This work of historical fiction also has elements of romance, friendship, and a bit of the supernatural. Lucy, a war widow also known as Mrs. P, took employment at her uncle's publishing house. Though she is tasked with secretarial duties, Lucy soon finds herself researching the disappearance of a young woman who is the subject of a book her uncle is publishing. Along the say, Lucy finds her place in the world again and opens herself up to new experiences, friendship, and love.

I really wanted to love this story, but it fell flat. The plot and characters seemed underdeveloped and the ending was fairly predictable. Additionally, some portions were very wordy and dragged along, while other portions seemed a bit rushed. I had a difficult time getting into the story and connecting with the characters, who were a bit one-dimensional. I liked the book enough to try another from this author, but I didn't like it enough to want to read it again.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this book.

I am sorry but I found it a hard book to grasp,could it be i need to read previous books,I don't know. Thank you netgalley

Working in her uncle’s publishing company after the war entails more than Mrs P might imagine.

Mrs P’s Book of Secrets confounded me as it wasn’t quite what I was expecting from the blurb and opening. It’s not the fast paced supernatural thriller I imagined, but rather a quiet book that grows on the reader and needs quite careful and focused reading fully to appreciate. I confess I did find some of the structure a challenge but I think this is deliberate obfuscation on the part of the author to help create the mystery within the story. I found the hints at the supernatural equally as effective as any more direct approach.

The narrative voice is strong and carefully attuned to the era, the book publishing setting and the social background of the characters so that I had a clear understanding of Mrs P, or Lucy. I felt I knew her far better than she knew herself for much of the book and I felt very sorry for her. I enjoyed the clues about Robert scattered throughout so that I felt I was involved in finding out about him at the same time as Lucy.

Whilst the plot is perhaps a little meandering for my taste, I really appreciated the themes in Mrs P’s Book of Secrets. The post-war era, when secrets, grief, PTSD, suspicion and identity were so important, is explored thoroughly, making for a thought provoking read. The concept of family is also important and I liked the way in which Lorna Grey challenges the definition of family and belonging through her story. I also appreciated the insight into the machinations and rivalries of a small publishing company. What touched me most, however, was Lucy’s sense of loss for a child she’d never had.

I thought the Cotswolds setting was absolutely right for Mrs P’s Book of Secrets. Indeed, I could see this becoming serialised as an afternoon television programme in the style of Father Brown or Shakespeare and Hathaway.

Mrs P’s Book of Secrets is a book that rewards the close attention of the reader and illustrates that who we are is as important as what we do.

I received an ARC edition of this book from Netgalley and two chapters in, I'm going to have to give it up. As much as I like historical fiction involving WWII and England, this novel has failed to engage me and I can't figure out where it's going. Another reviewer mentioned this as being a sequel and perhaps it would've helped if I'd read the first book because I feel a little lost.

I will admit, I found this quite a difficult book to read and like. The actual story is fine, it’s the style of writing I had difficulty getting my head around. I still can’t really understand why it was written in this style. It is set in 1946 and yet I felt I was reading something written by Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. For me it just didn’t flow, there were so many sentences or even paragraphs that I had to read and re-read to try to understand what Lucy (Mrs P) the main character was thinking. She seemed to have odd lines of thought. There were a lot of assumptions made, especially by Lucy which more often than not led to misunderstandings and incorrectly drawn conclusions about the characters in the book she associated with. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t communicate with each other instead of making wild assumptions.

If you’re a lover of literary fiction then you’ll be right at home with this book. You’ll enjoy the intricate play on words and it will take you back to a time when writing was an art form. However if you’re looking for fast paced, with plenty of dialogue between characters then maybe this might not be quite your fit.

But then the slow pace and gentle exchanges between characters may well be how the author intended this book to be; to make the reader really think about the emotions of Lucy and how she was affected by the loss of her husband.

The dialogue between characters was easy enough to understand in the main. I liked the detail about methods of printing that was briefly included in part of the book and would have enjoyed more of this as I found it really interesting. For anyone who uses WordPress and has ever wondered what a ‘slug’ is, well your answer to its origins is right here in this book.

I enjoyed the ending when the mystery is resolved. Although until the end I didn’t notice there was a mystery. There is also an authors note at the end of the book which I found really helpful and explains the ideas behind the story.

All in all I think if the book had been written in a different style, it would have been easier to understand, as the premise of the book is good. I just felt that most of the way through I was scratching my head because at times I couldn’t make head nor tale of what was going on until the very end.

