Ragged Cliffs by Julian Ruck

Ragged Cliffs by Julian Ruck
Buy Ragged Cliffs by Julian Ruck at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Women's Fiction
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A good story with compelling characters set in a stunning location, but slightly marred by production errors, failures in proof reading and wooden dialogue.
Buy? No	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 316	Date: September 2010
Publisher: Dinefwr Publishers
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1904323181
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Lise Jacobson was half Danish and half Welsh. She lived with her parents in Denmark but during the Second World War indulged in an innocent friendship with one of the occupying German soldiers. In retribution she had her hair shorn off and was raped by two masked men. After her father's death Lise's mother brought Lise and Lise's son, born as a result of the rape, back to Swansea and there they did their best to make a living for themselves. It was whilst Lise was working as a chambermaid that she met William Treharne, who would change her life permanently.

Lise and William were to live on Gower, one of the most stunning places in the world. I lived there at the time when part of the story is set – the nineteen sixties – and I can never resist a story which involves the area. Lise and William live in Ragged Cliffs, a large house which William has always thought of turning into a hotel. With just a few staff they live in almost splendid and happy isolation – until William's children begin to interfere in the relationship.

I loved Lise and the out-spoken William. There's quite an age difference but with some couples you never notice it. There's a great supporting cast too – from Lise's friend Bron who works for her and is determined to capture the elusive Gwyn to William's daughter Megan who's mentally unbalanced and is a pleasure to hate. The plot too is good, if not outstanding – unfortunately one of the twists in the plot seemed fairly obvious to me from fairly early on – and I'm not usually very bright at spotting such things! Dialogue is also a little wooden.

I could have passed these points as a simple glitch in an otherwise enjoyable read if it was not for a couple of editorial and production points. The proof reading leaves quite a bit to be desired, with some mistakes which pull you out of the page and leave you rereading to see if you've misunderstood and a couple of pages inserted twice. I checked to see if I had an uncorrected proof – as that was the feel – but apparently not.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For more of Gower we can recommend Not Funny Not Clever by Jo Verity.

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