Book review: COMING HOME TO THE WINDMILL BY THE SEA by Caroline Young
This feature is in association with NetGalley.
Many thanks to NetGalley and to Storm Publishing for letting me see an advance copy of COMING HOME TO THE WINDMILL BY THE SEA by Caroline Young.
This is Book 3 in the WELCOME TO ANGLESEY series, but it was my first literary trip to the island.
Beth and Megan were best friends once. Soul mates, even. Then Beth betrayed her friend and ran away to England, where she remained for the next 20+ years. When she finally returned home, the prodigal daughter she was not. Could she build bridges, repair deep wounds, or, more importantly, get her friend back? Only time and circumstances would tell.
This was a BIG story. A very big story. And one I felt was not given adequate space in which to unfold. There’s a lot of narrative, a LOT, and it reads more like an overview, or a precis, an outline, than an actual novel, and I was chomping at the bit for more. Which is a shame because I really liked the story and the characters.
For example, I didn’t want to be TOLD that Ioan (pronounced Yo-Wan, I think) took his ‘small watercolour palette and…sketchpad’ out with them to paint ‘whatever was laid out before them…’ I wanted to SEE him do it, experience it with him, be SHOWN the colours he used or how he applied paint to paper.
The sights and sounds of the island were so beautifully described, but I wanted to experience it all with the characters that peopled the book.
There was too much telling and not enough showing for me, and I do feel that if the story had been given the time and space it deserved, then it might have made 4 to 6 lovely books and one gorgeous omnibus rather than one 6-part book. It deserved more, so much more.
I found the constant Welsh language interruptions just that – interruptions, that got so tedious I ended up skipping them. And I felt the book relied a bit too heavily on the classic poetry and literature quoted throughout. The amount quoted would have been disguised a lot more in a bigger book, but this book was too short for the percentage actually quoted.
There was some sloppy editing too, and some repetition in places, all of which could have been tidied up in a thorough proof-read.
Saying that, it was an intriguing story that spanned around 18 months, it is very well written, and the setting truly was beautiful. A lot of work clearly went into the writing of the story. I just think the book should have been longer, a lot longer, with more action and more detailed scenes rather than the solid narrative I also ended up skipping.
Four stars.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
