The House On The Cliff by Victoria Scott

 

About the book

1966: Standing on the rugged Cornish coast, Hallows Abbey can be a lonely place for the boys boarding there. For Theresa, however, it offers an escape from her father’s long shadow, and as the school nurse, she tries to be a comfort to those students struggling to adjust to their remote life. But, before the year is over, Theresa will make a terrible decision – and the consequences for the children in her care will change everything…

2025: With her own children having just left home, Amanda’s emotions are in turmoil when she arrives at the isolated school where her husband is to be Deputy Head. When she learns of the school’s tragic history, in which a group of boys went out on a boat trip and disappeared, she becomes obsessed with finding out what happened, even when her research risks upsetting the fragile equilibrium of the school. But when she starts to hear voices in the gardens and crying in the halls at night, she begins to wonder if she’s losing her mind.

Only one thing seems certain: this corner of Cornwall could well be Amanda’s undoing.

What I thought 

A dual time novel, with the boys boarding school Hallows Abbey linking the two time periods together. The school stands in its own grounds in an isolated, cliff top Cornish location and sets the atmosphere for mystery as well as heartache for those who spend their days there.

Theresa and Amanda's stories unfold in alternating chapters. Theresa is the school nurse and has gone there to escape her life in Ireland with her overbearing father. She enjoys her job and as well as taking care of scraped knees and childhood illnesses she has an ever open door to offer a maternal shoulder to cry on, and a friendly ear to help with the woes of boys separated from their families. But Theresa is young, she misses her sisters and to cope with the isolation of Hallows Abbey she becomes involved in a romance with a local man who doesn't quite turn out to be the person Theresa perceives him to be.

Meanwhile Amanda in the present day has arrived at the school with her husband who has started a new position as deputy head at the school. At first she doesn't settle well. She hardly sees her husband as he becomes tied up with his new role, she misses her grown up children and is suffering empty nest syndrome at the same time as coping with the emotional turmoil of perimenopause.

In the first half of the book in Amanda's chapters we hear quite a lot about her feelings of no longer being needed either by her children or apparently her husband too and I did find this part slow to move along. However as Amanda starts to make friends and gets a job helping out the school nurse, things start to pick up pace both for Amanda's story and Theresa. It then becomes much more compelling with more characters being drawn into the story and the plot developing with intrigue for both characters.

I enjoyed the second half very much as we find out more about Amanda's husband and his motives for accepting the job. It becomes quite an emotive story as the two timelines draw together and concludes with a believable and satisfying ending. I've read a few of this authors books now and have enjoyed them all.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

💙 Happy Reading 💙

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With thanks to the publisher Boldwood Books for an ARC of this book via Netgalley.

The book is out today in e-book and paperback, available from Amazon and other book sellers.