God's Acre by Dee Yates
Published: 2nd April 2019
Publisher: Aria
Pages: 400
Available on Kindle
Rating: 4/5
Blurb
As the drums of war begin to beat louder on the
continent, and life becomes more dangerous in cities, seventeen year-old
Jeannie McIver leaves the comfort of her Aunt’s house in Glasgow, to head to
the wilds of the Scottish Uplands to start life as a Land Girl.
Jeannie soon falls in love with life on the busy
Scottish hill farm, despite all of its hardships and challenges. She feels
welcomed by the Cunningham family who value and cherish her far more than her
own rather remote and cold parents, and the work is rewarding.
She even finds her interest piqued by the
brooding, attractive Tam, the son of the neighbouring farmer, and a sweet
romance between them slowly blossoms. But even in the barren hills, they can’t
avoid the hell of war, and as local men start disappearing off to fight at the
Front, Jeannie’s idyllic life starts to crumble.
Those left behind try desperately to keep the
home fires burning, but then Jeannie makes one devastating decision which
changes the course of her and Tam’s lives forever.
Review
God’s Acre is the latest novel from Dee Yates and follows
the story on young Jeannie McIver. With war drawing ever closer seventeen-year-old
Jeanie McIver’s parents want her back home with them and away from the danger
at her aunt’s house in Glasgow. Being a
spirited young girl Jeanie instead enlists to be a land girl on a farm in the
Scottish Uplands, safely away from any war danger and her parents overbearing
attitudes.
Jeanie settles well to farm-life and turned the heads of
many of the local boys but its reserved and rugged Tam McColl who makes Jeanie’s
heart flutter. Soon the two are in a slow but steady romance which Jeanie
believes will make her happy. As the effects of war come closer to home Jeanie
is sees a chance at a new-life, her decision has repercussions for everyone for
the rest of their lives.
Alongside Jeannie’s story the story skips forward to 2002 to
Liz Deighton who has recently moved to Scotland into an old run-down cottage
where she found an old photograph of her mother. Throughout the book we learn
more about Liz and her relationship with a man called David. I didn’t see the
relevance of Liz’s part in the story until the very end of the book, even then
I don’t think her relationship with David really added anything to the overall
story.
I found Jeannie’s story enjoyable, she’s a bright young girl
full of life, eager to learn and willing to help anyone in distress. I couldn’t
really see her attraction to the reserved Tam, she seemed to lose a little of
her sparkle when she was around him.
Dee Yates’ has created and enjoyable tale of the harsh
realities of farm life in the Scottish Uplands which has been brought to life
with her descriptions of the landscape and its various inhabitants. It’s a
story of love but also of second chances, family loyalties, loss and tragedy
and I did find it quite a sad read.
Thank you so much to Aria for sending me a copy to review
and also for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Born and brought up in the
south of England, the eldest girl of nine children, Dee moved north to
Yorkshire to study medicine. She remained there, working in well woman medicine
and general practice and bringing up her three daughters. She retired slightly
early at the end of 2003, in order to start writing, and wrote two books in the
next three years. In 2007 she moved further north, to the beautiful Southern
Uplands of Scotland. Here she fills her time with her three grandsons, helping
in the local museum, the church and the school library, walking, gardening and
reading. She writes historical fiction, poetry and more recently non-fiction.
Occasionally she gets to compare notes with her youngest sister Sarah Flint who
writes crime with blood-curdling descriptions which make Dee want to hide
behind the settee.
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