Welcome to the twelfth of my ‘Calendar Chaos’ posts, in which I take the books I received in my 2024 book advent – each cover representing a different period of time – and review them for you!
Closing June is SUMMER and the book is The Butterfly Summer by Harriet Evans.
Read on to find out more…
Blurb: It begins and ends with Keepsake, the house that holds its shadows too tightly.
Nina Parr’s mother has lied to her for most of her life. But when Nina inherits Keepsake, a long-forgotten house in Cornwall, she pieces together a sad truth that reaches back to the outbreak of war in the 1930s. A must-read for fans of Kate Morton and Santa Montefiore.
What magic is this?
You follow the hidden creek towards a long-forgotten house.
They call it Keepsake, a place full of wonder . . . and danger. Locked inside the crumbling elegance of its walls lies the story of the Butterfly Summer, a story you’ve been waiting all your life to hear.
This house is Nina Parr’s birthright. It holds the truth about her family – and a chance to put everything right at last.
Two things happen when you are a Parr girl: when you are ten, you are told about your future role.
The second thing that a Parr girl at some point must learn is harder to tell of.
It is a dark work indeed, the business of this house, hidden from the world.
Review: Family secrets and hidden traumas abound in this story of poisoned childhoods and suppressed womanhood from the author of The Beloved Girls and The Stargazers.
Similar to those previous books, this story also begins with a contemporary heroine main character, before delving back into her childhood and family pasts, and the author has once again woven a heavily oppressive atmosphere throughout the plotline so your anxiety slowly ratchets up as you read.
After a bit of a slow start, this turned into an up-all-nighter book for me, as I got hooked – not on Nina’s on-again-off-again relationship with Sebastian, lax attitude to paid work or casual unkindness to various loved ones, but on the historical account of Theodora/Teddy, the mysteries surrounding her and her relationships with Matty and Al respectively. I loved the twists and turns, and subtle details linking past and present, leading to numerous small but shocking reveals towards the climax of the story.
This isn’t exactly the kind of light summer read that you’d take on the beach, but if you enjoy dramatic explorations of dysfunctional family dynamics and inherited/family trauma, then this is the Keepsake for you!
About the author:
Hello lovely readers. Thank you for stopping by. Here’s a bit more about me and my books:
I’m the author of fourteen novels.
I’ve been a Richard and Judy book club selection twice and have shaken both Richard and Judy’s hands. I have sold over a million copies and been a Top Ten bestseller and still can’t believe I am lucky enough to be a writer.
I used to work in publishing editing some wonderful authors including Penny Vincenzi, Marian Keyes and Sue Townsend but my proudest moment was reissuing LACE as a very junior editor at Penguin.
In June 2025 my novel THE TREASURES will be published by Penguin. It is the first in a trilogy about a family, the Ravens, over a fifty years, from their beginnings to the present day. I am so excited about people reading it and can’t wait to hear what you think. I am really proud of it. I’m currently writing the second in the trilogy- more soon.
My favourite writers write the kind of books you find on holiday home shelves with faded covers and I want my books to have the same effect: Daphne du Maurier, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Rosamunde Pilcher, Penny Vincenzi, Dorothy L Sayers, Susan Howatch, Sally Beauman, Georgette Heyer, all of the Brontes, and of course Jane Austen.
I love musicals, karaoke, long hilly walks in the countryside, hedgerows (also Bramley Hedge), old Laura Ashley catalogues, Cheers and Frasier, peppermint creams and reading.
I have a very large fluffy cat whom we adopted last year when he decided to move into our house without consulting anyone else. It is like living with Ken from the Barbie movie.
I have two daughters. They are embarrassed by everything I do. Girls i’m only getting started, sorry.
I live in Bath, home of Jane Austen and Bath buns (but full disclosure have never had a Bath bun).
Last year I published my first murder mystery under the name Harriet F Townson, D is for Death, set in 1935 and featuring detective Dora Wildwood who finds a body in a library. There will be more Dora books, I don’t know when, but I adored writing it and her.
I am on the management committee of the Society of Authors, fighting for better deals for authors, talking about the dangers of AI, ghostwriters, bad contracts, ghosting, royalties and other issues facing authors. I volunteer with Inspiring the Future, aiming to widen aspiration for all children, and am an ambassador for the London Library.
I’m on instagram as @harrietevansauthor Please do come and say hello there.
Thank you. Love and good books, Harrie x
Website: https://www.harriet-evans.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harrietevansauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harrietevansbooks
X/Twitter: https://x.com/HarrietEvans
