REVIEW: Home to the Hills by Dee Yates (ARC)

Home to the Hills by Dee Yates

Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, WW2

Read: 4th July 2020

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(publication date: 19th March 2020)

★★★★★ 5 stars

I love historical fiction, particularly sagas with characters you have come to know and love, and upon discovering that this was a sequel to "A Last Goodbye" I set out to read that before diving into this one. Like the one before it, once I started HOME TO THE HILLS I found that I could not put it down. I was immediately immersed within the story that takes place some thirty years after "A Last Goodbye" finishes.

HOME TO THE HILLS is a tender touching post-war saga which sees Ellen returning to the hills of Scotland with her now adult daughter Netta. It will touch your heart and bring a tear or two to the eye with a story that remain with you long after it has ended.

April 1939: A distraught young girl is comforted by a kind lady who reminds the boy of his own mother as they board the train that will take them to their destination. The kind lady gently persuades the young girl to sit beside him as he looks to be "such a sensible boy". The girl continues to sob throughout the journey, settling into a sulky silence. They seemed to travel for days, by train and by boat and by train again, by the time they reach their final destination. Disembarking he looks around eagerly, awaiting to be shown the place where he will be staying and await for his parents to join him. The young girl who had travelled with him was quieter now, confiding how much she missed her parents. He squeezed her hand and said likewise, ensuring that they would see them again soon.

December, 1945: With the second world war now over, Ellen Kessler and Netta Fairclough step off the Glasgow train in the small Lanark village as they return to the southern uplands of Scotland. It has been nearly thirty years since they were last here and their return sparks a mountain of memories for Ellen, who grew up on the farm where Netta was also born.

Their return is bittersweet as they soon discover that Ellen's beloved father passed away three years before and his wife Margaret has taken up residence in a small railway cottage in the village. However, the farmer Kenneth Douglas and his wife Elizabeth are still there and welcome them both with open arms.

But Ellen is not the same woman she was who left at the end of the Great War to join the love of her life Josef Kessler in his native Germany with her daughters Netta and Eva. She has seen such cruelty she had never known before, not even at the hands of her first husband Tom, and a despair that has changed her life dramatically. Netta is very protective of her mother as they are all each other has left after suffering the atrocities of war and the losses that they have endured. They have returned to Scotland to heal but Ellen finds the farm hold many memories of her life before and of when she first met a young Josef as a prisoner of war there.

Ellen and Netta settle into a quiet life on the farm, living in a nearby cottage by the new reservoir. Ellen helps Elizabeth in the kitchen while Netta tries her hand at shepherding under the well-trained eye of newcomer Andrew Cameron. Not afraid of hardwork, Netta walks the rugged hills of the farm alongside Andrew, learning all aspects of lambing, clipping and preparing ewes for market. Even in the midst of the harshest winter, she helps to dig the buried ewes from the snow before they suffocate. While Netta is proving to be an asset to the farm not all locals welcome her. Farming is men's work and a woman's place is in the farmhouse kitchen. But when it's discovered she has grown up in Germany, tensions rise even higher. Some folk have long memories and bear no sympathy for those who are German.

And yet Ellen is determined to make this a fresh start for her daughter, despite all they have loved and lost. But there are some secrets that are just too painful to share which she has kept close to her heart for years...

As the story unfolds, we are given a glimpse into the past in Germany and another minor plot that is also unfolding at the beginning of the war in Manchester through to the end of the war in Yorkshire, adding a depth that enriches the story. Both stories are cleverly woven together by the end that will bring tears to your eyes at its heartwarming conclusion.

When I started HOME TO THE HILLS, I found Ellen to be a virtual stranger to the forthright young woman she was in the first book. As Netta was just a toddler at the time she didn't have time to develop a personality in the story, but at the beginning of this one I found both women to be a little standoffish and I wondered whether I was going to enjoy this book as much as I had the first. However, as the story unfolds, the reader soon learns why the two women are the way they are and we come to love them wholly by the story's end.

This immersive tale of second chances, after such sadness and loss in the face of war, HOME TO THE HILLS will tug at the heartstrings and sweep readers back in time to post-war rural Scotland. It is captivating and compelling and completely addictive from beginning to end, just as much as "A Last Goodbye".

Although HOME TO THE HILLS is actually a sequel to "A Last Goodbye", readers will be able to enjoy this book without having read the first one with ease, as there is enough information given to allow this book to be read as a standalone. However, the first really is too good to miss out on so I do recommend reading "A Last Goodbye" before this one to enjoy the story even more.

Should there be a follow up to this story? I think it is nicely wrapped up as it is. A definite recommend for lovers of historical fiction, particularly sagas.

I would like to thank #DeeYates, #NetGalley and #AriaFiction and #HeadOfZeus for an ARC of #HomeToTheHills in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: A Last Goodbye by Dee Yates

A Last Goodbye by Dee Yates

Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas

Read: 2nd July 2020

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon

(publication date: 1st May 2018)

★★★★★ 5 stars

As a massive fan of historical fiction, A LAST GOODBYE is one of those books you just can't put down. It is heartbreaking, it is heartwarming and it is compelling. I loved the premise, I loved the cover and I couldn't wait to immerse myself into the story...and I wasn't disappointed.

