Summer at Castle Stone

by Lynn Marie Hulsman

[Leah]

Shayla’s story starts with frustration. She doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere in her job as an assistant editor and her agent, Brenda, has not only rejected her proposal for an innovative book, but is also refusing to give her the chance to work with a notoriously difficult client who has already seen off several ghost writers. To cap it all, her capable and confident flatmate, Maggie, now has a book deal as well as a fiancé. Could things be worse? Well yes, actually. She ends up fired. Her only chance is to persuade publicity-shy Tom O’Grady to work with her on a new book. How does she have that chance? Why does she end up flying out to Ireland before any such thing is agreed? And how on earth does she end up working incognita and unpaid at Castle Stone? It’s all rather complicated even before she meets Tom and finds herself falling in love with him, his family and his country.

So there’s plenty of incident in a complex plot that explores relationships between parents and children, the impact tradition and the publicity have on peoples’ lives, and the realities of publishing non-fiction in New York while we follow the inevitably tortuous progress of our heroine to the arms of our hero. Some of those incidents are touching, some mysterious and many hilarious (particularly the awards ceremony near the end), but none is completely incidental or irrelevant to the main thread of the story — even a ‘borrowed’ pashmina has significance. Plenty therefore to keep the reader turning the pages and wondering what will happen next.

Tom and Shayla have both been shaped by their past in ways that are made clear as the book goes on, but there were little bits of each I couldn’t understand and that stopped me warming to them. For example, I wasn’t really sure where Tom’s traditionalist attitude towards Tony came from and it seemed odd that Shayla-as-Sheila worried about Tom’s response to events (such as the sudden appearance of rapscallion Des) but had no qualms about stealing recipes or, until towards the end, doubts about how he would respond to discovering just how fundamentally she had lied. However, he was suitably handsome, talented, brooding and forgiving, and she grew in understanding of herself and what she wanted from life, helping others to be happy along the way, just as a hero and heroine should.

Only last week, I read another book about Americans in Ireland – which shall remain nameless for reasons which will become clear – and was constantly annoyed by the simplistic view it had of rural Ireland, and the Irish characters’ use of American English mixed with the odd (sometimes misplaced) dialect word. Lynn Marie Hulsman, on the other hand, demonstrates that assumptions about the country are not necessarily well-founded (go Grainne!) and, while she does use ‘Irishisms’ in her dialogue, she is also aware of the word order of Irish English so she doesn’t have to over-use particular words to differentiate between her Irish and American characters.

Rating this book is difficult. I know it is good — it does everything right, it made me laugh, there were no long introspective passages to slow things down, the minor characters are great (I especially liked Tony and Maeve) — and I did enjoy the story. But, while I sympathised with Shayla’s troubles and understood Tom’s guardedness, my inability to warm to them stops me being quite as enthusiastic as I might otherwise be. But that may be just me, so I’d certainly suggest you read it and decide for yourself.

Reviewed by Catherine

 This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read