January 7, 2025 • 22 mins
In our latest podcast, hosts Simone, Tanya and Deb discuss, “Coming To Find You” by Jane Corry. This is certainly a gripping and emotional thriller. When her family tragedy is splashed across the newspapers, Nancy decides to disappear. Her grandmother's beautiful Regency house in a quiet seaside village seems like the safest place to hide. But the old house has its own secrets and a chilling wartime legacy . Now someone knows the truth about the night Nancy's mother and stepfather were murdered. Someone knows where to find her. And they have nothing to lose. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Join us and onwine with a good book.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome to relaxing reads. Hi it's Devin Halifax. Hi, it's
a mount in Vancouver.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey, it's Tanya at Edmonton.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Our latest read, Coming to Find You by Jane Corey,
is a gripping and emotional thriller. When her family tragedy
is splashed across the newspapers, Nancy decides to disappear. Her
grandmother's beautiful regency house in a quiet seaside village seems
like the safest place to hide, but the old house
has its own secrets and a chilling wartime legacy. Now
(00:32):
someone knows the truth about the night Nancy's mother and
stepfather were murdered. Someone knows where to find her, and
they have.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Nothing to lose.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Wow, this one had all kinds of interesting, complex characters,
so many secrets and crossing the generations.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
What did you think?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
How did you feel after everything was revealed or as
we were revealing things, things were being revealed in front
of us layer by layer.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I think that.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
You know. As I was going through it, I kept
I little asked myself questions, you know, does who is
who is this character? And are they? Do they like
each other? And who is this and what's going to happen?
It just seemed like there was always going to be
a secret that was revealed, right, So really I felt
like this was a really fast paced, like let's go
kind of a book. And and I loved how the
(01:28):
author used the present day and also used you know,
the beginning of World War Two as as her main areas.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And I just loved.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
How she weaved the characters together and how they were
all related. And I loved all the surprises, and it
just it just kept me turning, turning the pages and
turning the pages.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah everything Tanya said. And you know, it was interesting
because sometimes with the dual timelines, there's room to kind
of get confused or try to figure things out. I
felt like this was really easy. The flow was great,
and it did make me want to keep reading because
it's like it would leave you in a place and
you were like, what is happening next with this character?
But then you had to read the part of the
(02:10):
other character before you got back to that character. So
every chapter ended with you wanting more where And that's
that's really nice in a mystery or a thriller like this,
that it can keep you going from beginning to end,
just wanting more, wanting more, wanting more. And I think
that's why it was definitely a quicker read for me
because it just it kept me in. It didn't really
(02:31):
lose me anyway along the way. And like Tanya said, yes,
like every character had their own secrets, so you're like,
how many secrets are going to be revealed here?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I know. I felt like sometimes I'm easily confused when
we do have to go when we go back and
forth through different generations, different years, but this one I wasn't.
I felt like it was like visiting a relatives. So
you go and you hear a story about what happened when,
and then you know, mom and Dad are like, Okay,
time to go, say goodbye, and we'll be back again.
(03:04):
So I felt like, yeah, I was tuned in because
I knew i'd be back or somebody would share something
else with me.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You're right, dev like it really was.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I mean it's told from the point of view of
Nancy who's in present day, and Elizabeth, who's you know,
World War nineteen forty one, and I really felt like
the chapters were very fluid, like I can get easily
confused as well, and I go, wait a minute, who
is that? And then I have to go back to
the book and go, oh, yeah, that's so and so.
Who's married to so and so? Who's you know, gets
really a depth. But with this book, she did a
(03:33):
really great job of connecting those two people and connecting
all of the characters. So when I was finished reading
Nancy and all of a sudden, it's Elizabeth's turn, I'm like,
I'm right back in there. Like it didn't take any
time to get right back into nineteen forty one and
the horrors of war and what was going on, and
then you know, right back to sort of the horrors
of present day with Nancy and you know, the murder
(03:55):
of her mom and her stepdad, and so I really
I loved going back and forth.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I did, and get confused.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I felt like it added to the depth of the
stories that were being told.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And I absolutely just kind of plowed through this book.
Loved it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, And when we go back to wartime and the
family home, that place, I mean, I think it brought
so much to so many of the characters that we meet.
Both the beauty of it, but you know, during wartime,
the horrors that surrounded it. It was it was, I guess,
(04:31):
a character on its own.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, and even just going back to them having their
secrets and then there's Elizabeth who kind of takes the
secret to the grave, and then there's Nancy who needs
to just share it and take accountability. That was really interesting.
