Love Untold by Ruth JonesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Four women, four generations of Meredith women, decades of lies, half-truths, and silence.
Grace Meredith is eighty-nine years old. Widowed in her thirties, left to bring up a teenage daughter, Alys, she ran a boarding house with her friends John, and his sister Cassie for years until Cassie and John's ill-health forced them to move to a home where she visits them every day. Despite her age Grace swims daily, either in the hideous swimming pool in her garden or wild swimming in the sea, and does yoga several times a week.
Thirty years ago Alys and Grace had an almighty row and Alys disappeared, never heard of again. But Grace has recently received a postcard with a picture of Welsh hills on the front, painted by Alys Meredith. Is she strong enough to reach out to her wayward daughter, now seventy years old, and heal the rift? But what will her fifty-one year old grand-daughter Elin think about it? Elin has told everyone that her mother is dead, including her own daughter Beca. A respected head teacher at the local school, Elin couldn't bear anyone to find out the truth about her mother. Elin is busy organising a surprise birthday party for Grace and as usual it has got completely out-of-hand, exasperating both her husband Greg and Beca.
Finally, Beca, sixteen years old, artistic and musical but not good at lessons, constantly at odds with perfectionist Elin who sees education as a gateway to the world, she knows she is about to fail all her GCSEs and disappoint her mother, again.
Everyone thinks they know the truth, but they are all keeping secrets, will Grace's party be a joyous reunion or a day of tears and recriminations?
Told from each woman's point of view this novel criss-crosses backwards and forwards in time, stopping on key events in their lives. This was funny, sad, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. Truly a cwtch.
I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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