eBook Review: A Place for Us (Part 3) by Harriet Evans

"The day Martha Winter decided to tear apart her family began like any other day. 

The house has soft, purple wisteria twining around the door. You step inside.

The hall is cool after the hot summer's day. The welcome is kind, and always warm.

Yet something makes you suspect life here can't be as perfect as it seems. After all, the brightest smile can hide the darkest secret.

But wouldn't you pay any price to have a glorious place like this?

Welcome to Winterfold.

Martha Winter's family is finally coming home."

Rating: 4/5

You can buy A Place for Us (part 3) as an eBook now.

As you may know, Harriet Evans' latest book A Place for Us is being serialised as 4 eBooks before being published as a complete book early in 2015. I've already read and reviewed part 1 and part 2 here on the blog, and you need to have read those parts before delving into this one, as it's the next installment in the story of the Winter family. Part 2 saw the climax of the secrets in the family, and I wondered where this part could go after that. Yes, this is a slower pace of story, and it's less shocking that it's predecessor but that doesn't mean it's any less good. This one delves into the aftermath of part 2, and how the Winter family start to handle the fall out of their family secrets.

I won't spoil anything from the previous story here, as obviously you need to read it yourself and find out what happens. One thing I loved about this part of the book was the past story of David Winter. This goes all the way back to the war, his surviving the bombings which claimed the life of his mother, and then his life with his abusive father. Evans doesn't shy away from being graphic and upfront with what happened to David, I found it quite hard to read in parts but it's a realistic and horrific portrayal of a toxic relationship that David just cannot walk away from. It helps piece together things about the character, and also explains another mystery that has been lurking in the background of the other parts of the story, I was shocked when all was revealed!

We do see the other Winters in this book too, dealing with what has happened to their family. Florence is still reeling from her shock, and is still pursuing her court case, throwing herself into it 100%. Bill, too, is dealing with his own heartache, but is still feeling isolated from the rest of his family. Martha is perhaps the most complex in the book, a mystery that I still haven't been able to work out, and I really don't like certain aspects of her, especially how she seemed to love her daughter Daisy more than her other children, and isn't shy is showing that fact. I do feel sympathy for her and her situation, but there's definitely something dislikeable there.

This is a very interesting penultimate part of the book, and you are definitely left wondering how things are all going to come to a conclusion in the final part. Evans' writing is what makes this serialisation so enjoyable to read - she depicts the emotion in this book so well, so poignantly that you are completely absorbed by the book and the Winter family, captivated by their story. This part is certainly much slower paced that the previous 2, but bear with it - it's an emotive and eye-opening look at the Winter family once more, and promises to lead us to a revealing resolution. Certainly an eBook serialisation to look out for.