And also like we're seeing this the relationships between Elizabeth
and you know, her husband, you know, the teacher Adelaine,
(04:55):
her relationship with George and Henry, Nancy's relationship, but the
best friend storyline too, Whereas like Elizabeth and Edeline had
such a great friendship and I think that's something Nancy
was trying to strive for with Claire but just couldn't
couldn't get there. Hopefully in the end that's what's going
to happen. But yeah, the connectivity was really cool because
(05:17):
you're seeing the two versions of it, but yet they
both had such similar stories.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, Elizabeth had some great relationships with other female characters
as well, like you know, the little kids, the little girls,
along with yeah, with her best friend.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I just loved all the characters.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
I thought that they were I really got into them alling,
you know, I was I always judge a great book
by if I'm going to miss them, you know, once
I read the last few pages, am I going to
miss kind of talking to them? Because I really felt
like they lived in my head, you know, the little girls,
Macy and Mazie and Shirley. And you know, one of
(05:59):
the things that really kind of profound, profoundly affected.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Me with this book was World War Two.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You know. I mean there's a great quote I think
it's from the curator of the of the museum in
Nancy's story how he says, I'm just trying to think
I had a quote here, Jeremy, and he says, you know,
your generation needs reminding about the war, just as future
generations will need reminding about the virus.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
In reading this book, and I think the chapter, you know,
with Elizabeth and Adeline and all of them, they really
profoundly affected me because I'm a very sensitive person, and
the horrors of war like really.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Mess up my head.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
And you know, and I'm reading about what they had
to do during wartime and the beach that they used
to play on was now filled with barbed wire and
and minds, and they kept hearing planes overhead.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And then there's the Seak army.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
You have neighbors who don't trust neighbors, so everything is
like all messed up. And then you know you have
Adeline and Elizabeth joining the Secret Army and they're going, okay,
so you know, you know that if could you kill somebody?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Here's a gun? Could you kill somebody?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Because you're gonna have to if you get a message
and you see someone you don't know or someone you know.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
You have to swallow it.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
And oh if you get captured, here's a cyanide pill.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Like I just like it really messes up my head.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
And I just I felt viscerally sort of the horrors
of war. I felt like the author kind of really
put that through. And that's because I'm just so sensitive
to that stuff, and I think a lot of people are.
And I just you know, I wonder about today's society,
Like I wonder, you know, could you send your seventeen
year old son to war or your seventeen year old daughter.
(07:53):
You're sending them off to the unknown, And I just
I feel like war is awful and horrible, and I
just I just I wonder if you know, there's certainly
a lot of unrest today, like what if all the
shit goes down like what are we prepared like Elizabeth,
like Adeline, like Robert, who went to war at seventeen
(08:14):
comes back damaged, you know, like, are we prepared to sacrifice?
And I honestly I asked myself that question, and I
asked it throughout this book, and I'm like, honestly.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I just don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I feel like I would run and hide, but you can't.
You have to stand up for what you believe, you know.
And so anyway, sorry to go on about that, but
it just really that, really, you know, those chapters really
affected me, and I just get all kind of weird
because I just I feel like the world is shifting.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Again, and I just I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I don't know where we're going, you know, I don't
know where we're going and who's right and who's wrong
and what people will do in the name of power,
and I just yeah, crazy, yeah, and so young.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Like when you think about the characters, and you know,
the true humans, the people that we may have known
or we've heard of who went through that war and
the current conflicts in our world, and they're all so
very young having to deal with some very adult issues
and you don't have time to think. I don't know
(09:15):
that I could be who they were and still come
out if you survived and didn't have damage. I don't
know that I could survive beyond that. It's yeah, I
can't imagine myself in those positions either.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
But Tanya, like you said, it's important to be reminded
of it, you know, And sometimes we do get we
have those thoughts and you get caught up in your
day to day, but there's this whole past and this
whole history, and you know they always mentioned history repeats itself,
and I think you're never really prepared for, you know,
what could happen. You just kind of have to deal
with it as it comes. So that's kind of the
(09:56):
scary reality of things. And you know, the pandemic doesn't
compare to the war, but again, it was a time
of uncertainty, it was a time of panic, and you know,
those feelings kind of come up and if anything, and
those people who lived through the war and now they've
lived through the pandemic, it's just that just that uneasiness
of what comes with that and those feelings. But again,
it's it's something that we do need to think about,
(10:18):
we do need to reflect on. We have that day
with Remembrance Day, but throughout the year. You know, novels
like this make you want to kind of search out
and do some own your own digging to make sure
you're not just turning a blind eye to it, because
you shouldn't. We should know what's happened in our past
and how hopefully things like that don't repeat themselves. You
hope that we could get to that place.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Yeah, and I just love the whole mystery of the book.
You know, there was just you just never really knew
what was going on, and I just I just loved that.
