Book Review: The Guestbook by Holly Martin

 

the_guestbook_coverTitle : The Guestbook
Author : Holy Martin
Publication date : 14 February 2014
Publisher : Carina
Purchase eBook: Kindle
Rating : 4 out of 5 LeeLee’s!

The Blurb

Welcome to Willow Cottage – throw open the shutters, let in the sea breeze and make yourself completely at home. Oh, and please do leave a comment in the Guestbook.

As landlady of Willow Cottage, the young widow Annie Butterworth is always on hand with tea, sympathy or strong Norfolk cider – whatever her colourful array of guests require.  A flick through the messages in the leather-bound cottage guestbook gives a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of everyone who passes through her doors.

This includes Annie herself – especially now celebrity crime writer Oliver Black, is back in town. He might grace the covers of gossip magazines with a different glamorous supermodel draped on his arm every week, but to Annie, he’s always just been Olly, the man who Annie shared her first kiss with.

Through the pages of the Guestbook Annie and Olly, along with all the guests that arrive at the seaside retreat, struggle with love, loss, mystery, joy, happiness, guilt…and the odd spot of naked rambling!

Forget sending postcards saying ‘wish you were here’ – one visit to Willow Cottage and you’ll wish you could stay forever.

My Thoughts

The Guestbook follows a whole host of characters who visit Willow Cottage, a quaint little holiday rental ran by the lovely young widow Annie Butterworth. Upon reading the blurb I already wanted to get stuck in and meet all of the characters I had already been introduced to, most of all I wanted to know what was in that biscuit tin!

The novel is set out exactly as a guestbook in a hotel following the adventures of Annie’s guests, she also uses the guestbook to leave notes to her guests without disturbing them and vice-versa.

Surely that would be boring? I wasn’t sure how this was going to work out at all with no way for characters to be connected to one another but it works perfectly. You can differentiate between each characters entries by the different fonts used, although I found the entries in all caps to be rather off-putting and difficult to read. The story had me waiting for repeat visitors to come back and stay at Willow Cottage so I could catch up with them, from the couple who have a new born baby the the crazy lady with all of her animals they all had their quirks and left me wanting to know more after they signed out of the cottage.

Some entires in the guestbook are absolutely brilliant and had me laughing out loud where others had me asking myself if this was realistic, would somebody actually divulge such information with their name alongside it in a book that is public domain once they leave the cottage? The majority of the tales I thought were certainly believable and they were indeed very funny if not at times rather emotional. I’m just not sure anyone would actually discuss their sex life, or lack of, in a guestbook or personal affairs such as the loss of your unborn child. But who knows? Either way they certainly brought new depths and elements of surprise to the novel each time a new guest appeared and spilled their heart all over the pages.

Annie herself has a really interesting back story, a love triangle of sorts and a confusing relationship with her brother in law, famous crime writer Oliver Black. Many visitors confuse Annie for being the granddaughter of the land lady upon seeing her and don’t realise that she is the widowed owner of Willow Cottage, always described as being young and beautiful Annie is the perfect host not only to the cottage but to this entire novel. Her soft caring side combined with her crazy humour really bring the book together.

Verdict

The Guestbook is an emotional story filled with laughter and a great element of mystery throughout, I found Annie and Olly to be such wonderful characters and was rooting for them right to the end. Holly Martin has written this novel with so much heart and the characters feel so genuine and realistic not forgetting the huge twist of an ending which I of course am not going to reveal to you! The book is an absolute bargain and I recommend you go grab a copy for yourself, its a really fun relaxing read and I demolished it in one sitting.

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