A Place for Us part 4 by Harriet Evans

Out now
Published by Headline
Purchase from Amazon here


The Blurb:

The FOURTH and FINAL of four exclusive part-serialisations of a A Place for Us by Harriet Evans. Steal a march on everyone and enjoy this magnificent conclusion to a beautiful novel.

The day Martha Winter decided to tear apart her family began like any other day.

So opens A Place for Us by Sunday Times bestselling author Harriet Evans, a book you'll dive into, featuring a family you'll fall in love with ... and never want to leave. If you devour Rosamund Pilcher and Maeve Binchy and have discovered Jojo Moyes, you'll be thrilled to add Harriet Evans to your collection of favourite authors.

The house has soft, purple wisteria twining around the door. You step inside.

The hall is cool after the hot summer's day. The welcome is kind, and always warm.

Yet something makes you suspect life here can't be as perfect as it seems.

After all, the brightest smile can hide the darkest secret.

But wouldn't you pay any price to have a glorious place like this?

Welcome to Winterfold.

Martha Winter's family is finally coming home.


My Review:

I was really looking forward to reading the fourth and final part of this serialisation to find out what happens to the Winter family, and I was not disappointed. I often struggle with serialisations as I have a memory like a sieve but I was able to get straight back where we had left off from part three.

If you havent read any of the series, it revolves around the Winter family. Martha has sent them all invitations to a party to celebrate her forthcoming birthday. We follow them coming together and the revelations that are made to the family. We also see some of what has happened to each of them in the past. The telling of the past and the present is a really clever way of telling each persons story and developing a good understanding and empathy with each of them. They have all been through personal battles and I really wanted to see what happens to each of them.

My favourite character since early on has been Cat and so I was pleased to see how much of this final installment follows her story. Cat has had a tough few years and has a lovely young son who she has been raising alone in France. When we catch up with Cat she is still in France but very unhappy. Martha comes over and brings her back home. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when this happened as she comes across as a genuinely good person who deserves happiness.

There are lots of loose ends that need resolving. I wasn't sure what was going to happen with Florence and whether we would see a happy ending or heartbreak. Likewise with Karen and Joe. The last we had seen them Karen was pregnant and leaving her husband to move in with Joe. I always saw an attraction between Cat and Joe and wanted them to live happily ever after....but life isn't always that simple!

This fourth part was by far my favourite as it focused more on the here and now and bringing them all to the end of their journey. It has been very cleverly written by the author who successfully combined the past and the present, through some complex situations but managed to keep me clear on what was going on, and how it was affecting the characters.

I have really enjoyed the mix of laughter, happiness, sadness and mystery. I think it will work really well when released in one book with the complete story next year.

Thank you to Headline for providing a copy in return for an honest review.