I love that I was questioning what did Nancy? You know,
you know from the very beginning that Nancy didn't tell
the truth.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So the whole book, you're like, what happened?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
And then you find about these despicable characters, you know, Duncan,
her stepdad, and Martin the creepy step brother.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
And just like that, and just you know, what people
what people will or won't do, and what people will
do in.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
The time of war.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
You know, I think Polly, the girlfriend of one of
the characters, she's like, it was war.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
It changes everything. Yeah, Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, And I kind of liked how Jane the author
put the two side by side in those chapters. Nancy's
the present, Elizabeth is the past, and how she used
the same the same area. So it's like, as the reader,
you're like, in present day Sidmouth?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Is it Sidmouth?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Sidmouth said that the name of the town Sidmouth, and
tall chimneys the name of the house. So you're there
in present day and what Nancy is going through. And
then the next chapter you go to Elizabeth who.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Has a boarding house.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
It's called It's a boarding house, and all these characters
in it, they're walking along the same beach, they're seeing
the same rocks they're seeing, but in a different, totally
different time frame, which I thought was really really cool.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Well, it makes you think of where you live and
the people who have walked through the same roads and
the same beaches and the same lands before your time, right,
Or who's lived in your home if you have an
older home, like, who's been in there? What are the stories?
Because this home had a lot of stories and secrets
attached to it, right.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Oh my gosh, yes, so many. Well I was just
thinking about that.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I mean, I just met I came back from Montreal
and that's such an amazing city. But you know, you're
walking down them in old Town, you're walking down streets
that are like, you know, three hundred and fifty almost
four hundred years old.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Who has walked there?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
If you go to Rome, right, you're walking on it's
just so Yeah, when you start thinking about it, it's like, Wow,
all the stuff that's happened.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
Yeah, oh my gosh, crazy, the secret they've had to
hold on to for so many years, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But you had that revelation where Elizabeth finally told Adeline
her big secret, and then you had the moment where
Claire finally told Nancy her secret, and you know, you
get to a place where I think there are some
that could probably hold onto it forever, but then some
people just spill their guts. So it makes you just think, like,
how long could you hold something onto for before finally
(13:15):
being free of it and releasing the demons that haunt
you in the form of nightmares or panic attacks or
things that are happening. They say, the truth to the
shall set you free, right, So there's the freedom in that,
But then there's the the whole concept of you know,
some secrets that aren't terrible secrets, but you just don't
want to hurt someone, you know, a friend or somebody
(13:35):
like that, and you don't know what to do with
that information.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, I've heard like in recent years, like friends of
the family, you know, and having to hide a pregnancy
or you know who the parents were and having to
you know, shift the baby into another household. And then
years later you put when you're told about the connections,
and then you see how those connections, you know, how
(14:01):
those people had different relationships outside of what they truly
were on paper.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And it's yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Heartwarming, it's interesting and wild at the same time. But
as I was reading that, I was thinking about some
of the folks that I've heard of who've had to
hide some of those things over the years, and how
they must feel now.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
And it's sort of like, when do you tell the truth?
And when do you not tell the truth like to
your parts points some more, And you're like, well, you
don't sometimes because you don't want to hurt somebody, those
little white lies, right. So, and you know, Elizabeth takes
her secrets to the grave and we find out, you know,
the boxes in the cellar, we find out.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Oh so then she didn't really take it to the
grave like she wanted it to be discovered. But again,
it was like after her time, so at some point
she knew, like ash when she left this earth, it
wasn't going to completely be gone.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, did you think that?
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Did you guys think that Nancy and and Steven would
get together? I kind of thought they would, or so.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
You mean Elizabeth and Stephen or Elizabeth?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Sorry, yes, sorry, Elizabeth and Stephen. Sorry yes, yeah, Elizabeth
and Stephen.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, well, Henry just seemed like a terrible time.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
But again I know it's again based on what he
had been through. He was injured, he couldn't fight in
the war. So it's like we talk about the young
son or the young child you don't want to send away.
But then there's some people who maybe were like I
want to go fight for my country and my country's freedom,
but I can't, And so it's yeah, that whole weird
side of things.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
And like the self worth, like who am I If
I can't do this, then yeah, I might as well
be this other person on the side.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, but yeah, for her to go and start a
new life in Canada, when Adeline was going to start
that life in Canada. And then yeah, even when you
later find out that Violet was Nancy's mom, because they
don't really say the name in the begin So that
was interesting that connection there. And as I was reading,
I was like, Okay, so what happened to Violet that
(16:07):
maybe she shunned away from so she didn't really support
the daughter. But nothing really was told on that side
of the story about her. But yeah, like such an
interesting thing. We think about the silent sentences, right, people
who are serving these sentences and their side of things.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
I felt like I wanted to know more about Violet.
You know, Yes, her mom was so cool, you know.
They mentioned in the book that she wore pants, you know,
you know at that time, women didn't wear pants, you know.