Set on a sheep farm in a remote part of the southern uplands of Scotland, the story begins towards the end of the 19th century with Duncan and Janet Simpson and the impending birth of their first and, what was to be, their only child. Sadly, Janet dies in childbirth and Duncan must bring his new baby daughter up alone. As a shepherd, life on the remote hills of Scotland can be a harsh one but Duncan raises his daughter Ellen and for the first sixteen years of her life it is just the two of them.

It's 1914 and war is on the horizon despite many believing that it will be over by Christmas. But the war in Europe seems a long way from the isolation of the Scottish uplands as life goes on as it always has on the farm. Ellen is nearing 16 and on the cusp of womanhood, rising at dawn and filling her days with cooking, baking, washing and cleaning. She's known no other life than that of caring for her father whom she loves dearly. But he is not getting any younger and the work gets no easier. So when young Tom Fairclough arrives fresh from Yorkshire, hired to assist her father on the farm, Ellen isn't sure what to expect from the new arrival.

Tom has made the move from Yorkshire to Scotland to be near the woman he loves who is studying medicine in Glasgow. His intention is to propose at the earliest opportunity so they can then plan their lives together. Upon arriving at the remote farm where he is to work, Tom meets 16 year old Ellen and is immediately drawn to her openness and direct manner. She takes on the cooking and cleaning for Tom in addition to those in her own cottage she shares with her father and the two strike a sort of friendship.

Ellen has never met anyone outside of the farm, nor has she ever left the farm, so Tom's arrival sparks an interest she is not familiar with. Having never grown up with a mother, Ellen has a sort of naivety about her and is somewhat lacking an education regarding knowledge of the more intimate things a mother would pass on to her daughter. She has her father's directness and, finding herself in awe of young Tom, believes herself to be in love with him. But Tom loves another and after a disappointing visit to Glasgow, he finds himself drawn to the young Ellen seeking comfort in her arms...on the floor of the barn.

On Christmas Eve, when Ellen finds herself racked in the throes of a pain she has never known before she thought herself to be dying. She never expected to be giving birth. So innocent was she that she had no knowledge or expectation of a baby's possible existence. In that moment, Tom's hopes for a future with his beloved were dashed as Duncan insist he marry Ellen. Although he adored his baby daughter Netta, it is soon clear that he is unhappy in his marriage. Ellen was not who he wished to marry and it wasn't long before she too was aware of the fact. The man she thought she was in love with and who she thought loved her began to act out his frustrations with his fists...with Ellen on the receiving end. When Tom signs up for the war, Ellen is almost grateful.

Soon after Tom's departure for the front, German POW's are brought to the area to build a railway line and prepare the valley for the new reservoir. The work is hard and the days are long and when one of the prisoners takes ill, Ellen is approached by the captain in charge of the camp and is asked to care for the sick man, Josef Kessler. His convalescence is long and although he speaks no English, Ellen teaches him and they become friends. Josef has a kind heart and, treating her with kindness and respect, he is everything Tom isn't. Ellen knows Tom would never allow her to care for another man in their cottage let alone a German, their sworn enemy, but she has come to enjoy their time together. However, when Tom returns home on leave he discovers her secret and his punishment is as brutal as ever. Affected by his time in the trenches, Tom's moods are unpredictable and his anger more violent. While Ellen's loyalties are divided between those of the man she married and those of the man she loves, she knows that she is trapped by duty to her husband.

I really liked Ellen as she grew from a naive young girl into a strong woman and loving mother. Times were hard in those days and divorce, when things get tough, was not an option as it is today as marriage was a responsibility that was undertaken seriously. But she made the best out of a difficult situation. My heart ached for her and her love for Josef, knowing it was forbidden and could never be.

I also really like Josef. He was a sweet and kind man and everything Tom wasn't. As well as being a German POW, it also highlighted the fact that not all Germans were the enemy. They were just pawns in an even bigger game. That's all war ever is. His friendship with Ellen was beautiful and he was just one of the sweetest people in the story.

I did not, however, like Tom. Not from the first moment he came into the story. He had an air of arrogance about him, so sure was he of marrying Clara that he didn't entertain the idea that she may not want to. Then when he took Ellen on a bed of straw in the barn I thought how selfish of him to think only of his needs without sparing a thought for the young girl he is using. I knew right away that Ellen was pregnant even when she didn't and when baby Netta was born and he knew then he had to marry her, I knew this wasn't going to end well. But when he took his hands to her and dealt his vicious blows, I despised him even more. I've been on the receiving end of those blows and no amount of excuses or apologising makes it alright. I also knew his apologies would be shortlived...as were his promises to be more considerate of his wife.

I actually chose to read A LAST GOODBYE because its sequel "Home on the Hills" came up in my Netgalley list and, as I already had this book, I decided to read it now and I am glad I did. It is beautiful, it is heartbreaking and it is an emotional rollercoaster that you just don't want to get off. Within a short space of time, I found myself so addicted to the story that I couldn't escape, nor did I want to. Not until I discovered how it would end for Ellen, for Tom and for Josef.

A LAST GOODBYE is so well written the story just consumes you. The ending, when it comes, it so bittersweet, so heartbreaking and yet so beautiful. In short, I absolutely loved this book! And I cannot wait to dive straight into its sequel to see where the story goes from here.

A definite recommend for lovers of historical fiction.