The Hidden Years by Rachel Hore

 

The Hidden Years by Rachel Hore.

Published 14th September 2023 by Simon and Schuster.

From the cover of the book:

Sunday Times bestseller Rachel Hore’s captivating new novel of secrets, loss and betrayal - set on the beautiful Cornish coast during World War Two and the heady days of the 1960s.

When talented musician Gray Robinson persuades Belle to abandon her university studies and follow him to Silverwood, home to an artistic community on the Cornish coast, Belle happily agrees even though they’ve only just met. She knows she is falling in love, and the thought of spending a carefree summer with Gray is all she can think about.

But being with Gray isn’t the only reason Belle agrees to accompany him to Silverwood.

Why does the name Silverwood sound so familiar?
What is its connection to a photo of her as a baby, taken on a nearby beach?
And who is Imogen Lockhart, a wartime nurse who lived at Silverwood many years ago?

As the summer months unfold, Belle begins to learn the truth – about secrets from the past that have been kept hidden, but also about the person she wants to be.

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1966. Belle Johnson, disillusioned with the university studies she had been looking forward to, decides to take the plunge into an adventure. Promising musician, Gray Robinson, is heading to Silverwood, an artists' commune on the Cornish coast, and he has asked Belle to come with him. Falling fast for Gray, she decides to see where this new direction takes her, even though they have known each other for just a few days. But this is not the only reason she is curious about Silverwood. Something about the name calls to her, and Belle wonders if this journey will hold the answers she seeks about an old photograph of her as a baby in the arms of an unknown woman.

1939. Imogen Lockhart sets off to Cornwall to accompany two young boys to Silverwood, where their school has been evacuated to for the duration of the war. Circumstances conspire to keep Imogen in Cornwall. where she falls in love with life at Silverwood, and with a dark, brooding member of staff who reminds her of the man who broke her heart... and where she discovers the purpose she has been searching for.

The Hidden Years by Rachel Hore is a glorious, sweeping story that draws you into the lives of two women separated in time, who are closely connected through a mysterious web of secrets. The story begins with Belle in the 1960s, caught up in a whirlwind romance and a journey of self-discovery. Belle suspects there are things she has not been told about her childhood, and her trip to Silverwood promises some answers, which Hore gradually starts to reveal through the parallel story of Imogen from 1939.

As the novel moves back and forth between the lives of Belle and Imogen, you become completely immersed in each timeline, inching towards the truth of the connection between them, tied up in their loves, losses, and the trials fate throws their way. Hore pays great attention to the way she brings alive both 1940s Cornwall, with its privations and the gritty determination of a nation at war, and the social changes that mark a country looking towards a different sort of future in the 1960s. She does an excellent job of bleeding between the two with the skilful use of objects and location to reflect many of the same themes around family, class, expectation, marriage, and following your own star.

This novel completely transported me in time and place, especially when it came to Imogen's story, as Hore delves so well into the upheaval that came with World War II, exploring many aspects of life on the home-front and the conflicted emotions experienced by both men and women about where they find themselves. The sections about military manoeuvres, preparations for D-Day, and the human toll of war are fascinating, as they focus on the domestic front, and show how their impact ripples through time.

I loved this book, consuming it from cover to cover in a single sitting. It has everything I want from a story that combines fabulous historical detail, a cleverly contrived mystery about family secrets, and bitter-sweet romantic suspense, in an enchanting setting. If you have read Liz Fenwick's wonderful The Secret Shore, then I highly recommend this book as a companion piece too, as the wartime elements complement each other beautifully.

 The Hidden Years is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Books and the City for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Rachel Hore worked in London publishing for many years before moving with her family to Norwich, where she taught publishing and creative writing at the University of East Anglia before becoming a full-time writer. She is married to the writer D. J. Taylor and they have three sons.