And she was very feisty, and she was the one
who was talking about the secret army. And she's the
one who had the affair with the Canadian pilot and
(16:47):
she I don't know, she's just a trail poyser care.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
What people thought of her, you know, after the fact,
you know, here she is no husband and the affair
and a baby and people labeling her. But yeah, yeah,
and so just the baby mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
And then everything coming, you know, on Nancy's part, finding
out about Violet, finding out about who her trying to think, now,
her grandfather was her real grandfather, So is Adeline her grandmother?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Right grandmother?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
So she thought that right, because that would be Adeline
was the mother of Violet. Get confused sometimes and then
finding out that you know, she's looking at pictures going
well who is that?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Who is that?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
And finds out that you know, her grandfather was a Canadian,
wasn't George anyway? It was just like, it's interesting how
she discovers all these things about personal history. And I
think we have all had situations where you find stuff
about your history too that you didn't know, which is fascinating, right.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
And I loved some of those things that yeah, she
didn't know about, Like you had characters like Mazie showing
up again and filling in all the information being told
and getting that intel, or even with the ripping up
the letter and the whole Jasmine and the Alex and
they knew each other, like the connection there because you
didn't quite know what was going to happen there, who
was responsible. But I'm surprised with you know this, this
(18:15):
type of thriller. What was interesting is usually you wait
right till the end to find out or like something
was going to happen with Martin, but it kind of
happened in the middle, so you're like, oh, good Brittons,
are we done for that character?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Now?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Okay? But I was like, so, what's going to happen
from this point on? Like is there another character coming
in who's going to be torturing her or stalking her?
But no, it just went a different route and I
kind of quite enjoyed that. So it was like, you know,
we didn't have to be as scared, but we were
still unraveling so much more. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, there was a lot of that wasn't there, Especially
with him. It was very heavy and what was he
going to do? Where was he? Yeah, going to take it?
And then yeah, learning about you know, how it unraveled
with the two of them, and it was yeah, it's
a lot a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
I liked how the author revealed little surprises throughout the book, like,
like you said, someone, we didn't wait until the very
end of the book to find out you know everything,
It was all revealed throughout the book. And then yeah,
I thought when when Martin was done with I thought, well,
where are we going now? We're not done the book.
We've got quite a few pages, right, So I liked.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I liked where it went, except for the last page
where we found out some shocking news. All's right till
the last page, Yeah, honestly. But it makes me interested
in reading some of her other novels like this was
this was me really well done.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Mm hmmm, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And Mazie you mentioned her, you know, being introduced to
her or reintroduced to her at a different stage in
her life as an older woman, and going back to
that house and then her having, you know, Macie having
those feelings as the child that stayed there, that lived there,
that played there with her, her little best friend, and
(19:59):
the emotion that came with that as well. But and
then to hear you know, what she thought she saw
versus what may have happened.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, that time, I know. And I was as I
was reading it, like you know, as we read our
books every month, there's some that I'm like, oh, I
definitely want to pass this on to someone to read,
and this was one of those books because I'm like,
this is going to be one that I recommend for
sure to others to read.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yeah, yeah, definitely absolutely, I'll be passing it off to
my sister.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
She's got the collection now, Yeah, she's getting the collection.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I always make sure I know which ones I give her, though,
because I'm like, I want that back.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I want a buck.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I think about that too, because my best friend will
lend me books and then sometimes I forget to give
them back. But the ones I've given to her, I'm
kind of like, i want them back because we have
our little book club collection and it's like when they're missing,
I'm like, I want to know why, Like, like you
and I have been here since the day one, and
yeah we've been reading like all these books, and I'm
like it's kind of a special, a special thing to
just lend it but then have it back in your
(20:58):
library as a reminder. But exactly do.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
You do you guys have a special place for your books.
Do you have a section that you keep all the
books that you've done.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I keep them in at the radio station here. I
have a shelf and so I've got all them separated
by year and so kind of when we started in
twenty twenty one and then just kind of plopping them
through in that way. But I'm not as organized as
you I'd like to be.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I do have a shelf in my bedroom and I
have most of them there, but they're kind of intertwined
with other things, so they kind of get missed in
the shuffle or get lost. And I do have a
couple that I've lent out and forgot about it until
recently one of my friends that, by the way, I
still have whatever book it was, so when you lend
(21:43):
me the next one that you've recommended, I'll return the
other one. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'd like to have
that back back.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
But what's kind of neat is I can't say I've
gone back and reread a book. But I was thinking
of that. I was like, well, instead of rereading it,
I could just throw on one of our podcasts and
go back in time and listen to what it was about.
