Customer Reviews

Hattie's Mill

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Marcia Willett writes in the warm, comforting style of Rosamunde Pilcher and Pilcher fans will relish her relationship dramas set on the English coast. HATTIE'S MILL, in part, continues a story first begun in FIRST FRIENDS (English title: THOSE WHO SERVE) while introducing many new and multi-dimensional characters. Fans of FIRST FRIENDS will recall the devastating affair that ended in tragedy, but in this book that same affair is seen from the viewpoint of the wronged wife, Sarah Farley. Sarah's dearest friend happens to be Hattie, a retired naval nurse who falls in love with a picturesque mill on the river Dart and buys the mill with its two adjoining cottages. How she builds a small community that becomes more like family and how their lives intertwine and change over the course of five years unfolds with charm for those familiar with the previous story or for first time readers as well.

In addition to Hattie, you will meet a boatyard operator, his estranged wife, their teenage daughter, his mistress and her children, a veteran of the crisis in Northern Ireland, a young law student, and more. Issues of adultery, alcoholism, and child abuse figure prominently, but it is the extended family atmosphere and lush English setting that make this such a compelling and worthwhile story.

Marcia Willett's writing style is very much like Maeve Binchy and Rosamund Pilcher. She creates likable (and some unlikable) characters that you grow to care about. The settings are so well described you feel like you are there, on the river, in the cottage or the mill, walking in the wood or having tea with a neighbor who is more like family. The relationships are deep and the people interesting. I love that she always includes a dog as an important part of every story, but not overpowering. Very relaxing book to enjoy by the fire with a cup of tea. I didn't want it to end.

I find Marcia Willett a writer whose rich landscapes and complex characters keep me reading far into late evening and wanting more after I am done each novel.