Thursday 4 April 2019

Blog Tour Review: The Peacock Bottle by Angela Rigley


The Peacock Bottle by Anglea Rigley
Published 1st July 2017
Pages: 220
Available on Kindle
Rating: 4/5


Blurb
In this Victorian dual timeline novel, Amelia Wise feels a jolt when she finds a blue perfume bottle in the overgrown garden of the house she has inherited. Several events in her life mirrors those from the past and, with the help of her newfound cousin, Violet, the bottle's secret is uncovered.


Review
The Peacock Bottle by Angela Rigby is a dual-timeline historical novel set is the house Alice Howe in Cumberland. The first setting of the story takes place in 1893 when Amelia Wise has just inherited Alice Howe and moved there with her step-mother after the recent death of her father. While cleaning and clearing the garden, Amelia discovers a secret overgrown garden which has being locked up. She plans to restore the garden to its former glory to cheer up her step-mother but a series of unfortunate incidents keep preventing her from doing so.

The second part of the narrative turns the clock back to 1840 when Daisy and Mary-Jane Richardson live at Alice Howe with their parents. Daisy has recently taken an interest in perfume making and with the help of her Aunt longs to make her own from the beautiful roses in their garden. Before Daisy can complete her perfume and use it to gain a husband a tragic accident changes the course of her life forever.

I really enjoyed reading The Perfume Bottle, Angela Rigley has written an intriguing mystery surrounding the perfume bottle which slowly unfolds to show how the two families are linked. I had a real sense of what Alice Howe was like while reading this book and what it would have been like living their for the girls in both eras.

My favourite character was Amelia by far. Despite her age of just fourteen she’s very worldly wise, empathetic towards others and has a strong will which shows throughout the book. She’s much more grown up than Daisy and Mary-Jane who while being a similar age only seem to be interested in making themselves pretty and finding a good husband.

My one small issue with this book is I would have loved another chapter about Daisy to explain how she ended up with a family of her own. Apart from this I loved this book and can highly recommend this to those who love a good historical mystery.

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to be part of the blog tour and giving me a copy of this book to review honestly. 

About the Author


Married to Don, I have 5 children and 9 grandchildren, I live in Derbyshire, England, and enjoy researching my family tree (having found ancestors as far back as 1465), reading, gardening, playing Scrabble, meals out and family gatherings. I am the treasurer of my writing club, Eastwood Writers’ Group, and I also write and record Thoughts for the Day for Radio Nottingham. At church I sing in the choir and am an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, a reader, a flower arranger and a member of the fundraising team for Cafod, my favourite charity. I have written hymns, although I cannot read music.

Social Media Links –
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14367596.Angela_Rigley



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