So I'm like, yeah, it would save some time. But yeah, no,
I really enjoyed. I enjoyed this read, and I'm really
looking forward to talking to Jane about it. Yes, we
(22:10):
look forward to chatting with Jane Corey and talking all
things coming to find you on our next Relaxing Reads podcast,
Hope you'll tune in. Thanks for joining us, Thank you
for kicking back and relaxing with us.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
We hope you'll join us again on Relaxing Reads
Join us and onwine with a good book.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome to relaxing reads. Hi it's Devin Halifax. Hi, it's
a mount in Vancouver.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey, it's Tanya at Edmonton.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Our latest read, Coming to Find You by Jane Corey,
is a gripping and emotional thriller. When her family tragedy
is splashed across the newspapers, Nancy decides to disappear. Her
grandmother's beautiful regency house in a quiet seaside village seems
like the safest place to hide, but the old house
has its own secrets and a chilling wartime legacy. Now
(00:32):
someone knows the truth about the night Nancy's mother and
stepfather were murdered. Someone knows where to find her, and
they have.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Nothing to lose.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Wow, this one had all kinds of interesting, complex characters,
so many secrets and crossing the generations.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
What did you think?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
How did you feel after everything was revealed or as
we were revealing things, things were being revealed in front
of us layer by layer.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I think that.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
You know. As I was going through it, I kept
I little asked myself questions, you know, does who is
who is this character? And are they? Do they like
each other? And who is this and what's going to happen?
It just seemed like there was always going to be
a secret that was revealed, right, So really I felt
like this was a really fast paced, like let's go
kind of a book. And and I loved how the
(01:28):
author used the present day and also used you know,
the beginning of World War Two as as her main areas.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
And I just loved.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
How she weaved the characters together and how they were
all related. And I loved all the surprises, and it
just it just kept me turning, turning the pages and
turning the pages.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah everything Tanya said. And you know, it was interesting
because sometimes with the dual timelines, there's room to kind
of get confused or try to figure things out. I
felt like this was really easy. The flow was great,
and it did make me want to keep reading because
it's like it would leave you in a place and
you were like, what is happening next with this character?
But then you had to read the part of the
(02:10):
other character before you got back to that character. So
every chapter ended with you wanting more where And that's
that's really nice in a mystery or a thriller like this,
that it can keep you going from beginning to end,
just wanting more, wanting more, wanting more. And I think
that's why it was definitely a quicker read for me
because it just it kept me in. It didn't really
(02:31):
lose me anyway along the way. And like Tanya said, yes,
like every character had their own secrets, so you're like,
how many secrets are going to be revealed here?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I know. I felt like sometimes I'm easily confused when
we do have to go when we go back and
forth through different generations, different years, but this one I wasn't.
I felt like it was like visiting a relatives. So
you go and you hear a story about what happened when,
and then you know, mom and Dad are like, Okay,
time to go, say goodbye, and we'll be back again.
(03:04):
So I felt like, yeah, I was tuned in because
I knew i'd be back or somebody would share something
else with me.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You're right, dev like it really was.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I mean it's told from the point of view of
Nancy who's in present day, and Elizabeth, who's you know,
World War nineteen forty one, and I really felt like
the chapters were very fluid, like I can get easily
confused as well, and I go, wait a minute, who
is that? And then I have to go back to
the book and go, oh, yeah, that's so and so.
Who's married to so and so? Who's you know, gets
really a depth. But with this book, she did a
(03:33):
really great job of connecting those two people and connecting
all of the characters. So when I was finished reading
Nancy and all of a sudden, it's Elizabeth's turn, I'm like,
I'm right back in there. Like it didn't take any
time to get right back into nineteen forty one and
the horrors of war and what was going on, and
then you know, right back to sort of the horrors
of present day with Nancy and you know, the murder
(03:55):
of her mom and her stepdad, and so I really
I loved going back and forth.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I did, and get confused.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
I felt like it added to the depth of the
stories that were being told.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And I absolutely just kind of plowed through this book.
Loved it. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, And when we go back to wartime and the
family home, that place, I mean, I think it brought
so much to so many of the characters that we meet.
Both the beauty of it, but you know, during wartime,
the horrors that surrounded it. It was it was, I guess,
(04:31):
a character on its own.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, and even just going back to them having their
secrets and then there's Elizabeth who kind of takes the
secret to the grave, and then there's Nancy who needs
to just share it and take accountability. That was really interesting.
