Portobello Book Blog

How gorgeous is that cover? Makes you just want to head straight there doesn’t it? Liz Fenwick has written another stunning story set in Cornwall where the house, Boskenna, is almost as important a character as the people who inhabit it.

This is exactly my kind of book and I loved it. It tells the story of three generations of women, with strained relationships between them, brought together by the imminent death of Joan, the grandmother. In her younger days, Joan lived and worked in Russia before the death of her first husband who was a diplomat. Her daughter, Diana, a successful journalist, has always felt very distant from her mother and can’t understand why she can’t remember more about her father. Lottie was brought up by her grandmother and so in turn is distant from her own mother. As Joan lies dying, she begins to talk about times gone by and seems to have something to confess.

I loved the way the secrets from the past were gradually revealed during this story. I really enjoy books where the story moves from past to present and this book switches smoothly between 1962 and 2018. It was so intriguing wondering just what had happened over the course of those couple of days back in 1962. The author lifts the veil from what has happened through the perspectives of Joan and a young Diana as well as revealing the present through all three women.

The relationships in this book were just fascinating. First there was Joan and Allan who seemed like the golden couple but what secrets were they hiding? Then, following Allan’s death, Joan marries George but there is mystery over how they met. The mother and daughter relationships between both generations were so intriguing, as was the relationship between Diana and the father who she didn’t seem able to recall. Lottie and Alex were so much in love ten years ago so what happened to drive them apart? Another storyline simmering away under the surface is that about the relationship between Lottie and Paul – where is he, what happened, why doesn’t she want her family to know about him?

All this takes place within the walls of Boskenna, the grand old house on the cliff. Although it is a place they all seem to have fled at various times it is also a constant, a place of refuge for all the women, even though they may not realise it. It’s always there, always sheltering. The house and its grounds are appealingly described with the sea below mirroring life: sometimes calm, sometimes stormy, dangerous, or beautiful.

The air of mystery and suspense is maintained throughout the book, as the various mysteries are unravelled and resolved. The Path to the Sea is a compelling, beautifully told story of secrets from the past and their effects on the present. A story of a family who found it hard to express love because of those secrets, and with plenty of intrigue and surprises, this book was an absolute joy to read.

My thanks to Joe Thomas at HQ for sending me a review copy of the book and allowing me to take part in the tour. The Path to the Sea is available now in hardback, audiobook and ebook formats. The paperback edition will follow next year. It should be available to buy or order from your usual book retailer or you can order a Kindle copy online here: The Path to the Sea

From the back of the book

Boskenna, the beautiful, imposing house standing on the Cornish cliffs, means something different to each of the Trewin women.

For Joan, as a glamorous young wife in the 1960s, it was a paradise where she and her husband could entertain and escape a world where no one was quite what they seemed – a world that would ultimately cost their marriage and end in tragedy.

Diana, her daughter, still dreams of her childhood there – the endless blue skies and wide lawns, book-filled rooms and parties, the sound of the sea at the end of the coastal path – even though the family she adored was shattered there.

And for the youngest, broken-hearted Lottie, heading home in the August traffic, returning to Boskenna is a welcome escape from a life gone wrong in London, but will mean facing a past she’d hoped to forget.

As the three women gather in Boskenna for a final time, the secrets hidden within the beautiful old house will be revealed in a summer that will leave them changed for ever.

About the author

Writer, ex-pat expert, wife, mother of three, and dreamer turned doer….

Award winning author of The Cornish House, A Cornish Affair, A Cornish Stranger, Under A Cornish Sky, A Cornish Christmas Carol (novella), The Returning Tide and One Cornish Summer. After nine international moves, I’m a bit of a global nomad. It’s no wonder my heart remains in Cornwall.

My latest book – The Path To The Sea is out now.

My books are available in Dutch, Germany, Portuguese, French, Estonia, Norwegian, Danish, Czech, Turkish, Swedish, Latvian, Serbian and Hungarian.