Review: The Book Ghost

Title: The Book Ghost

Author: Lorna Gray

Publisher: 14th December 2019 by HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter

Pages: 380 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, romance

My Rating: 3.5 cups

Synopsis:

There are no white shrouded spectres here, no wailing ghouls. Just the echoes of those who have passed, whispering that history is set to repeat itself.

The Cotswolds, Christmastime 1946: A young widow leaves behind the tragedy of her wartime life, and returns home to her ageing aunt and uncle. For Lucy – known as Mrs P – and the people who raised her, the books that line the walls of the family publishing business bring comfort and the promise of new beginnings.

But the kind and reserved new editor at the Kershaw and Kathay Book Press is a former prisoner of war, and he has his own shadows to bear. And when the old secrets of a little girl’s abandonment are uncovered within the pages of Robert Underhills’s latest project, Lucy must work quickly if she is to understand the truth behind his frequent trips away.

For a ghost dwells in the record of an orphan girl’s last days. And even as Lucy dares to risk her heart, the grief of her own past seems to be whispering a warning of fresh loss…

Mrs P’s Book of Secrets will be published in the US as The Book Ghost.

My Thoughts

The Book Ghost by Lorna Gray (stunning cover) is a mixture of historical fiction with period drama taking place in England just after WWII . With an interesting focus more on the aftermath of the war and picking up the pieces of lives that have been devastated directly and indirectly. How does one move on from such loss?

‘I thought you were making it worse because you were making me admit all the parts of me that hurt. Then I found it was good to learn to talk to you because I caught a glimpse of a way out if I would just learn that I can tell you anything.’

The tale is  mostly about a struggling publishing company and the blossoming relationship between Lucy a war widow , and Robert a former POW. A mostly misunderstood and awkward relationship which, although drawn out at times, thankfully finds resolution by books end. There is somewhat of a mystery, nothing incredibly gothic or ghostly revolving around a book they were editing. My main issue concerns the writing structure, that being, so much takes place in Lucy’s thoughts. A  conversation will be initiated and seemingly several paragraphs later, Lucy will reply after much rumination and contemplation. It’s frustrating and painful to have to go back and read what the original question was. 

I did persevere though and was happy with the outcome. Ghost story it is not. It is a quiet and gentle book about two people dealing with their emotions of the outfall from war. I appreciated this focus as a bridge between the atrocities that were and how to live again with renewed expectation and hope. 

‘A person’s grasp on permanence didn’t only dwell the physical traces constructed by them in the course of their lives. It grew gently, selflessly, in the thoughts given freely by of those of us who were still living, who cared to remember them and speak their names now that they were gone.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.