20 Books of Summer Book 17 Review – The Glass House

Title: The Glass House

Author: Eve Chase (Narrated by Katherine Press)

Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery

Goodreads Rating: 4.13

My Rating:

Source: Audio Book

Synopsis:

An isolated forest estate.
A family with a terrible secret.
The discovery that changes everything.

England, 1970. On the one-year anniversary of the Harrington family’s darkest night, their beautiful London home goes up in flames. Mrs. Harrington, the two children, and live-in nanny Rita relocate to Foxcote Manor, ostensibly to recuperate. But the creeping forest, where lost things have a way of coming back, is not as restful as it seems. When thirteen-year-old Hera discovers a baby girl abandoned just beyond their garden gate, this tiniest, most wondrous of secrets brings a much-needed sunlit peace, until a visitor detonates the family’s tenuous happiness. All too soon a body lies dead in the woods.

Forty years later, London-based Sylvie is an expert at looking the other way. It’s how she stayed married to her unfaithful husband for more than twenty years. But she’s turned over a new leaf, having left him for a fresh start. She buried her own origin story decades ago, never imagining her teenage daughter would have a shocking reason to dig the past up–and to ask Sylvie to finally face the secrets that lead her back to Foxcote Manor.

My Review:

I was originally introduced to Eve Chase via NetGalley a few years ago when I read her novel The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde. When I saw The Glass House pop up on Borrow Box as available, I knew I had to give it a listen and I am so glad that I did.

Firstly I loved Katherine Press as the narrator. Her reading was clear, concise and so easy to listen to. She had a smoothness to her voice and the added accents and vocal changes gave the story a little extra something.

Historical Fiction has always been a genre that I have enjoyed. I’m a big fan of history and love nothing more than diving into the past to learn what life was like and how it’s changed. The unravelling of a historical fiction story is quite a slow process but along the way you develop deeper connections with the characters and that need to know the final revelation always pulls me in.

There were so many interesting and lovable characters but my favourites were Annie and Rita. Despite her situation Annie helped Sylvie to face her past and discover some much needed truth. Had it not been for Annie a lot of these secrets would of stayed buried and her candidness was pivotal to the story. Rita’s story was the most interesting to follow, she was a great nanny who was torn between so many secrets, it’s a wonder that she didn’t go completely balmy herself. She was an excellent role model for the Harrington children and had obviously left a lasting impression on them.

From the start I felt it was clear what Sylvie’s role was in the story. I almost liked knowing a little bit of the secret quite early on because then I knew there was more exciting developments to follow. I hadn’t foreseen the other connections in the family or how some of the other stories, particularly Caroline’s, would play out. The final revelations were exciting, beautifully written and in my opinion, flawless. Everything about this story from start to finish was simply perfect and I couldn’t find fault with it, hence the 5* rating.

This means I only have three books left in my 20 books of summer reading challenge! It has been a great challenge so far, here’s hoping that I can end it on a high! I’ve also crossed off my second prompt for my new reading challenge ‘A Book Set in the Past’, I now have 7 prompts remaining.