Roses of Marrakech

by Rachel Clare

Roses of Marrakech is a breathtaking romantic fiction, set between 1944 and 2016. The story follows 36 year-old primary school teacher, Ivy Fielding, who suffers from a lack of self esteem due to a facial birthmark. Her great-aunt Rose, who has always been her main source of emotional support, has just died, leaving her a bequest as well as her Lavenham cottage to Ivy and her mother. Ivy discovers tragedies in her family's past while reading her late great-aunt's diary, and this inspires her to fulfil a childhood dream and she jets off to Marrakech for the summer holidays. Set against the backdrop of wartime Suffolk and the present day spice-scented souks of Morocco, Ivy follows a trail of discovery that will change her life and those around her, forever. But when uncomfortable secrets of the past begin to surface, can she find the courage to confront them, or is it easier to walk away?

• ISBN13: 9781912362714
• Publish Date: 1 July 2018 (first published 28 June 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 August 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Book Guild Publishing Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 482
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

This is an engaging fiction novel that tells stories in two different timelines.  The first is the story of Ivy, an elementary school teacher who decides to take a trip to Morocco that she has always said that she'll do "someday."  Her great-aunt recently died and while cleaning out her house Ivy comes across a diary where her aunt has recorded detail of her life that Ivy did not know about including the lives of her sisters and a romance with an American GI during World War II.

The author did a good job of making the trip to Morocco come alive.  She gives a lot of details about walking around through the different sections of the city.  It makes you want to go and experience it yourself.

I thought that the past timeline was fairly predictable but it was still well written and entertaining.

I wasn't as fond of the decisions that were made at the end of the story.

 

 



Author Bio

Rachel gained a BA (Hons) in French/English at Liverpool Hope University and an MA in Modern Languages Research at Lancaster University before training to be a journalist. She now lives in Lancaster and teaches French in a primary school. She has enjoyed writing stories since she was a child and coming runner up in a Sunday Express story competition gave her the confidence to write her first novel, Roses of Marrakech.

Whenever I go on holiday, I always take my notebook with me. Visiting Morocco and Lavenham a few years ago, I made notes of my impressions of the places I visited and began writing the book when I returned”, comments Rachel. “In the book, Ivy’s struggles with coming to terms with her birthmark are based on my own experiences with cerebral palsy, whilst the characters, Violet and Eleanor are based on my great-aunts who both died of TB in the late 1920s”.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story