And also like we're seeing this the relationships between Elizabeth
and you know, her husband, you know, the teacher Adelaine,
(04:55):
her relationship with George and Henry, Nancy's relationship, but the
best friend storyline too, Whereas like Elizabeth and Edeline had
such a great friendship and I think that's something Nancy
was trying to strive for with Claire but just couldn't
couldn't get there. Hopefully in the end that's what's going
to happen. But yeah, the connectivity was really cool because
(05:17):
you're seeing the two versions of it, but yet they
both had such similar stories.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, Elizabeth had some great relationships with other female characters
as well, like you know, the little kids, the little girls,
along with yeah, with her best friend.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I just loved all the characters.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
I thought that they were I really got into them alling,
you know, I was I always judge a great book
by if I'm going to miss them, you know, once
I read the last few pages, am I going to
miss kind of talking to them? Because I really felt
like they lived in my head, you know, the little girls,
Macy and Mazie and Shirley. And you know, one of
(05:59):
the things that really kind of profound, profoundly affected.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Me with this book was World War Two.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You know. I mean there's a great quote I think
it's from the curator of the of the museum in
Nancy's story how he says, I'm just trying to think
I had a quote here, Jeremy, and he says, you know,
your generation needs reminding about the war, just as future
generations will need reminding about the virus.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
In reading this book, and I think the chapter, you know,
with Elizabeth and Adeline and all of them, they really
profoundly affected me because I'm a very sensitive person, and
the horrors of war like really.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Mess up my head.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
And you know, and I'm reading about what they had
to do during wartime and the beach that they used
to play on was now filled with barbed wire and
and minds, and they kept hearing planes overhead.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And then there's the Seak army.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
You have neighbors who don't trust neighbors, so everything is
like all messed up. And then you know you have
Adeline and Elizabeth joining the Secret Army and they're going, okay,
so you know, you know that if could you kill somebody?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Here's a gun? Could you kill somebody?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Because you're gonna have to if you get a message
and you see someone you don't know or someone you know.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
You have to swallow it.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
And oh if you get captured, here's a cyanide pill.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Like I just like it really messes up my head.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
And I just I felt viscerally sort of the horrors
of war. I felt like the author kind of really
put that through. And that's because I'm just so sensitive
to that stuff, and I think a lot of people are.
And I just you know, I wonder about today's society,
Like I wonder, you know, could you send your seventeen
year old son to war or your seventeen year old daughter.
(07:53):
You're sending them off to the unknown, And I just
I feel like war is awful and horrible, and I
just I just I wonder if you know, there's certainly
a lot of unrest today, like what if all the
shit goes down like what are we prepared like Elizabeth,
like Adeline, like Robert, who went to war at seventeen
(08:14):
comes back damaged, you know, like, are we prepared to sacrifice?
And I honestly I asked myself that question, and I
asked it throughout this book, and I'm like, honestly.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I just don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I feel like I would run and hide, but you can't.
You have to stand up for what you believe, you know.
And so anyway, sorry to go on about that, but
it just really that, really, you know, those chapters really
affected me, and I just get all kind of weird
because I just I feel like the world is shifting.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Again, and I just I don't know.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
I don't know where we're going, you know, I don't
know where we're going and who's right and who's wrong
and what people will do in the name of power,
and I just yeah, crazy, yeah, and so young.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Like when you think about the characters, and you know,
the true humans, the people that we may have known
or we've heard of who went through that war and
the current conflicts in our world, and they're all so
very young having to deal with some very adult issues
and you don't have time to think. I don't know
(09:15):
that I could be who they were and still come
out if you survived and didn't have damage. I don't
know that I could survive beyond that. It's yeah, I
can't imagine myself in those positions either.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
But Tanya, like you said, it's important to be reminded
of it, you know, And sometimes we do get we
have those thoughts and you get caught up in your
day to day, but there's this whole past and this
whole history, and you know they always mentioned history repeats itself,
and I think you're never really prepared for, you know,
what could happen. You just kind of have to deal
with it as it comes. So that's kind of the
(09:56):
scary reality of things. And you know, the pandemic doesn't
compare to the war, but again, it was a time
of uncertainty, it was a time of panic, and you know,
those feelings kind of come up and if anything, and
those people who lived through the war and now they've
lived through the pandemic, it's just that just that uneasiness
of what comes with that and those feelings. But again,
it's it's something that we do need to think about,
(10:18):
we do need to reflect on. We have that day
with Remembrance Day, but throughout the year. You know, novels
like this make you want to kind of search out
and do some own your own digging to make sure
you're not just turning a blind eye to it, because
you shouldn't. We should know what's happened in our past
and how hopefully things like that don't repeat themselves. You
hope that we could get to that place.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Yeah, and I just love the whole mystery of the book.
You know, there was just you just never really knew
what was going on, and I just I just loved that.
