Will their mother's scandalous past decide their futures?
The Sunday train which snaked into Noah Vale that verdant, midwinter afternoon brought with it fire, sending an inferno of small-town gossip roaring up the valley...
Beautiful, irrepressible Esther Hamilton had a reputation in the small Queensland town of Noah Vale. That was until she ran away, twenty years ago, under a cloud of shame. It's now 1955 and following their mother's death, the Hamilton sisters - Sonnet, Fable and little Novella Plum - have returned to Noah Vale to live near their aunt and uncle.
Sonnet, twenty years old and legal guardian to her siblings, has never stepped foot in Noah Vale, yet has been the talk of the town for decades. Fable, at twelve-years-old, is a talented artist and lovelier than even her heartbreaking mother had been. And three year old Plum is just a little girl who's lost her mother and been taken away from the only home she's ever known.
As the years pass, the three sisters settle into their new life, working in the town, going to school and swimming in the perfect waterfalls nearby. But suspicion and judgment continue to follow the Hamilton sisters wherever they go. In a small town where everyone thinks they know everything about each other, it's hard to escape the past. And when Fable falls in love with Noah Vale's golden boy, is history destined to repeat itself?
Those Hamilton Sisters is a warm, captivating and irresistible story of love, family, secrets and finding your place in the world. For readers of Lucinda Riley and Kate Morton.
Lush Tropic Treat
Averil Kenny's debut novel Those Hamilton Sisters bursts on to the literary scene with a heart-warming and at times heart-wrenching story of love, loss and lust.
The aforementioned sisters; Sonnet, Fable and Novella Plum, return to their recently deceased mothers home town of Noah Vale to live with their overbearing, but well-meaning Aunt and Uncle. Unbeknown to the sisters is the scandal their mother left behind 20 years prior. If you have ever lived in a small town before, you know how rife with gossip and judgement a small town can be *Stares pointedly at Delia*.
Those Hamilton Sisters (aptly named), is fundamentally a coming of age story, except our heroines have extra hurtles to deal with; their mothers reputation, small town dynamics, sexism, cyclones, and snakes *Stares pointedly at Delia*.
This book was truely stunning, with vivid imagery that instantly transported me to the lush tropics, leaving me with an achy feeling to venture into the wild and attempt to discover my very own "Faerie Falls".
If you're into strong female leads, luxuriant tropical backdrops, mesmerising writing and truely memorable characters, then this is the book for you.
Aleta, 20/04/2021
