Review: The Butterfly Room by Lucinda Riley

Title: The Butterfly Room

Author: Lucinda Riley

Published: July 2020 (First published May 2019), Blue Box Press

Format: ARC E-copy, 403 pages

Source: Netgalley via GetRed PR

Summary:

Posy Montague is
approaching her seventieth birthday. Still living in her beautiful
family home, Admiral House, set in the glorious Suffolk countryside
where she spent her own idyllic childhood catching butterflies with her
beloved father, and raised her own children, Posy knows she must make an
agonising decision. Despite the memories the house holds, and the
exquisite garden she has spent twenty-five years creating, the house is
crumbling around her, and Posy knows the time has come to sell it.

Then
a face appears from the past – Freddie, her first love, who abandoned
her and left her heartbroken fifty years ago. Already struggling to cope
with her son Sam’s inept business dealings, and the sudden reappearance
of her younger son Nick after ten years in Australia, Posy is reluctant
to trust in Freddie’s renewed affection. And unbeknown to Posy, Freddie
– and Admiral House – have a devastating secret to reveal . . .

Full of her trademark mix of unforgettable characters and heart-breaking secrets, The Butterfly Room is the new spellbinding, multi-generational story from Sunday Times bestseller Lucinda Riley.

My thoughts:  It’s no secret that I am a huge Lucinda Riley fan. I’ve read almost all her books to date, and those that I haven’t I plan to soon. I always find myself completely engaged in her stories, falling in love with her characters and swept up in their lives and this one was no different.

I love multi-generational sagas. They are such a great break from all the thrillers I love reading and this one came at the perfect time. I was able to lose myself in Posy’s world and what a story it was. Starting when she was young and then jumping to when she is almost 70, I immediately found myself engrossed in this story. Posy has not had the most happy of childhoods and even later in life, she has encountered a few obstacles. Now she is nearing the end of her life and trying to decide whether she should scale down. 

I loved Posy. I found her to be such a charming character who really cared about all those in her life. She felt genuine and honest, and I never felt that I had to wonder about her motivations at any time. Her two sons could not be any more different from each other. I took an immediate dislike to the older one, and it turns out, for good reason. The younger one won my heart over time and again. 

This book is filled with secrets and interesting twists that are hinted at and keep you wondering how and when they are going to be revealed. I guessed at a few and did not see some coming. Having the story move back and forth in time allows for information to be given at the right time. Most of the story is in the present, but we do go back to the past and when that happens, it seems that it’s to give us more of Posy’s backstory so that we are able to fill in missing information. This was such a clever way to structuring the story – it’s doesn’t feel contrived but rather flows just right.

This book will certainly tug at all your emotions. There were a few scenes that had me tearing up and a few that made me quite angry. Riley certainly knows how to evoke an emotional response out of her readers and her characters all are so richly drawn that you can’t help but want the best for them. And the descriptions – whether of Admiral House itself or of the lands and garden – this book is perfectly worded so that you can visualize everything.

I very much enjoyed my time with Posy and her family. This was one of those books where I started reading it and didn’t want to put it down until I finished. If you like complex family sagas that are brimming with secrets, I highly recommend picking this one up…you won’t be disappointed!