I love that I was questioning what did Nancy? You know,
you know from the very beginning that Nancy didn't tell
the truth.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So the whole book, you're like, what happened?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
And then you find about these despicable characters, you know, Duncan,
her stepdad, and Martin the creepy step brother.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And oh my gosh.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
And just like that, and just you know, what people
what people will or won't do, and what people will
do in.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
The time of war.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
You know, I think Polly, the girlfriend of one of
the characters, she's like, it was war.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
It changes everything. Yeah, Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, And I kind of liked how Jane the author
put the two side by side in those chapters. Nancy's
the present, Elizabeth is the past, and how she used
the same the same area. So it's like, as the reader,
you're like, in present day Sidmouth?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Is it Sidmouth?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Sidmouth said that the name of the town Sidmouth, and
tall chimneys the name of the house. So you're there
in present day and what Nancy is going through. And
then the next chapter you go to Elizabeth who.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Has a boarding house.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
It's called It's a boarding house, and all these characters
in it, they're walking along the same beach, they're seeing
the same rocks they're seeing, but in a different, totally
different time frame, which I thought was really really cool.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Well, it makes you think of where you live and
the people who have walked through the same roads and
the same beaches and the same lands before your time, right,
Or who's lived in your home if you have an
older home, like, who's been in there? What are the stories?
Because this home had a lot of stories and secrets
attached to it, right.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Oh my gosh, yes, so many. Well I was just
thinking about that.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I mean, I just met I came back from Montreal
and that's such an amazing city. But you know, you're
walking down them in old Town, you're walking down streets
that are like, you know, three hundred and fifty almost
four hundred years old.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Who has walked there?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
If you go to Rome, right, you're walking on it's
just so Yeah, when you start thinking about it, it's like, Wow,
all the stuff that's happened.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
Yeah, oh my gosh, crazy, the secret they've had to
hold on to for so many years, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But you had that revelation where Elizabeth finally told Adeline
her big secret, and then you had the moment where
Claire finally told Nancy her secret, and you know, you
get to a place where I think there are some
that could probably hold onto it forever, but then some
people just spill their guts. So it makes you just think, like,
how long could you hold something onto for before finally
(13:15):
being free of it and releasing the demons that haunt
you in the form of nightmares or panic attacks or
things that are happening. They say, the truth to the
shall set you free, right, So there's the freedom in that,
But then there's the the whole concept of you know,
some secrets that aren't terrible secrets, but you just don't
want to hurt someone, you know, a friend or somebody
(13:35):
like that, and you don't know what to do with
that information.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, I've heard like in recent years, like friends of
the family, you know, and having to hide a pregnancy
or you know who the parents were and having to
you know, shift the baby into another household. And then
years later you put when you're told about the connections,
and then you see how those connections, you know, how
(14:01):
those people had different relationships outside of what they truly
were on paper.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And it's yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Heartwarming, it's interesting and wild at the same time. But
as I was reading that, I was thinking about some
of the folks that I've heard of who've had to
hide some of those things over the years, and how
they must feel now.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
And it's sort of like, when do you tell the truth?
And when do you not tell the truth like to
your parts points some more, And you're like, well, you
don't sometimes because you don't want to hurt somebody, those
little white lies, right. So, and you know, Elizabeth takes
her secrets to the grave and we find out, you know,
the boxes in the cellar, we find out.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Oh so then she didn't really take it to the
grave like she wanted it to be discovered. But again,
it was like after her time, so at some point
she knew, like ash when she left this earth, it
wasn't going to completely be gone.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, did you think that?
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Did you guys think that Nancy and and Steven would
get together? I kind of thought they would, or so.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
You mean Elizabeth and Stephen or Elizabeth?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Sorry, yes, sorry, Elizabeth and Stephen. Sorry yes, yeah, Elizabeth
and Stephen.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, well, Henry just seemed like a terrible time.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
But again I know it's again based on what he
had been through. He was injured, he couldn't fight in
the war. So it's like we talk about the young
son or the young child you don't want to send away.
But then there's some people who maybe were like I
want to go fight for my country and my country's freedom,
but I can't, And so it's yeah, that whole weird
side of things.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
And like the self worth, like who am I If
I can't do this, then yeah, I might as well
be this other person on the side.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah, but yeah, for her to go and start a
new life in Canada, when Adeline was going to start
that life in Canada. And then yeah, even when you
later find out that Violet was Nancy's mom, because they
don't really say the name in the begin So that
was interesting that connection there. And as I was reading,
I was like, Okay, so what happened to Violet that
(16:07):
maybe she shunned away from so she didn't really support
the daughter. But nothing really was told on that side
of the story about her. But yeah, like such an
interesting thing. We think about the silent sentences, right, people
who are serving these sentences and their side of things.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
I felt like I wanted to know more about Violet.
You know, Yes, her mom was so cool, you know.
They mentioned in the book that she wore pants, you know,
you know at that time, women didn't wear pants, you know.
And she was very feisty, and she was the one
who was talking about the secret army. And she's the
one who had the affair with the Canadian pilot and
(16:47):
she I don't know, she's just a trail poyser care.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
What people thought of her, you know, after the fact,
you know, here she is no husband and the affair
and a baby and people labeling her. But yeah, yeah,
and so just the baby mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
And then everything coming, you know, on Nancy's part, finding
out about Violet, finding out about who her trying to think, now,
her grandfather was her real grandfather, So is Adeline her grandmother?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Right grandmother?
