Friday 28 June 2013

It Never Was You by William E Thomas ~ Review and **Book Giveaway**

It Never Was You is the second part of the Cypress Branches trilogy, written by William E Thomas and published by acuteANGLE books.   I read and reviewed the first book; Pegasus Falling on my blog last June and have waiting for part two ever since then.


I was delighted to receive my copy of It Never Was You from the author's son Mike who has worked tirelessly to get his father's story into print.  Mike wrote a guest blog piece for Random Things last year.  I was doubly delighted to find a quote from my review of Pegasus Falling in the front of the latest book.



Once again, William E Thomas has created a wonderfully atmospheric story, starting out as something as a mystery and turning into an emotional journey with two strong and interesting characters heading the way.

When Harry Williamson disappears from a ferry bound from Liverpool, his family are left devastated and puzzled.  Harry was an experienced ex-merchant seaman and they have no idea why he was heading for Liverpool.   They become even more distressed when they discover that Harry has left a significant amount of money and a property to a mysterious Mary Robinson.   Who on earth is she, and why should she inherit so much of their family money?

The reader is then whisked back to Harry's early life, just after the war and long before he met his future wife.  What follows is a story of passion and heartbreak and the story of Harry and Mary slowly unfolds.  Many parts of the story, and some of the characters do link into the first book of the trilogy, and although it would help if the reader had read Pegasus Falling first, this book does work well as a stand-alone novel.

As in the first book, there is a political side to Thomas's writing, the effects of war on the working-classes, the wide gap between them and the wealthy, the prejudice and beliefs of the times are all shown here - the language is often colourful and often very politically incorrect, but fits perfectly with the era of the story.

It Never Was You is another powerfully epic tale.  Thomas's writing is compelling and incredibly engaging. I look forward to reading the final instalment in the trilogy next year.

I am delighted to be able to offer a paperback copy of It Never Was You by William E Thomas - to enter please complete the Rafflecopter widget below - the giveaway will be open for 7 days.   Huge thanks to Mike from acuteANGLE books for supplying my review copy and the giveaway copy.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

6 comments:

  1. These books all sound great - I'll add them to my neverending list of "to reads"!

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  2. Sounds intriguing - thanks for the chance to win :)

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