Book Review: Husband, Missing by Polly Williams

When you know, you know.
This is what Gina told friends when she married Rex six months after meeting him. Passionately in love, Gina feels like the luckiest woman on the planet.
Until Rex vanishes without a trace on holiday abroad. Her dream new marriage slipping into a nightmare, Gina never wavers in her belief that he's alive. That she'll find him. When her frantic search unearths troubling secrets from Rex's past, Gina begins to questions how well she really knows her beloved husband. But sometimes when all seems lost, unexpected, wonderful things are found...

I have read and very much enjoyed Polly Williams' last two books, It Happened One Summer and The Angel at No. 33 but I think that this is her best yet. I read Husband, Missing in just over a day, I was completely addicted to the story and characters.
Gina married Rex just six months after meeting him, believing herself and having to convince others that he was definitely the one. She is passionately in love with her new husband and so is completely devastated when she hears that he has disappeared whilst on a lad's holiday. All Gina knows is that Rex decided to go windsurfing in the early hours of the morning and didn't return. Whilst there is no body, Gina refuses to believe that her husband is dead ev
en though she is fully aware that her friends and family have already begun mourning.
Gina considers herself to be Rex's soul mate but as she begins looking in to their affairs and asking questions, she begins to wonder who exactly she was married to. More and more people come forward with a very different description of Rex's character than the one she knows, she still wants his back but wonders if she had the real Rex in her life?
Through all of this turmoil, Gina relies heavily on Rex's younger brother, Jake. Rex had always kept him at arms length but he does nothing but care for Gina, She knows he believes that Rex is alive too and is one of the few who will still help her look for him. Gina is confused by her relationship with Jake too, is it right to feel so close to Rex's brother and why did Rex keep such a distance from him?
As I said, I have really enjoyed Polly Williams last two books but Husband, Missing felt slightly different; perhaps slightly darker and a little more grown up. The author makes you feel like you are there in the situation with the characters which is no easy feat. I was completely gripped by Gina's situation from the start but as she discovered more and more about Rex, I just couldn't put the book down, I had to know what would happen next.
Husband, Missing is a fantastic read, the story has terrific pace and you will now be able to stop turning the pages, I highly recommend it.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5

Many thanks to the lovely Caitlin at Headline Review for sending me a copy of the book to review, it is out now.

Book Review: It Happened One Summer by Polly Williams

After years of romantic drought, Nell is enjoying a thrilling fling with a sexy new man and loving London life, somehow managing to juggle single motherhood with a busy career. Plus, in the city it's easy to avoid her sister who is about to marry Nell's ex. (Yes, messy). Then she gets the news. Please could she return to Tredower, the crumbling old family home in Cornwall for the summer? Disaster. Tredower has no Wi-Fi, harbours her big dysfunctional family, and far worse, memories of her passionate love affairs with the man who is about to become her brother-in-law. The past is another county. Can she go there?

Another woman is making her way west too, carrying an explosive secret. Love will be lost, and found, lives changed for ever...

Nell is struggling to juggle a high pressured career as a journalist with life as a single mum whilst also dipping a toe in the dating pool. When her  brother Ethan asks her to relocate to Cornwall over the Summer to look after their mother, Nell can't think of anything worse. However, after a while and a few problems at work, Nell decides that a summer in Cornwall might just be what she and four year old Cass need.
Nell's family life has been a little stressful over the years; she is not particularly close to her mother and barely speaks to her sister Heather after she ran off with her boyfriend Jeremy who is now Heather's fiance.
After agreeing to care for her mother, Nell is looking forward to a Summer in Cornwall and spending some quality time with her own daughter. But Nell's mother has other plans, she feels that she is near the end and wants the children to decide what happens to Tredower, the family home. So the rest of the family, including Jeremy arrive and Nell does not quite get the relaxing environment that she was hoping for.
It Happened One Summer also has a mystery element to it in the form of April James and her daughter Beth, they are down in Cornwall for the summer and seem to have a particular interest in Tredower and the family living there.
It took me a little while to get into this book but once the action had moved to Cornwall, I found myself really enjoying it. Polly Williams explores just how much family relationships can be tested and I found this to be very interesting and realistic. I liked Nell's character and I eventually came to like her mother Valerie, even though I could completely see how annoying she was.
The Cornish setting is just lovely and I loved reading about Tredower, the crumbling family home holding many secrets and desires.
It Happened One Summer is an absorbing read and I did like Polly Williams writing style, I would very much recommend it.

Many thanks to the lovely people at Headline for sending me a copy of the book to review, it is out now!