Speaker 4 (17:20):
So she thought that right, because that would be Adeline
was the mother of Violet. Get confused sometimes and then
finding out that you know, she's looking at pictures going
well who is that?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Who is that?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
And finds out that you know, her grandfather was a Canadian,
wasn't George anyway? It was just like, it's interesting how
she discovers all these things about personal history. And I
think we have all had situations where you find stuff
about your history too that you didn't know, which is fascinating, right.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
And I loved some of those things that yeah, she
didn't know about, Like you had characters like Mazie showing
up again and filling in all the information being told
and getting that intel, or even with the ripping up
the letter and the whole Jasmine and the Alex and
they knew each other, like the connection there because you
didn't quite know what was going to happen there, who
was responsible. But I'm surprised with you know this, this
(18:15):
type of thriller. What was interesting is usually you wait
right till the end to find out or like something
was going to happen with Martin, but it kind of
happened in the middle, so you're like, oh, good Brittons,
are we done for that character?
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Now?
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Okay? But I was like, so, what's going to happen
from this point on? Like is there another character coming
in who's going to be torturing her or stalking her?
But no, it just went a different route and I
kind of quite enjoyed that. So it was like, you know,
we didn't have to be as scared, but we were
still unraveling so much more. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah, there was a lot of that wasn't there, Especially
with him. It was very heavy and what was he
going to do? Where was he? Yeah, going to take it?
And then yeah, learning about you know, how it unraveled
with the two of them, and it was yeah, it's
a lot a lot going on.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
I liked how the author revealed little surprises throughout the book, like,
like you said, someone, we didn't wait until the very
end of the book to find out you know everything,
It was all revealed throughout the book. And then yeah,
I thought when when Martin was done with I thought, well,
where are we going now? We're not done the book.
We've got quite a few pages, right, So I liked.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I liked where it went, except for the last page
where we found out some shocking news. All's right till
the last page, Yeah, honestly. But it makes me interested
in reading some of her other novels like this was
this was me really well done.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Mm hmmm, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And Mazie you mentioned her, you know, being introduced to
her or reintroduced to her at a different stage in
her life as an older woman, and going back to
that house and then her having, you know, Macie having
those feelings as the child that stayed there, that lived there,
that played there with her, her little best friend, and
(19:59):
the emotion that came with that as well. But and
then to hear you know, what she thought she saw
versus what may have happened.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, that time, I know. And I was as I
was reading it, like you know, as we read our
books every month, there's some that I'm like, oh, I
definitely want to pass this on to someone to read,
and this was one of those books because I'm like,
this is going to be one that I recommend for
sure to others to read.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Yeah, yeah, definitely absolutely, I'll be passing it off to
my sister.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
She's got the collection now, Yeah, she's getting the collection.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
I always make sure I know which ones I give her, though,
because I'm like, I want that back.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I want a buck.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I think about that too, because my best friend will
lend me books and then sometimes I forget to give
them back. But the ones I've given to her, I'm
kind of like, i want them back because we have
our little book club collection and it's like when they're missing,
I'm like, I want to know why, Like, like you
and I have been here since the day one, and
yeah we've been reading like all these books, and I'm
like it's kind of a special, a special thing to
just lend it but then have it back in your
(20:58):
library as a reminder. But exactly do.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
You do you guys have a special place for your books.
Do you have a section that you keep all the
books that you've done.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I keep them in at the radio station here. I
have a shelf and so I've got all them separated
by year and so kind of when we started in
twenty twenty one and then just kind of plopping them
through in that way. But I'm not as organized as
you I'd like to be.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I do have a shelf in my bedroom and I
have most of them there, but they're kind of intertwined
with other things, so they kind of get missed in
the shuffle or get lost. And I do have a
couple that I've lent out and forgot about it until
recently one of my friends that, by the way, I
still have whatever book it was, so when you lend
(21:43):
me the next one that you've recommended, I'll return the
other one. I'm like, oh, yeah, I'd like to have
that back back.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
But what's kind of neat is I can't say I've
gone back and reread a book. But I was thinking
of that. I was like, well, instead of rereading it,
I could just throw on one of our podcasts and
go back in time and listen to what it was about.
So I'm like, yeah, it would save some time. But yeah, no,
I really enjoyed. I enjoyed this read, and I'm really
looking forward to talking to Jane about it. Yes, we
(22:10):
look forward to chatting with Jane Corey and talking all
things coming to find you on our next Relaxing Reads podcast,
Hope you'll tune in. Thanks for joining us, Thank you
for kicking back and relaxing with us.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
We hope you'll join us again on Relaxing Reads
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