Published By: Indie Novella
Pages: 304
Released On: 29/04/2026
Ireland, Rathmore Forest, 1988.
Kitty lay on the forest floor for a long time, her body adapting to the rocks beneath the grass. She was in no hurry to go home. Tommy wouldn’t be looking for her. He would go straight to bed, counting down the nights until he could escape Rathmore and her, his rotten roots. He never asked her about her own life and ambitions, never assumed she wanted anything more than to snare a local man and have his babies.
She dreamt the hut he had built for his old trysts was still there, among the roots and the boat engines and the decaying yew trees. She saw the shovels in their usual place, leaning against the wall. She knew there would be no need for consecrated ground.
Three decades later, Kitty returns to her childhood home to find her village as twisted as she found it. She needs to find her brother, without getting entangled. But how do you remember what you’ve tried to forget?
*****
Thanks to Bernie for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I love novels that span time periods, so we get to see how the same characters have evolved over the years. I know some people struggle with multiple times but I am a big fan and I think Bernie has done well here. I enjoyed both aspects but I think I preferred the sections set in the present.
It’s full of tension, broken promises, secrets, lies, despair, suspense, tension, compassion, grief, and fear. It’s about family, community, obstacles, generations, and what we’d do to protect the ones we love.
It’s full of twists and surprises but they don’t feel too much. It is a thriller at times but it’s also historical and a piece about families. It’s got a bit of everything.
It’s not the easiest book to read, there are some difficult topics that aren’t exactly palatable, but they’re important.
There’s a relatively large cast of characters, with our main protagonists and then secondary figures, some with bigger roles than others. But overall I’d say they are all written well and work well individually and with the story as a whole.
It’s not heavy on plot and instead heavy on characters, which I like. But it is very heavy on dialogue and light on narrative, which isn’t my kind of thing. I think because I’m terrible at writing dialogue, my preferences lie in writing and reading narrative or prose rather than dialogue. But that is simply a personal preference.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is Bernie’s debut novel and it’s a very promising one indeed.
I will admit that prior to becoming a reviewer, I rarely read self-published or indie books, because I was swayed by the big titles featured on the bookshop shelves and in the magazines. It’s only now that I have discovered some books that would have gone under the radar, and I’m so glad because otherwise I could have missed out on this.
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