‘The Things We Don’t Say’ by Ella Carey is a historical fiction story that is told over several decades. A book I found difficult to put down and an emotional read. Although I have to say, historical fiction when written by Ella Carey is always an immersive and entertaining story.
This particular book is about Emma Temple, an almost ninety-year-old woman. She has led a full and colourful life but what she isn’t aware of is that her life as she remembers and how she experienced it is about to crumble around her. Laura, her granddaughter is curious about a portrait that Emma has hung above her bed. Emma is taken straight back to sixty years previous and the man who painted it, the man who knew her the most and the one she loved. A newspaper, claims the portrait is not genuine and from that moment every truth in Emma’s life begins to come into question and she is taken back to 1923 in the South of France when her life changed forever.
Again, Ella Carey’s research is immaculate and her characters are so believable that you can almost imagine yourself in that world. I believe that this is yet another book that may be fiction but is based on real events. Again Ella Carey is a master at spinning facts and artfully blending these together in an entrancing and mysterious story that grips you from the start. A book, in fact, an author that, if you want a book to catch you and hold you until the last word, I highly recommend.
Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for the copy of the book to give you my thoughts on this entrancing book.
sharonbeyondthebooks.uk 