The Forgotten Life of Connie Harris by Carryl Church

I was fortunate to be a beta reader for this novel. We belong to the same supportive writing group – The Half-baked Manuscript Club. Carryl’s is the first to appear in print perfectly baked. I have made every attempt to write an objective and honest review.

Romantic Fiction is not my go-to genre, but this had me hooked. A clever dual-time story set in the 1950s & 1996 Devon. The blending of 20th-century post-war history and characters is a perfect foil for romantic historical fiction.

I can assure you this stylish page-turner from debut author Carryl Church – The Forgotten The Life of Connie Harris will make you think again about female-led romance.

The story will make you sigh and tap your feet with frustration. As you see, doors slide shut, preventing the forgotten life of Connie Harris from being found.

Carryl Church explores Tiverton and Exeter damaged by war, the people and its buildings. She creates 1950s Exeter with a mixture of hope of a secure future overshadowed by the Cinema’s manager’s controlling power. Sliding doors of missed opportunities deny Connie’s forgotten life from being revealed in its full technicolour glory until...

The chance finding of a decaying spool of film and discarded newspaper by seemingly unconnected people in 1996. The present will collide with the past as the jigsaw of clues reveals a hidden life.

Happy ending? The writing is perfect, but there is no such thing as a saccharine-sweet resolution. We have an ending full of exciting possibilities forty-five years after Connie’s life was hidden but never forgotten.

Everyone who has read this stylish debut novel demands the next story from the pen of Carryl Church. Published by Joffe Books - Choc-lit

Purchase your copy - Amazon or Waterstones