What I’ve been reading in November

 My daughter lent me two books she had been given this month so neither were ones I picked off the shelf myself.

This book was apparently made into a film with Julia Robert’s in the main role. Amanda and Clay rent a beautiful Airbnb home in a remote area of Long Island. Their family are having a wonderful holiday enjoying the luxurious house when one evening an older couple arrive saying that they are the owners of the house. They have driven in a panic following a major power cut at their other home in New York. They ask to be let in to shelter in the guest annexe until power is restored in their apartment.

Amanda is dubious but they don’t see how they can refuse. The following morning Clay ventures out and gets horribly disoriented and finds himself lost despite feeling that he hasn’t actually travelled far.  Their children have gone exploring in the woods, following some deer which appeared around the trees.

That is all I can tell you as I was not enjoying the storyline and decided to stop reading. I had a feeling that something supernatural was behind the mystery and I didn’t like the style of writing.

I then turned to the other novel, 

Stella and her family grew up on the tiny island called Evergreen and lived there until Stella was 11 when her parents suddenly decided to return to the mainland without ever giving a reason why.The book alternates between 1993, when they were still living there and present day where the discovery of a body has been found close to the garden of Stella’s family’s house.

Stella cannot resist returning to the island to discover whose body it is although she is not warmly welcomed back by the locals. She finds out that the victim was someone who was friendly with her elder sister and is horrified when her brother confesses to the murder. Stella does not believe him and is determined to find out the truth. However, it is obvious that someone does not want her digging up the past.

I enjoyed this book, the storyline was unexpected and it is interesting to see the other characters through the eyes of Stella as a child compared with Stella as an adult.