Review: The Postcard by Fern Britton

Secrets. Sisters. The summer that changed everything . . .
Life in the Cornish village of Pendruggan isn’t always picture perfect. Penny Leighton has never told anyone why she’s estranged from her mother and sister. For years she’s kept her family secrets locked away in her heart, but they’ve been quietly eating away at her. When an unwelcome visitor blows in, Penny is brought face to face with the past. And a postcard, tucked away in a long-hidden case, holds the truth that could change everything.
Young Ella has come back to the place where she spent a happy childhood with her grandmother. Now she’s here to search for everything missing in her life. Taken under Penny’s broken wing for the summer, the safe haven of Pendruggan feels like the place for a fresh start. Soon, however, Ella starts to wonder if perhaps her real legacy doesn’t lie in the past at all.

Lisa's review 4 of 5 stars

After a couple of chapters of The Postcard, I began to worry that I wasn't going to enjoy it enough to even finish it. Main character Penny starts off as a cold, unrelatable character that just comes across as unlike able. Luckily, after persevering, that soon changes, although there are still times throughout where I got annoyed with her. 

Penny lost her dad when she was young, and was left behind with an unloving mother and spoilt sister who packed her off to boarding school and haven't wanted her since. During a lunch a few years earlier, a secret about Penny was let out of the bag, causing Penny to have nothing to do with either of them anymore. She's now married to a vicar, with a baby daughter and a career, and although the road has been rocky it's about to get worse as her mother dies and her sister turns up in the doorstep. 

After the first few chapters I really got in to this book and couldn't put it down, Ferns writing style is so easy to read and she does write some great characters. 

I do have a few things to pick at with this book though. Early on Ella has her own chapters, and as there seems to be a twist ending brewing from early on in the book, I assumed it had something to do with Ella and the search for her mother. However towards the second half of the book it's almost like Ella was forgotten about! 

My other gripe was that I could see the remaining pages getting fewer and fewer but as I read on it seemed like there was ending coming. It soon became clear that this was because the ending was rushed and seemed crammed in the last 4 or 5 pages, which I found a massive disappointment as I had enjoyed the book so much. The very end of the book was a terrible cliffhanger that didn't fit in at all, and there's nothing to point out whether or not this will be continued in another book or not which is irritating!