When secrets bring you together…

Synopsis

Amelia Riley and Ben Lawson have something in common – fathers who have kept secrets.

On the day of his father’s funeral, Ben’s life changes forever when a woman he’s never met shows up claiming to be his sister. As he investigates the past, Ben is shaken to discover that much of his life has been built on a carefully constructed foundation of his father’s lies. Needing answers, he agrees to visit Juniper Meadows, the ancestral estate owned and run by his long-lost relatives, the Travers family.

Arriving in the pretty Cotswold countryside, the first person Ben meets is Amelia Riley. They are immediately drawn to one another, but Amelia has her own complicated ties to the Travers family. Her only goal is to set the past to rights so she can move on with a clean conscience.

As Ben starts to see the events of his childhood more clearly, he allows the warmth and fun he finds at Juniper Meadows to draw him in from the cold. But just as he’s contemplating setting down roots, Amelia is making plans to leave…

Bestseller Sarah Bennett is back with an irresistible, feel-good, page-turning escape, perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley, Katie Fforde and Phillipa Ashley.

My review

Ben and his father have always been on their own, after Ben’s mother died. At least that is what Ben always thought, and he couldn’t be more shocked to learn that not only his mother is still very much alive, but he also has a little sister.
Digging up his father’s past, Ben sees that his father has kept many secret and hasn’t always been as truthful as Ben thought.
In search for more answers, he decides to take up on his sister Hope Travers’ offer to visit Juniper Meadows.
And slowly Ben gets t know a part of his family he was unaware of, and it makes him think about what his future may hold, as in the past he didn’t follow his passion, but listened to his father. With now a family that encourages to follow your passion, Ben has a lot of thinking to do. And thinking he does, as he also keeps thinking about his encounter with Amelia Riley…
Amelia, who has been best friends with Hope, but also discovered that her own father betrayed her and her mother in a terrible way… 

Oooh just what a delight to return to Juniper Meadows! And I liked it how the story just picked up straight where book Nr. 1 left us, namely Hope finding her brother, after learning of his existence. 

I felt sorry for Ben in so many different aspects… He is doing a job that in fact he doesn’t truly love yet he did it anyway, after his father pushed him for a ‘real’ career. He never felt the support for chasing his artistic talents, even if that was what put him in a happy place. He has lost his father, not knowing about the illness, and  has to face somehow even the hypocrisy of those who knew his father. And then he learns that everything he thought he knew was a lie. Not only did his own father kept the truth about Ben’s mother, but Ben is shocked to learn that he has a little sister, and a whole family ready to welcome him back. 

But I could also understand Ben, as he doesn’t know what to do with the fresh information he has received. He is obviously wary of the new situation, and he doesn’t know what the correct way is to tackle the whole matter. 

I truly sympathized with him, as while he was happy to realize that he isn’t alone in the world at all, but I could also understand that finding a whole family still makes him a bit wary of everything, as he tries to comprehend what happened in the past, and what the real truth is. 

Of course Hope optimism is very infectious, and I found it heart – warming to see how quickly the siblings bonded. Yet I also was glad to see that Hope understood that they all needed to take baby – steps. 

If there is one person who could somehow comprehend Ben, knowing what it feels to discover a father who kept secrets and didn’t always follow the laws, it is Amelia. 

Amelia isn’t a complete stranger, as she made an appearance in the previous book. But I was happy to see she has her chance in the spotlight in this book.
We know what her father did (and even if you didn’t read the previous part, it is all explained) and I could understand her feelings.
While Amelia herself didn’t do anything wrong, she will always be linked to her father. So her sense of guilt and shame, even towards her best friend, made sense to me, even if they were absolutely unjustified, because she didn’t do anything wrong. 

So obviously, these two people, haunted by secrets from others, find each other. And seeing Ben and Amelia finding each other, comprehending each other like no one else could, and find someone to just talk to (initially 😊) was truly heart – warming. Because both characters need to have that kind of person in their lives.
But they also find someone that persuades them to follow their dreams, to do something with their artistic talent, even if it would be a risk somehow. 

I truly liked the development between them, but in the end what I liked the most about this book, was the story about family.
Because Ben finds a family he wasn’t aware of, yet he is accepted between their midst like if he has always been there.
The Travers’ for sure show everything that is beautiful about a family. This is a welcoming, open family, ready to help out a member of it, no matter if you have always been in there, or have just arrived. And no matter if you’re family by blood or not, just like Amelia. Because Amelia is also part of the family by proxy, as she is Hope’s friend. And that makes you find a home, with no judgement. 

This author once again wrote an amazing story, with wonderful characters even if they are haunted. Yet Sarah Bennett makes it possible to inject so much warmth and love in her tale, making her characters find a place where they truly belong, with whom they truly belong.