Between the Pages

This book features two timelines, which eventually connect.  In 1980, five friends fresh out of university, find an abandoned old cottage in the Peak District, and decide to stay there for a year, living off the land, and being self-sufficient.  The group includes Kat, an insecure young woman who is hopelessly in love with another of the group, Simon, a charismatic but arrogant young man, who assumes the role of leader within the group.  In the present day, Lila and her husband Tom are struggling with the death of their baby daughter.  When an old cottage is bequeathed to Lila by an anonymous benefactor, she is puzzled but decides to renovate the property as a way of helping her work through her grief.

I have mixed feelings about this book, although generally speaking, I enjoyed it.  The writing was pacey and easy to read, and I particularly liked the character of Lila (she was one of only two characters who I really cared about throughout the story).  The 1980 storyline almost was also quite compelling, especially when the friends’ happiness almost inevitably turned to misery and tension as winter set in, and they found their self-sufficieny harder to maintain.  An unexpected arrival at the cottage creates further tension, and that was when the (1980) storyline really picked up pace.

However, I guessed the connection between the timelines and the twists to the story fairly early on; in fact they seemed so obvious that I wasn’t really sure if they were intended to be twists, as they were pretty well signposted.  This didn’t necessarily spoil my enjoyment, but if you like a lot of surprises in your novels, this might leave you feeling slightly disappointed.  (Having read other reviews of the book, I see that I was far from being alone in guessing what would happen).

Also, I got very annoyed with two of the characters.  It’s not spoilerish to say that Kat was a complete doormat when it came to Simon, but the way she is written with regard to her lack of self-respect just made her irritating rather than sympathetic.  And as for Simon himself – don’t get me started!  If ever there was a character who needed someone to just stand up to him, it was Simon.

I think if you are a fan of psychological thrillers, and don’t really mind the twists being easy to work out, you would probably enjoy this book.