Rating: 5 / 5
Released: Date: 10 April 2015
Pages: 332
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Hesperus Press
Source: I received an uncorrected paperback copy of this book on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Reader's Warehouse.
When I first started to read The Last Pier, I felt a little overwhelmed by it's uniqueness. Roma is what I would call an exceptional writer and The Last pier took my breath away and served as a reminder to why I am a reader.
The Writing Style. (5/5)
The Last Pier can only be described as a Masterpiece of words. I absolutely loved the way Roma write and there's absolutely no way to conjure up the feeling I'm left with. All the elements regarding Mystery, Lost, Love and Family blended together in a flawless almost painstakingly beautiful way. The Last Pier isn't for the faint hearted, but you'll love it anyway.
The World. (5/5)
The Last Pier takes you through a time of war but not so much the war itself as the families experiencing the harsh reality of war and the consequences of secrets.
Personally, I just have no words to explain the way Roma travels back into time. It was just amazing from the flowers to the family home. I was lost in this terrifying time but I also felt like I was there before and nothing has changed over the past 70 years.
Roma has a way to describe her world like sweet poetry. It left me speechless.
The Plot. (5/5)
We walk in Celcily's shoes as she goes to her family home for the first time in 29 years. Her memories takes us to her 13 year old self, which unravels the plot bit by bit. The suspense that is the plot, bound me to this read, unwilling to put it down.
Here's the Blurb ⬇
How deep the summer had bitten into the land that last August, how cruelly it had burnt into earth and grass and air. What had started out as a pastel and water-faded spring turning so unexpectedly into a splintering, shimmering thing. All that had been required was a spark to cause a fire. Why had no one noticed? The summer of 1939 broke the Maudsley family. Cecily was only thirteen years-old and desperate to grow up; desperate to be as beautiful and desired and reckless as her older sister Rose. Now, in her forties, the family resemblance is uncanny but Cecily is a shadow of her former self. A part of her died that fateful summer.Returning to the deserted family farm as an adult, Cecily recalls the light before the storm, before the war came and before the terrible family tragedy. It was a summer of laughter and icecream, promises and first love. She remembers her father's unrequited love for her, her melancholy mother and her brittle and argumentative aunt Kitty, and how everyone, somehow, was guarding a secret. None more so than the impossibly beautiful Rose.And in her childhood innocence, between snatches of misunderstood conversations, Cecily helps set in motion a chain of devastating events. Wandering through the family home twenty-nine years later, Cecily hopes to lay some ghosts to rest but the past has yet to give up some shocking secrets...
The Characters. (5/5)
Every single character played a magnificent part in this story and you grow fonder of them as you get to know them. Rose is beautiful and wants to be free while her sister, Cecily looks up to her and has a head full of ghosts. Carlo just wanted to love. Kitty wanted to protect. They all were amazing and that's what saddens me the most. The Last Pier and all it's people? Were an exceptional story meant to be read.
The Smaller Things.
Roma Tearne is an award winning writer and her writing reflects just why in The last pier but what got to me as I did some research on the Author was the following article:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/27/court-orders-hesperus-press-stop-publication-jonas-jonasson-100-year-old-man
This saddens me to say the least because I too, don't want to see The Last Pier as a forgotten masterpiece.
I do recommend this read to everyone.
It's Historical Fiction at it's best.
Visit the Author here ↓
Roma Tearne
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Reader's warehouse
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