The Very Thought of You - Rosie Alison

The Very Thought of You - Rosie Alison (2009)

When I lived in London, many of the older women I worked with had been evacuees during the war. Hard out Londoners, my impression was that they had had a difficult time living in the city, and once back home, had stayed put. Looking back to myself as an eight year old, you can imagine how hard it must have been to have been moved so far away from your family, to live with an unknown group of people, without the luxury of cellphones and Internet.

So in this story Anna Sands, finds herself in Yorkshire at the impressive Ashton Manor where she learns about the country, and the adults in the house. I was a bit put off by the blurb on the back, which mentioned if you loved Atonement, you would fall for this novel. Atonement was OK, but I think it received a bit more praise than it was worth of, and I liked the movie more than the novel.

Did I like this book?. The story in itself was interesting, I wanted to know what happened to Anna, and was satisfied with her story, but most ofthe characters to me felt a bit flat. Thomas Ashton in his wheelchair, Ruth the plain schoolteacher, Elizabeth Ashton the frustrated wife, all a bit of a cliche. There was nothing particularly memorable about them, I didn't really for care for any of them because they seemed to lack any sparkle, it felt like I was seeing them through a layer of gauze, all fuzzy and filled out with predictable storylines, but no endearing personal qualities.

So a 2.5/5