Saturday, April 19, 2014

Surrounded by Water by Stephanie Butland



What would you do if after your husbands unexpected death you found that you really know him??

Elizabeth has just lost her husband in a tragic drowning accident saving a young woman late at night, but is everything really as it seems?

Elizabeth mover her entire life from Australia to a little town in England for the man that she loves more than anything and now she has been left alone in this little town where everyone knows everyone and everything that goes on in the town where everywhere there are people wanting to sympathise and remind her of what she has lost.

Michael tragically drowned while saving a young woman who had fallen into the pond after having a little too much to drink on a night out, but was unable to save himself. Michael is a local policeman and his untimely death is a shock to the whole community. But what was Michael doing at the pond so late at night and does the girl he saved know more than she is telling.

This story grabs you from the very first page and doesn't not let you until you have turned the last page. Elizabeth starts off the books with a letter to her husband trying to make sense of the news that has just been given to her, the news that no man or woman ever wants to hear that their spouse is not coming home.

Her grief is all consuming and swallows her whole. Her friends and Michael's mother all try to reach her but not even the arrival of her beloved sister can shift her darkness and misery, at times I found these parts very hard to read.

The story flicks between present day and the aftermath of the drowning and the survival of the young woman Kate to the time in Australia when Michael met Kate while travelling and the recent past of the early married life when Kate moved half way around the world to be with Michael.

But all is not as it seems in their outwardly perfect marriage, I have to admit I did see where the secrets would lie and I willed Elizabeth not to find the truth so that her memories of the man she loved so dearly could be preserved, however that wouldn't make for much of a story though would it!?

This book will keep you wondering what exactly happened that fateful night and will keep you reading into the night to do just that.

While I admit I did find it hard to read at times especially when Elizabeth was in the depths of her grief it by no means turned me off continuing reading. This is a very solid fiction debut and an author I would read again.

Thank you to the publishers for sending me a review copy and for letting us be a part of the blog tour. I hope you enjoy :)

You can buy Surrounded by Water here

Overall rating - 

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