Secrets on Mersey Square (Mersey Square #4) by Pam Howes
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas
Read: 11th December 2023
Published: 17th January 2024
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Mersey Square, Stockport. With her daughter in danger, how far will she go to save her?
Every day for the last sixteen years, Olivia Grant has longed for her daughter. Forced to give her up at birth, Harley has been raised by her father Roy and his wife. When the day to meet her arrives at last, Olivia’s heart swells as she takes in Harley’s precious face, so like her own. But Olivia can tell: her little angel is very sick and needs urgent help. And when a doctor delivers the most devastating news any parent could hear, Olivia must grapple with the heartbreaking truth. Will she lose the daughter she’s waited so long to meet?
Praying that she will be able to save Harley, Olivia despairs when neither she nor Roy can give her the help she needs. Their best chance of saving their darling girl’s life is another baby, a full-blood sibling to save her life.
But Roy has been happily married for the past sixteen years and he and Olivia now face an impossible choice. Having another child with Olivia would destroy Roy’s marriage, the only parents Harley has ever known. Should she ask Roy to try for another baby… or will doing so tear them all apart forever?
If you love Nadine Dorries, Diney Costeloe and Nancy Revell, you’ll adore this utterly gripping saga novel which will rip your heart in two and remind you to never give up on those you love.
This book was previously published as Always On My Mind.
MY THOUGHTS:
With her daughter terribly ill...how far will she go to save her...?
That's the crux of this book, really. How far would a mother go to save her child? And thensome. Because it's not just about her daughter, as readers will surely become aware. This is not a pretty tale but it sure is a messy one. One that began back in 1984...
For sixteen years, Livvy Grant has longed to see her firstborn daughter Harley who she gave up at five days old for her father Roy and his wife Sammy to bring up as their own. As a young single mother, she had no prospects but in closing that chapter of her life she moved on and married her childhood sweetheart, moved to America and had a daughter with him. All the while, still pining for Roy Cantello, her first love and father to her firstborn.
Now Harley is due to turn sixteen and Livvy is returning to Britain with the hope of being reunited with her daughter. But when she arrives, it's clear to see that Harley is gravely ill. And when the doctors confirm the devastating news, Livvy realises she could lose her daughter just when she has found her again. She would give anything, do anything to save her daughter's life. And then in the midst of despair she is given a gift, it seems. The best chance of saving her daughter's life is a full-blood sibling. Can she dare hope? Do they dare try?
Sammy Cantello has been a mother to Harley for her entire life. In fact, she is the only mother she has ever known, despite Roy promising Livvy to tell Harley all about her when she turned ten. Now she is just days away of turning sixteen and Roy has still yet to tell her. But tell her he must for Livvy is on her way back to the UK and she wants to see her daughter. But Sammy is scared. Because she knows the power that Livvy has over Roy and he won't be able to resist her. She fears that the pair will pick up where they left off and she couldn't cope with that.
Harley isn't the only reason Livvy is returning the the UK. Her friend Sheena has managed to track down her birth father and his family and she is returning to meet them, and the possibility of meeting her birth mother also. Finally, she will have a family to call her own. All she needs now is Roy and her family will be complete.
Well...this was one messy tale, to say the least. I have enjoyed each book in this series, though I may not have entirely enjoyed the direction in which they have taken. The last book "The Daughters of Mersey Square" had me frustrated no end and pulling my hair out wanting to slap Roy and scratch Livvy's eyes out. I liked how the last one ended with Harley nestled in the family bosom of Roy and Sammy...and Livvy out of the equation. I did not like that woman one bit. And in this one I liked her even less. She is calculating, manipulative and a devious little madam. She knew what she wanted and she set out to get it whatever the cost. The only time I cheered for her was her reuniting with her birth parents, which was heartwarming. Roy isn't much better. The man-child continues to think with his pecker and then gets himself in such a mess of his own making and yet it still isn't what he wants.
It's a complete mess like a soap opera but it's addictive reading and I must say I was rather satisfied with the ending. I can't wait to read the final one to see where that takes the Mellors and Cantellos and their extended lot, which I will be picking up next and hope to make as short work of that as I did this one.
Thoroughly enjoyed it!
I would like to thank #PamHowes, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #SecretsOfMerseySquare in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Pam Howes is an ex Interior Designer who loves creating stories, but only started writing seriously about twelve years ago. The idea for her first novel, set in the sixties, came from her time as a teenager, working in a local record store and hanging round with the musicians who frequented the business.
That first novel evolved into a series set in the fictional town of Pickford, based on her home town of Stockport. Three Steps to Heaven; 'Til I Kissed You; Always On My Mind; Not Fade Away, and That'll Be The Day, follow the lives and loves through the decades of fictional Rock'n'Roll band The Raiders.
Pam signed a second contract with the award winning publisher Bookouture with the first novel in her Lark Lane series, The Factory Girls of Lark Lane, published in July 2018. Her first series for Bookouture - The Mersey Trilogy featuring The Liverpool Girls, The Forgotten Family of Liverpool and The Lost Daughter of Liverpool - is also available in E book, paperback and as audio books.
Pam is a big fan of sixties music and it's this love and the support and encouragement of her musician partner that compelled her to write the series. Pam has three adult daughters and seven grandchildren. She lives in Cheshire and as well as writing novels, writes short stories, which have appeared in charity anthologies and online e-zines, and poems, many of which are published.
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