THE SKYLARK’S SECRET by Fiona Valpy

Such a beautiful slow paced story. I absolutely loved it.

Dual time narrated, The Skylark’s Secret is addictive. Fiona Valpy made an incredible job describing the Scottish countryside so well that made me feel I have actually visited the places in person.

SYNOPSIS

Loch Ewe, 1940. When gamekeeper’s daughter Flora’s remote highland village finds itself the base for the Royal Navy’s Arctic convoys, life in her close-knit community changes forever. In defiance of his disapproving father, the laird’s son falls in love with Flora, and as tensions build in their disrupted home, any chance of their happiness seems doomed.

Decades later, Flora’s daughter, singer Lexie Gordon, is forced to return to the village and to the tiny cottage where she grew up. Having long ago escaped to the bright lights of the West End, London still never truly felt like home. Now back, with a daughter of her own, Lexie learns that her mother—and the hostile-seeming village itself—have long been hiding secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew.

As she pieces together the fragments of her parents’ story, Lexie discovers the courageous, devastating sacrifices made in her name. It’s too late to rekindle her relationship with her mother, but can Lexie find it in her heart to forgive the past, to grieve for all that’s lost, and finally find her place in the world?

MY THOUGHTS

This book was a proper palette cleanser after all thrillers and murders I have read about lately. Such a joy to have the opportunity to read this incredible story of loss, friendships, love but also hope in what is there to come. A story about community, war and romance; pain and social differences. The story of Flora during WW2 told in parallel with the story of her daughter Lexie decades later is absolutely mesmerizing.

THE SKYLARK’S SECRET was my first Fiona Valpy book but I can asure you it won’t be the last. I fell in love with the way she managed to pull me in and make me picture it all like I actually lived both women’s lives. I understood all Flora did in the name of love and I also stood by Lexie every step of the way.

I struggled a bit with the song’s lyrics and had to look up for some words but that actually made the story more charming and unique. I would love to visit the Scottish countryside and get even closer to this story. I highly recommend it to all historical fiction lovers.