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See the Stars by Eleanor Ray #Review

  See the Stars by Eleanor Ray will be  published on February 5th 2026 by Piatkus .  Do you ever feel that life isn't going to plan?   When Alice Thorington collapses in the street after a particularly hellish day at work, she must finally admit to herself that her outwardly happy life - steady relationship, well-paid job, beautiful flat in the city - isn't everything she'd hoped it would be. Burnt out by long hours and living a life that doesn't fulfil her dreams, Alice returns home to Yorkshire.  Her childhood home brings complicated family dynamics, a rediscovery of her passion for stargazing and two new friends: Berti, a boy who finds it easier to count the stars than interact with people, and Matt, her brother's best friend and Alice's teenage crush. With each of them facing their own struggles, can the stars that meant so much to Alice in her past help them to find their way in the present?  Filled with heart and warmth, this uplifting novel...

The Butterfly Garden by Rachel Burton #Review

 

Today I have another lovely summer read for you by Rachel Burton, The Butterfly Garden, which was published by Boldwood on 28th June

 
A gripping and beautiful tale of love, loss and secrets. Perfect for fans of Rachel Hore, Lorna Cook and Kathryn Hughes.

 

1963: When Clara Samuels buys Butterfly Cottage, she knows the scandal she’ll cause. A single woman buying property is not the ‘done thing’, especially not in a village like Carybrook. But Clara has been in love with Butterfly Cottage, and its garden, since she used to play there before the War. And when she reconnects with her childhood friend James, her decision feels serendipitous. But the true scandal is yet to come, because within six months, Clara will leave England under mysterious circumstances, and Butterfly Cottage will stand empty for more than 50 years.

2018: No one is more surprised than Meredith when she’s bequeathed a cottage by a great aunt she’d never heard of. She hopes, briefly, that the inheritance could be the answer to her financial problems. But when she arrives in Suffolk, she is shocked to discover a man is already living there. A young gardener, who claims he was also bequeathed half of Butterfly Cottage.

As the pair try to unravel their complicated situation, they unearth a decades old mystery involving Clara, the garden, and a stack of letters left unread for over 50 years…


 My Thoughts

This is a dual timeline novel, which alternates between 1963 and 2018. It features different generations but the central focus in both is the setting, Butterfly Cottage. The social attitudes towards women change over the years but in 1963, Clara finds herself up against  gossip and prejudices directed towards her as a single woman. She shows her mettle when she buys the cottage and seemingly, settles for a career as a school teacher and a single life. She knows if she was to marry and have children, she would be expected to resign, according to the views of the village which seem to come from an even earlier age. 

    Meredith inherits the cottage in 2018 and you can contrast how attitudes towards women have moved on. Meredith is at a crossroads in her life. With financial and personal issues in her past, she seems rootless and in need of some security. I appreciated how the two women's stories and experiences were interwoven. Although I did guess the secret at the heart of the novel's mystery, I enjoyed all the story threads and the characters within them.

In short: dual time line and a mystery

About the Author

 

Rachel Burton is the bestselling author of historical timeslip novels and has previously written romantic comedies.

Rachel was born in Cambridge and grew up in a house full of books and records. She has read obsessively since she first realised those black squiggles on the pages that lined her parents’ bookshelves were actually words and it has gone down in family history that any time something interesting happened, she missed it because she had her nose in a book.

After reading for a degree in Classics and another in English Literature she accidentally fell into a career in law but her love of books prevailed as she realised that she wanted to slip into imaginary worlds of her own making. She eventually managed to write her first novel on her lunch breaks.

She is obsessed with old houses and the secrets they keep, with abandoned gardens and locked gates, with family histories and surprising revelations, and with the outcomes of those surprises many generations later.

She lives in Yorkshire with her husband, a variety of cats and far too many books. By writing novels she now has an excuse for her head being forever in the clouds.

You can follow Rachel here:  

Twitter |  Instagram  |  Website   |  Goodreads  |  Facebook
 
 Aria links: Website  |  Twitter   |  Fiction   |  Instagram
 
Head of Zeus: Instagram  ||  Twitter |  Website  |  Facebook
 
  Book links  |  
 
   
Thanks to Rachel Burton, Boldwood Books and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
 
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