The Girl With The Suitcase by Lesley Pearse

The Girl with the Suitcase: A captivating historical novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author by Lesley Pearse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 391

Publisher - Michael Joseph

Source - ARC

Blurb from Goodreads

The enthralling new novel from the 10-million-copy, No. 1 bestselling author is available to PRE-ORDER now!

London, 1941

When Mary meets a glamorous stranger named Elizabeth she realises their lives couldn’t be more different. Elizbeth is beautiful and charming, about to set off on a dazzling adventure to Ireland where she’s inherited a grand house. Mary, shy and meek, has nothing to look forward to but the dreary life of a maid in Hampstead.

But when an air raid forces them to take shelter underground Mary’s life is suddenly changed forever. After waking up in hospital, injured but alive, the nurse mistakes her for Elizabeth and hands over her suitcase with Elizabeth’s money and tickets to Ireland inside.

This is Mary’s chance to escape the hardship of her life and start afresh.

Will she take it and what could go wrong?



My Review

Mary has known poverty and cruelty her whole life, it is wartime and she is desperate to escape her job as housekeeper, cleaner and general dogsbody. When she meets the beautiful Elizabeth who offers her a chance at a new life, she has just came into a fabulous house in Ireland, inheritance from an estranged aunt. A bomb hits, the girls are in an underground shelter when everything goes dark. Mary wakes injured but alive, she is misidentified and finally has a chance to live, really live but can she do it?

Aw Mary, what a poor soul and hard going "upbringing" she had. We find out more about Mary and why she is the way she is by going from present to past. As always Pearse's books feature some of the darker side of humanity, abuse, SA, child endangerment, substance abuse, stolen identity. You get reeled in because you are rooting for Mary aka Beth but you do question some of her decisions and behaviours. I think that is one of her gifts, she gives you characters who aren't wholly whiter than white (Mary), and some downright horror bags the "stepfather".

When Mary goes to Ireland we meet a whole cast of people, sweet, nosey, hearing about the aunt, ooft she was a character in herself. We see how world war 2 affected different parts of the world, meat rationing, families, love, loss. It is a busy book as is Pearse's way but she does it so well the story flows and envelopes you. Lots of characters/happenings, some time and place jumps but all done effortlessly.

Even when I have a reading block I can still inhale one of her books, 4.5/5 from us, I need to check her backlist and see what I have missed (we have read loads but she has published loads) and catch up on any missed. She is a fab writer, pulls you emotively and allows you to escape your own life and merge into a world full of love, loss, sadness, friendship, family, she ticks the boxes.

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Secrets by Lesley Pearse

Secrets by Lesley Pearse
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Time taken to read -

Pages - 548

Publisher - Penguin Books

Source - The Works

Blurb from Goodreads

Can truth stay hidden for ever?

Set in the 1930's, the classic novel from bestselling author Lesley Pearse tells the story of one girl's struggle against cruelty and, her quest for love.

Twelve-year-old Adele Talbot's unhappy mother Rose succumbs to madness after a family tragedy and Adele is placed in a bleak children's home. But when her trust is betrayed she runs away - hoping to find her grandmother in Sussex.

By the time she does so, Adele is desperately ill and has to be nursed back to health among the beautiful Rye Marshes. And then she meets the wonderful Michael Bailey.

As friendship blossoms into love and they come of age together - Adele becoming a nurse and Michael joining the RAF - she believes she can put her troubled past behind her. But with the outbreak of war and the sudden appearance of Rose, bearing shocking family secrets, suddenly all of Adele's hopes appear impossibly fragile ...


My Review

Life has never been very kind to Adele, ignored and abused by her parents, when a tragic accident forces Adele to takes off to find her grand mother. Used and abused, Adele finally makes it to a safe haven, finding love and acceptance with her grand mother and meeting Michael. We follow her growing up, getting a career and finally finding her place, despite world war two going on. However as is the way, the past rears its ugly head and Adele finds everything she loves being threatened and the past no longer able to be ignored.

I do love Pearse, she covers some very tough topics and "Secrets" is no exception. Abuse, neglect, briefly paedophilia, relationships, family, secrets, war and friendship to name but a few. Poor Adele is just a child when we meet her and deprived of basic care, love and mistreated by those meant to love and cherish her. We watch her bloom and grow, relationships form and the social issues presented between the classes in the 1930/1940s.

I can't say which story lines I favoured most because there were so many, in fact I don't think I could pick out one I hated. Obviously the paedophilia one made my skin crawl and I hated the perpetrator, in fact both the individuals. Everyone else I think shaped the story perfectly, it was emotive and keeps the reader hooked page after page. 5 stars for me this, I have another few of Pearse on my TBRM and will be buying the others I have still to read.

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