A Place to Call Home

by Carole Matthews

[Leah]

Carole Matthews has long been one of my favourite authors, but in recent years I haven’t kept up with her novels as much as I would have liked to, with my most recent Matthews read being Wrapped Up In You back in 2011. I don’t quite know why, beacause I do enjoy her books, I just felt like I needed a break; it’s happened with a few authors I used to devour – their books just didn’t have the same charm for me, which is weird. Perhaps it’s because I’ve grown up with their books, and I’d sort of had my fill, but I do still purchase all of Carole’s books, I just haven’t gotten around to reading them, so when I spotted her new one, A Place To Call Home, on Netgalley, I thought it sounded really, really great. Different, too. If I can say anything about a Carole Matthews book it’s that when she comes up with a unique plot (as many of her books have), she sticks with it and it really works. So I was very excited to dive in.

The most impressive thing I found about A Place To Call Home was the voice. Ayesha Rasheed is not like any other female character I have ever come across – she hails from Sri Lanka, she has found herself in such a violent marriage that is has turned her daughter, Sabina, into a selective mute, and she realises she’s had enough, and leaves in the dead of the night. You would normally attribute such a beginning to a crime novel, but no, this is how the new Carole Matthews book opens, and I have to say, it opened with quite a bang and, boy, did it capture my attention. I had absolutely no clue what kind of novel I had stumbled in to and I think the cover somewhat mis-sells it (although it is a BEAUTIFUL cover, and does sum up the novel, but it is very deceiving, I will say that). Matthews has written Ayesha in such a way that the voice is just so distinct, you can tell that it’s a person who doesn’t have English as their first language, but does have a great command of the language. You can just tell from Ayesha’s words how different a heroine she is and I immediately warmed to her, and her daughter, Sabina. It takes a lot of balls to leave a marriage like the one Ayesha leaves, and I was with her through the entire journey, silently rooting for her and waiting, with fear, for it all to fall apart.

But do you know what I really, really, really, really loved about A Place To Call Home? The bloody place Ayesha and Sabina do indeed end up calling home. Home to pop star Hayden Daniels, along with Crystal and Joy, two wayward strays who have found their way into Hayden’s heart and haven’t left. It’s totally my kind of house. As soon as Ayesha and Sabina walked up to the house, with it’s million rooms (most uninhabitable) and with the ever so friendly Crystal waiting to welcome them, and the way they just fit in immediately, I was sold. Booking a flight from Tenerife to this wonderful house in London, because I wanted to live there and help take care of them all. You know when a novel just seems to go exactly how you want it to? This is that novel. As soon as Ayesha and Sabina stepped foot into Hayden’s house, I knew that everything was going to be warm and rosy and lovely. I just got that feeling, and I loved that it seemed as if this rag-tag bunch of people had always lived together, like this. It was quite easy to forget all the tragedies that had befallen them all when they were all together, in the kitchen, sharing one of Ayesha’s meals. It truly was as if nothing else mattered, and that the house was indeed the most truly safe house you will ever step foot in.

I really, really enjoyed A Place To Call Home, it was one of the most delightful books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Whether it was wishing for Hayden to come more out of his shell, after what happened to him with Lauren, or whether it was hoping and praying today would be the day Sabina would talk, I never found myself bored or hoping the book would end. It really says a lot about the talent of the author when a kid who is mute, whose life revolves around head nods and shakes becomes one of your favourite characters, ever, and little Sabina captured my heart in the way no character has for a while. I was reading the novel hoping that there was some way, any way, that I could shield myself from what would inevitably be Ayesha’s husband’s revenge. Because there was still parts of the novel that I felt belonged in a crime book, but weren’t actually out of place because they were quite thrilling, they did rather get me all frightened and worried. This novel has put Carole right back on my map! It amazes me that after so many books, she can still pull off such a fascinating, well written, enjoyable novel with characters whom I adored dearly. This was a fantastic novel, and I am so bloody glad that I gave it a read, because I would have missed a pretty spectacular, edge-of-your-seat novel that also featured one of the greatest bunch of housemates you will ever meet.