The Family
Laura is grieving after the sudden death of her husband. Struggling to cope emotionally and financially, Laura is grateful when a local community, Oak Leaf Organics, offer her and her 17-year-old daughter Tilly a home.
But as Laura and Tilly settle into life with their new ‘family’, sinister things begin to happen. When one of the community dies in suspicious circumstances Laura wants to leave but Tilly, enthralled by the charismatic leader, Alex, refuses to go.
Desperately searching for a way to save her daughter, Laura uncovers a horrifying secret but Alex and his family aren’t the only ones with something to hide. Just as Laura has been digging into their past, they’ve been digging into hers and she discovers the terrifying reason they invited her and Tilly in, and why they’ll never let them leave…
This book was just too far fetched and unbelievable for me.
An old weaver's cottage, one hundred years old, really, more like three to four hundred. An Aga in somewhere that remote, not a real Aga. They don't run on wood and never have. Farmers putting lambs in the top oven to keep warm. The oven's aren't that big for a start and the top oven is a roasting oven, soon be roast lamb. They didn't put them in the bottom one either. In a box by the side, in front of, but never in.
So, your husband dies after falling from scaffolding and as only an interim death certificate is issued until the inquest, you can't claim on the insurance and you think running off to some “hippie commune” is the answer to your problems. Some Svengali, who just happens to have trained as a solicitor offers to help you sort it all out and you fall for it.
The book skipped between different people, Laura, Tilly, Alex etc. All this did was make the book longer and broke the flow and at times I lost who was talking. Every so often a Welsh word would be thrown in, why? It didn't add to the book and the word Anyhoo, where did that come from. Don't try and do dialects and accents, most of the time it doesn't work.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC copy in return for an honest review.