I tried reading The Children's Hour for a Bookcrossing bookring because it came so highly recommended and because the blurb on the back of the book sounded interesting: "...But when their sister Georgie, now somewhat frail and forgetful, comes to stay at Ottercombe, memories of their past start to revisit them. As a child, Georgie claimed to know all their secrets — secrets that she now wants to share..."If there were any secrets worth sharing, I didn't last long enough in the book to find out what the secrets were. I made it to page 112 of 442 and each new page became more and more of a chore to read. I seem to be the only person who hasn't enjoyed this book but I am often a contrarian reader. Given the over powering domesticity to this book, I think this is the closest I've gotten to an "Aga Saga" and I hope it's my last.I don't like stories where the characters do nothing but sit around and talk about their feelings and that was all the characters did in the quarter of the book that I read. I also don't particularly like weird sounding nicknames that aren't explained. Weird character names are harder to remember and are annoying. So having a character nicknamed "Nest" didn't help my souring view of The Children's Hour.I did skip ahead to read the last three chapters, a trick I often do when I'm feeling doubtful about my interest in finishing a book. The last three chapters are just as schmaltzy and upbeat as the first three chapters are. In other words, there is no change and no sign of progress. The characters worry about stuff, reminisce about stuff, have secret stuff revealed (apparently) and have good stuff come about in a nice tidy way. Whoopee.
This book starts out pretty slow, it took me a while before I really started to enjoy it, as a matter of fact more then half way. I really enjoy Marcia Willett's writing but this one is not one that I would choose to. It takes place and the very beginning of WW II the family has a summer home in the Devon country side along the ocean. The Father works in London so it is primarily the Mother Lydia who suffers from asthma and bronchitis, and the children that live in this beautiful old home most of the time since the war has started. You learn about the children and watch them grow up so to speak.
The Children’s Hour is the story of three elderly sisters who are brought together in their declining years by family members while the eldest sister is waiting for admission to a nursing home. Georgie is physically frail and increasingly forgetful, but her temporary return to the family home where they all grew up and where her sisters Mina and Nest still live, dredges up all sorts of memories and family secrets.Marcia Willett has written some charming novels. However, in this instance, after luring her readers into investing so much interest and empathy in her characters, she delivers an ending which fails to satisfy. Sadly it prevents The Children’s Hour from being a ‘keeper’.
—Kerry Hennigan
Oh my gosh, this was probably one of the worst books I've ever read. To think that this author has 13+ other books she's written; I wonder if they are as bad as this one was. This was one of those books that I could skip over paragraphs, especially when she gave paragraphs and paragraphs and even one time 2-1/2 pages describing about what the dogs were doing - ahhh! Who cares! What's up with the main character, Mina's "po-po-po of sighing breath" and to boot, quite a number of times throughout the story. Was there really there a need for such sillyness? Who does that? Do yourself a favor, don't bother reading this stupid book, better yet, recycle it, it's in a better place there.
—Shelley
I wouldn't have picked this up at a bookstore but my mom sent it to me in a box of birthday goodies. It was a bit hard to get into, but once I was about half way into it I was caught up in the characters. Lots of family secrets, lots of heartbreak, lots of reminiscing to those days of a first love... It sounds gooey, doesn't it? It was, sort of. One thing I didn't like at all - pages of description of the English countryside. I don't know anything about plants and don't need to read long run-on paragraphs about how this bloomed on that or how this was covered in this... I have to skim all that. Overall: Good for the beach or when you're in bed sick with a bad cold.
—Marie
