The Hornbeam Tree by Susan Lewis

From Goodreads

Just as celebrated columnist Katie Kiernan thinks life is over, it suddenly arrives on her doorstep in the shape of her sister Michelle, and all the intrigue Michelle brings with her. Friction, resentment and old jealousies make life in their house doubly challenging, as Katie struggles to cope with a rebellious teenager and Michelle longs for the man she has left behind.

After a devastating betrayal Laurie Forbes is trying to rebuild her relationship with Elliot Russell, when she is plunged into a whirlwind of passion that threatens to tear them apart completely.

Top journalist, Tom Chambers, the man Michelle left behind, faces the greatest challenge of his career when highly classified documents fall into his hands. Realizing how explosive the material is, Tom calls upon Elliot Russell to help with the investigation, and very quickly they are caught up in the deadly efforts to stop them going to print.

The Hornbeam Tree is a fast-moving, funny, passionate and heartbreaking story that travels the dizzying highs and lows of love, the scandalous manoeuvrings of greed and power and ultimately the unbreakable bond between a single mother and her teenage daughter.

My thoughts 

At over 600 pages this story sure did have a lot of pages to fill. It was an epic tale covering lots of different topics from terminal illness, politics and a love story or two thrown in for good measure. I don't think it really knew what it was meant to be, but I did enjoy it on the whole.

I enjoyed the story surrounding Katie, her sister Michelle and Katie's daughter. It must be so hard when you're suffering from a terminal illness such as Katie's and don't know how to tell your children the full extent of the illness. Lots of people end up relying on other members of the family to help out. I'm sure that a lot of children would have reacted in a similar way when faced with the return of an Aunt that they don't know that well, turning up on their doorstep like Michelle did.

Perhaps it was a little over long but there was a lot to pack into the pages, as there was so much happening.

I gave it a 7/10 and I will look forward to reading other books by this Author in due course.