When hauntings from the past are jeopardizing your future…

Synopsis

Two women. Connected by heartbreak, separated in time. Can Charity save the man she loves, or will Lydia’s vengeful spirit prove too strong? 

Two haunting love stories and a hundred and fifty-year-old curse …

When the beloved grandfather who brought her up dies, Charity is left struggling to cope. Alone and rootless, she’s drawn to the sleepy fishing village of Beaumouth near Lyme Regis and begins to research her family tree. A chance encounter with attractive boat-builder Matt sparks a chain of mysterious and unsettling events and leads Charity to uncover the story of a young girl who lived in the village over a hundred years before. 

In 1863 all Lydia Pavey wants to do is follow in Mary Anning’s footsteps and become a ‘fossilist.’ Instead, she is being forced into marriage to a man she barely knows. 

Charity’s obsession with Lydia becomes all-consuming and she risks losing everything. With a longed-for family tantalisingly in reach, will Charity find the happy ever after she’s yearned for and, most importantly, can she save the man she loves?

My review

Charity is finding it difficult to cope with the death of her beloved grandfather. Feeling that she has been abandoned again, she decides to leave momentarily London and moves to a fishing village Beaumouth. There she wants to find herself again and decide what she truly wants to do with her life. It’s also the perfect occasion to research her family history.

After meeting Matt, she finds herself attracted to him, but her fear of being abandoned again and thinking he is in a relationship, makes her become just friends.
Charity finds herself in possession of an ammonite, which is the catalyst of several nightmares and hallucinations.
Through them, she gets to know Lydia Pavey, who lived in 1863.

Lydia’s big dream is to become a ‘fossilist’, like her idol Mary Anning. But her family thinks of it as nonsense and are forcing her marrying a man she barely knows. And this while she finds herself attracted to “The Boy”…

Charity gets obsessed by finding out who Lydia is and what happened to her. She risks losing everything due her obsession.
Can she manage to get her grip on reality again?

What an intriguing story! I sympathized with Charity. Grieving for the loss of her grandfather, is she also struggling with the idea she is ‘unlovable’. And when she meets Matt, she is certain that he is going to leave her someday.
She is having so many personal issues to overcome and adding ghosts from the past aren’t making the situation any easier.

Matt is just amazing. He doesn’t believe in ghosts or whatsoever, but he believes Charity. He stands by her, as supportive as possible. He doesn’t judge, but helps where and when he can.

When we get to know to know Lydia through the nightmares, she is this curious, adventurous young woman. She defies her family and will not just give up her dreams easily.
Through the whole story you feel sorry for her, as she cannot do what she wants, but has to follow the rules dictated by society and her family.

But for me, Lydia changed for the worse. Initially I liked her, but in the end, I just despised her. What she did in the past and was still doing to Charity and Matt was over the top and not like the young woman we got know.

Overall, I liked this story as I wanted to know what truly happened to Lydia, but I also wanted to know if Charity would manage to overcome her insecurities. And would her obsession fade away so that she and Matt could have a future together?
A great story switching from present to past and vice versa keeping you on the edge of your seat!