Review: The Guestbook
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2014
This was very much an impulse buy but I read it within twenty four hours.  It is funny and sad and has the feel good factor in spades.  Written in the form of entries in a guestbook in a holiday cottage owned by young widow Annie Butterworth, the book tells the stories of the guests and that of Annie herself.  I think the author really captures the voices of all the various characters in the few pages they have to reveal themselves.There are young families, older couples, one or two very strange people, some illicit couples and a group of hen weekend girls.  Some of the characters appear more than once and update the reader with their stories.  It is very difficult to convey the real flavour of this book in a review – you really have to read it for yourself.  Even though some of the stories are sad they don’t detract from the overall optimism of the book itself.  Marvellous reading for stormy evenings.