Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-wednesday-daughters.html
The Wednesday Daughters is a follow up to Meg Clayton's earlier book, The Wednesday Sisters, but it stands alone as a story. It is a story about characters rather than a plot. A lot of characters with a lot of stories.
Three of the main characters - Hope, Anna Paige, and Julie - are the Wednesday daughters. They are life long friends because of the friendship among their mothers. Hope's mother Ally recently passed away, and the friends come to England's lake district to clean out a cottage Ally owned there.
Hope is struggling to cope with her mother's death, still work out her relationship with her mother, and thinking about a struggling marriage. Julie is attempting to recover from the death of her twin and her own guilt about events in the past. Anna Paige, who had a very close bond with Ally, is grieving for her own loss and is dealing with relationship and commitment issues.
In the lake district, the women meet Graham and Robbie. Graham, a man living alone is struggling with his mixed heritage, a secret connection to the Wednesday daughters, and a lost love. Robbie is the island boatman but with a past and a story of his own. The stories of these two men intertwine with those of the Wednesday daughters.
Intermingled with these stories are excerpts from Ally's journals. These are written as Ally's musing and as conversations with Beatrix Potter (yes, the author). Mind you, the conversations and musing are imaginary of course.
Confused yet? Me too. This book had way too much going on. So many stories intertwined told in so many different voices. The individual thread became difficult to follow and did not hold my interest.
*** Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers program ***
The Wednesday Daughters is a follow up to Meg Clayton's earlier book, The Wednesday Sisters, but it stands alone as a story. It is a story about characters rather than a plot. A lot of characters with a lot of stories.
Three of the main characters - Hope, Anna Paige, and Julie - are the Wednesday daughters. They are life long friends because of the friendship among their mothers. Hope's mother Ally recently passed away, and the friends come to England's lake district to clean out a cottage Ally owned there.
Hope is struggling to cope with her mother's death, still work out her relationship with her mother, and thinking about a struggling marriage. Julie is attempting to recover from the death of her twin and her own guilt about events in the past. Anna Paige, who had a very close bond with Ally, is grieving for her own loss and is dealing with relationship and commitment issues.
In the lake district, the women meet Graham and Robbie. Graham, a man living alone is struggling with his mixed heritage, a secret connection to the Wednesday daughters, and a lost love. Robbie is the island boatman but with a past and a story of his own. The stories of these two men intertwine with those of the Wednesday daughters.
Intermingled with these stories are excerpts from Ally's journals. These are written as Ally's musing and as conversations with Beatrix Potter (yes, the author). Mind you, the conversations and musing are imaginary of course.
Confused yet? Me too. This book had way too much going on. So many stories intertwined told in so many different voices. The individual thread became difficult to follow and did not hold my interest.
*** Reviewed for LibraryThing Early Reviewers program ***
During the late 1960s, five extraordinary young women - Frankie, Linda, Kath, Ally and Brett - forged an amazing friendship that endured for a lifetime. Although the ladies initially had little in common with each other beyond a shared love of literature and watching the âMiss America Pageant' together, their casual bond quickly blossomed into a much stronger relationship than any of the women could ever have imagined. âThe Wednesday Sisters' as they began calling themselves, soon realized that they were seeking out each other's company more and more - commiserating over the myriad issues experienced in marriage and young motherhood; as well as buoying each other through the triumphs and tragedies faced in real life. And while âThe Wednesday Sisters' friendship lasted for four decades, the unique closeness these ladies experienced has extended into the next generation.
During the fall of 2011, Hope arrives in the English Lakes District to close up her mother Ally's holiday cottage. Although she doesn't anticipate anything going wrong during her visit - especially with lifelong friends Anna Page and Julie along to help - she still isn't quite prepared for what does happen. Soon after arriving at the cottage, Hope discovers a stack of her mother's old journals written in some sort of indecipherable code. Equally perplexing is the mysterious stranger who knocks at the door, claiming that the women are actually trespassing on private property.
The wealthy Englishman is Ally's nearest neighbor, although she never mentioned him - either to her daughter or to anyone else. Calling himself Graham, the man invites Hope, Anna Page and Julie to take a tour of the English Lakes - in order to get a more intimate glimpse of the forests, fells, and waterfalls that inspired Beatrix Potter's childhood classic Peter Rabbit and the poetry of William Wordsworth. However, what begins as a chance for Hope to learn more about the relationship between Ally and her eccentric English friend, quickly turns into something else entirely - something infinitely sweeter and much more meaningful to all three women. These guided tours become journeys through the emotional landscapes of their mothers' choices in life - as well as their own.
As the daughters begin to uncover the true reasons behind Ally's frequent trips to England - reasons that are as intricate and as personal as the secret puzzlebox that Hope carries with her - they reach a deeper understanding of the complexities of romance, the bonds of family, and the inescapable pull of the past.
First of all, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Wednesday Sisters: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton when I read it back in November of 2015. It only took me four days to read that book, and I was so looking forward to reading its sequel. To be perfectly honest, while I certainly enjoyed reading The Wednesday Daughters: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton very much, I think that my expectations for this book were almost too high. In my opinion, the contemporary storyline was perhaps the most enjoyable of the two - although I appreciated that the historical storyline was also included.
I understand that Beatrix Potter was a prolific children's author - and that she has ardent fans of her work - but I must admit that I have never read any of her books myself. As a result, I didn't really follow the historical storyline all that well. Having said that, I would still give this book a definite B+!
During the fall of 2011, Hope arrives in the English Lakes District to close up her mother Ally's holiday cottage. Although she doesn't anticipate anything going wrong during her visit - especially with lifelong friends Anna Page and Julie along to help - she still isn't quite prepared for what does happen. Soon after arriving at the cottage, Hope discovers a stack of her mother's old journals written in some sort of indecipherable code. Equally perplexing is the mysterious stranger who knocks at the door, claiming that the women are actually trespassing on private property.
The wealthy Englishman is Ally's nearest neighbor, although she never mentioned him - either to her daughter or to anyone else. Calling himself Graham, the man invites Hope, Anna Page and Julie to take a tour of the English Lakes - in order to get a more intimate glimpse of the forests, fells, and waterfalls that inspired Beatrix Potter's childhood classic Peter Rabbit and the poetry of William Wordsworth. However, what begins as a chance for Hope to learn more about the relationship between Ally and her eccentric English friend, quickly turns into something else entirely - something infinitely sweeter and much more meaningful to all three women. These guided tours become journeys through the emotional landscapes of their mothers' choices in life - as well as their own.
As the daughters begin to uncover the true reasons behind Ally's frequent trips to England - reasons that are as intricate and as personal as the secret puzzlebox that Hope carries with her - they reach a deeper understanding of the complexities of romance, the bonds of family, and the inescapable pull of the past.
First of all, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Wednesday Sisters: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton when I read it back in November of 2015. It only took me four days to read that book, and I was so looking forward to reading its sequel. To be perfectly honest, while I certainly enjoyed reading The Wednesday Daughters: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton very much, I think that my expectations for this book were almost too high. In my opinion, the contemporary storyline was perhaps the most enjoyable of the two - although I appreciated that the historical storyline was also included.
I understand that Beatrix Potter was a prolific children's author - and that she has ardent fans of her work - but I must admit that I have never read any of her books myself. As a result, I didn't really follow the historical storyline all that well. Having said that, I would still give this book a definite B+!
