REVIEW: The Cottage at the Edge of the Woods by Jane Lovering
When single mum Libby is offered a life-changing sum of money to clear out an old cottage in the woods, she expects dust and decay. She doesn’t expect a house full of secrets, a room full of birds, and a woman who refuses to leave.
The handsome but stressed architect who hired Libby is also a puzzle. Why can’t Ross empty Elm Cottage himself? What can he possibly see in Libby, who has been burned by love and is wary of attachment? How can they persuade the mysterious but kindly Isobel to move on?
As Libby is pulled into the cottage’s story, she must face up to her own deepest fears. Can she help Isobel, fight the past that haunts her, and learn to open her own heart to love once more?
Some houses won’t let go of the past. Some people won’t, either…
TW/CW – presumed domestic control, mental health issues, hints of past SA of secondary character.
Dear Ms. Lovering,
I read the blurb and thought I’d get a nice, heartwarming story of two people bonding over dealing with a squatter in a charming Yorkshire cottage. Yes, that sort of happens but it’s the “along the way” stuff that took me somewhere I wasn’t expecting. I mean really not expecting. The book also leans more into women’s fiction albeit with a romance woven through it.
From the book’s dedication to single mums, even before I began reading, my expectations started to shift a bit. Hmmm, a single mother dealing with childcare issues, a job, making ends meet maybe? I was wrong. Yes all that is there but … well it might be best, for maximum impact, if readers discover what else is hidden in Libby’s past the way I did.
Libby is taking care of her two year old, fearless and demanding daughter Matilda, aka Tilly, aka Tils. They live in a shoebox room that would make a grotty London bedsit look palatial while Libby scrounges odd jobs that she can take while Tilly is in nursery school. On her latest one, Libby thinks it should be easy to check that no one is living in a falling down Yorkshire cottage. Instead Libby comes face to feather with her worst nightmare as Libby has ornithophobia. “The Birds” would be an extra-special horror movie to her. Going to report on her failure, Ross – the man who has hired her – desperately offers her more money to go back. Unable to turn that down, she does and discovers an older, middle aged woman living there. And Libby thought her accommodations were terrible.
Isobel mentions squatter’s rights and not moving which will, for Reasons, cause Ross a lot of trouble as he really can’t be seen to be kicking an old woman out of a house even if the house is falling down around her and he owns it. After Libby gets roped into continuing The Quest by Ross offering even more money, Libby and Isobel begin to get to know each other while Tilly tags along. Each woman has something in her past which makes her leery. Even Ross has something he’s had therapy for which makes him, despite being interested in Libby, reluctant to help her. When her past finally catches up with her and Tilly, Libby is going to discover something about what she thought was real.
Most of these characters have some issue in their past and all the characters feel realistic. And since in past books, you’ve not shied away from having character issues be major ones, I didn’t hesitate to believe what the characters believe and tell others. Much of the first third of the book is Libby detailing to us and the other characters what she fled from. Everything sounds reasonable. Everything makes sense, as horrible as it is for it to be true. So when everything gets turned on its head, I was shocked. Brava for writing that and writing it so well.
Also I enjoyed Tilly in all her glorious two year old tantrum self. Tilly is definitely not a plot moppet or only a sweet li’l angel. And thank goodness for not making her speak in Toddlerese. I would like to have seen a bit more of Ross’s past since we got so much of Libby’s. What is hinted at about what Isobel went through is enough, though. As for the romance, I approve of the 18 months out epilogue which gives space for Libby and Ross to continue to work on themselves and falling in love. The end of the book is maybe a bit too much unicorns and rainbows after all the trauma but after what Libby and Tilly went through, leveling the playing field is something I’ll accept. B
~Jayne
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