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Title: Penhaligon's Attic

Subtitle: Penhaligon Saga, Book 1

Author: Terri Nixon

Narrator: Penelope Freeman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-07-17

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Genres: Romance, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

1910. Anna Garvey arrives in Caernoweth, Cornwall, with her daughter and a secret. Having come from Ireland to take up an inheritance of the local pub, she and her 18-year-old daughter, Mairead, are initially viewed with suspicion by the close-knit community. Anna soon becomes acquainted with Freya Penhaligon, a vulnerable girl struggling to keep her family business afloat in the wake of her grandmother's death, and starts to gain the trust of the locals.

As their friendship deepens and Freya is brought out of her shell by the clever and lively Mairead, even Freya's protective father, Matthew, begins to thaw. But when a part of Anna's past she'd long tried to escape turns up in the town, she is forced to confront the life she left behind - for her sake and her daughter's, too....

Members Reviews:

Dramatic characters and an ingenious ending

Barely recovered from almost drowning when she went out at night to welcome her dear father back from his fishing, a new tragedy shatters eight-year old Freyaâs heart: her mother is taking her away from her beloved Cornish village to London â for ever, it seems.

Her father Matthew is also broken with remorse, as he admits his unrestrained drinking was responsible not only for his familyâs breakup but also for the accident which caused his skipper friendâs injury and the resulting hostility of that manâs son, his best childhood friend. With no permanent job, Matthew moves in with his elderly parents, who run a second-hand bookshop, called Penhaligonâs Attic.

The plot thickens seven years later when, after all, Freya is sent back to her father, who has stopped drinking, because her mother is running off with her new man to America, and the mysterious Anna Garvey arrives from Ireland with her teenage daughter Mairead, claiming she owns the village pub. A project to revitalise the bookshop, a sordid girly affair and a widowsâ mutual help guild are some of the intriguing subplots. Freyaâs morbid fear of the sea as a result of her near-death incident as a child and Maireadâs epileptic seizures add to the vivid drama. In fact, all the main players are very well developed and we catch a realistic glimpse into the lives of rather hard-up Cornish fishermen and tin miners in the early 20th century.

Things come to dramatic head when Annaâs supposedly dead surgeon husband arrives from Ireland and is enraged by discovering she has started a romantic relationship with Matthew Penhaligon. The last chapters introduce unexpected twists and a highly ingenious solution, but here the pace and rapid mood changes are somewhat implausible.

Altogether a vivid, very well written book, which inspires the reader to find the next book of the series.

A Cornish saga which draws you in

This is one of those stories that I love. Cosy, but fraught with mystery that involves families, dark secrets and hidden pasts.

I find Cornwall quite mysterious anyway with its tales of folklore and more so it was a perfect story to be set here. There is a lot of warmth and depth to the novel with talk of boats and the fishing industry, and the importance of naming a boat.