The Day She Came Back by Amanda Prowse - #BookReview

"It was late August, and had been one of those long, lazy hazy days of summer when the sun rose slowly and lingered late into the evening. Victoria had moaned about the fierce heat, knowing full well that on chilly winter days she would give anything for a glimpse of the sun. It took all of her strength to lift a hand and swat the darned fly away from the front of her face. In this balmy clime, Rosebank, their large square red-bricked Edwardian home on the outskirts of Epsom, with its rolling Downs and only a short train ride from the hubbub of the capital, felt closer to an African savannah than the suburbs. Especially if that savannah had a Pizza Express, a Waitrose and a roaring social scene based around the horse-racing calendar. Not that Victoria's social life was roaring. The truth was it didn't even mew."

When her loving, free-spirited grandmother Primrose passes away, Victoria is bereft, yet resilient—she has survived tragedy before. But even her strength is tested when a mysterious woman attends Prim’s funeral and claims to be the mother Victoria thought was dead.

As the two women get to know each other and Victoria begins to learn more about her past, it becomes clear that her beloved grandmother had been keeping life-changing secrets from her. Desperate for answers, she still struggles to trust anyone to tell her the truth.

To live a full and happy life, Victoria knows she must not only uncover the truth, but find a way to forgive her family. But after so many years, is trusting them even possible?

***

I read Perfect Daughter by the lovely Amanda Prowse five years ago and although I can tell you that I really enjoyed it I cannot remember the specifics. Actually, these days I'm lucky if I can remember what I did yesterday! It was the first in the No Greater Strength series and I am now questioning why I did not go straight on to read the next book in the series. Consequently, I have just ordered a copy of The Christmas Cafe/The Second Chance Cafe (it seems to be known under these two different titles) and am looking forward to reading it soon.

The Day She Came Back is another excellent novel from the pen of Mrs Prowse. It is a very moving account of how the heroine of the story, Victoria, is faced with grief, betrayal and lies and how she learns to come to terms with those and how she will make peace with her past in order to face her future.

Victoria is a lovely character. She is young, studious and a little naive. When her world is turned upside down following the death of her beloved grandmother and a woman claiming to be her long dead mother turns up at the funeral she feels as though her whole life has been a lie. 

I am not going to say whether this woman is, in fact, her mother but my heart ached for Victoria in trying to find her way through this incredible circumstance. The author presents her in such a realistic way that she was so easy to identify with and to feel empathy towards.

This book is largely about relationships - that she had with her grandparents, her friends and whether or not she will ever have a relationship with the woman claiming to be her mother. It is that which propels the story along and throughout I could not make up my mind whether I thought the woman was genuine or not. Of course, this is resolved by the end of the novel but I would never deny you the thrill of reading this book and finding out for yourself.

The author is a great storyteller. She writes with compassion, realism and hope. Well done. Another great book from Amanda Prowse that I wholeheartedly recommend.

ISBN: 978 1542014496

Publisher: Amazon/Lake Union Publishing

About the Author:

She has had twenty novels published along with six short stories in dozens of languages. Her recent chart topping No.1 titles What Have I Done?, Perfect Daughter and My Husband’s Wife have sold millions of copies around the world.