health and addiction are woven into the story expertly and with sensitivity that had me completely riveted as I longed for a happy outcome for her.
I have not read Lulu Taylor before but I found A MIDWINTER PROMISE a compulsive book to read that I couldn't put down as I swiftly turned the pages to uncover the secrets that laid buried within the halls of Tawray.
A MIDWINTER PROMISE is one of my favourite types of books - dual timeline narratives filled with history and secrets to uncover and the story unfolds. I love how the past and the present are woven together and how the secrets of the past bind them all. It is most definitely rich in history and I could almost picture that immensely striking portrait mural of Julia's family in all its vivid detail.
Although A MIDWINTER PROMISE is exactly what you would expect with the predictability of a happy ending and a promise of a hopeful future, there are still a good few surprises along the way making the journey a beautiful and heartfelt tale that spans the decades.
A heartwarming story of love, loss, family and motherhood, I particularly found the portrayal of a mental illness somewhat different to those usually depicted to be eye-opening, raw and heartfelt as written from the perspective of the one suffering those demons. I could almost feel that pain. And to transport me to such a dark place was a stroke of genius and just brilliant.
My only niggle with this book was the tidy way in which everything was neatly tied up at the end without a more appropriate reason given behind one particular character's behaviour over the years. The reason outlined seemed a little too convenient and didn't really ring true.
An enjoyable way to lose yourself, A MIDWINTER PROMISE is an addictive read from beginning to end. Recommended particularly if you enjoy historical and dual timelines with plenty of secrets to unpick along the way.
I would like to thank #LuluTaylor, #NetGalley and #PanMacmillan for an ARC of #AMidwinterPromise in exchange for an honest review.
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