Before writing my thoughts, I re-read the closing chapter and the author notes and realised that this may well be one book that is worth reading again. I think it’s possible that the whole story would make much more sense second time around. It is certainly not a book to be hurried.

To be published on my blog on 7 December, 1 week before publication. Also posted to Goodreads

I am sorry but i found this a hard book to read it didn't flow right and seemed rushed and rambled on.2*

I generally love historical fiction, especially those based in and around ww2, so I was ready to enjoy this book!
Unfortunately it was a bit of a hard work read, some parts of it felt rushed, while others dragged on. The storyline seems not fully thought through and I was left wanting more.
I will give this author another go, but sadly this wasn’t the book for me.
Thanks to netgalley for gifting me this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

This looks like it will be a really quaint story however to be honest I’m just very perplexed by the story, it’s very rambling and contains a lot of talking and musing but no obvious plot. To be fair I’m basing this in the first four chapters purely because I had to admit defeat at this stage as I had lost track of the plot, or what little there was of it. Quite ironic really that a book based in a publishers needs some work doing on it to untangle it!

I voluntarily read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinion are mine and unbiased

I found this hard to get into and a bit bleak
Bit if a slog to get through and not really my kind of thing

I think you probably need to be in a certain frame of mind to really feel the benefit

In 1946 war widow Lucinda Peuse returns to live near her Uncle and work in his print firm. Whilst there she interacts with several authors and is involved with ghostly and mysterious happenings.
It took me a while to settle into this book. The characters were a little bland and I was not sure in which direction the book was taking me. Not quite the story I was expecting, which is not always a bad thing, bu5 in this case I had to force myself to finish..

This book has a story, a nice one at that. However, the backdrop is bleak and not cheerful at all which is why it takes time to delve in the story and root for the characters.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
Iam really sorry to say this book was not for me I really tried to read it but could not

A story I had quite a hard time getting into. Set in the stunning Cotswolds village and inside a publishing house , this is a story about a widow who returns home to heal.She can't live in the room where she used to as there is a new editor working and living there. However she suspects him of something strange. There are ghostly and weird things going on but I'm not sure what they all were about. I was confused about where the story went to and it was long and drawn out for me. The mystery of the missing girl seemed lost in a book of several story threads and scene setting.

This book was surprisingly disappointing. It was hard to follow and I couldn't connect with Lucy as a person. 😦 I wouldn't recommend this book on our site.

This is the second book of Ms. Lorna Gray that I tried to truly get through.

A continuation of the main character, Lucy who is a war widow under the guise of Ms. P. in her uncles publishing house. The title seemed interesting enough, however the story fell short and pretty much was not to my liking. Not one for ghosts etc., I could not get into this book as with the other book.

The story felt a bit underdeveloped as well as some of the characters that could have been made the book more enjoyable if more work was done on their roles in the book. Again, a bit too wordy which made it a bit boring and had to push my way through to the end.

I sincerely thank the author, Harper Collins Publishers and Netgalley for this ARC in return for my fair and honest review of this novel.

Modest 2-Stars.

I was interested in reading this book because of the title and the beautiful cover, but the written pages left me missing something more. This book is a sweet and often tragic look at a young war widow's life working in her aunt & uncle's publishing house. It doesn't have much in the way of excitement. It's more of a quiet book.

I just found this book so odd compared to the description. It was about a woman Lucy, or Mrs. P, who was widowed after the war and she is living and working at her uncles publishing company. A new publisher is working there now and he seems like he is hiding something.
I liked the characters, but the flow of the story just seemed all over the place. It mentioned a missing girl mentioned in one of the new books they got, but they didn't really look into the mystery of it til over 60% of the way through the story. At that point it already uncovered why Robert seemed to already divulge what was going on. The author added Doctor Bates into the mix and seemed like his only point was to add question to Lucy's thoughts of Robert and the company, then near the end he tells her he is marrying another woman who works there and leaving. So it was abrupt with no point.
Throughout the story, Lucy seems to be struggling with her own acceptance of her husband dying and moving on. It mentions her mother and grandmother help spirits move the other side, but that was not brought up again til the end either. Little things happened during the story that did not seem spooky or supernatural in any way, then the end of the book she attributes this to her late husband helping to push her in the right direction to solve what happened to this little girl. Harriet (little girl in the book) was thought to be missing and the whole point of the story was for Lucy to want to solve what happened to her because she felt abandoned by her family and did not want that to be the fate of this little girl. I felt like this story line was forced.
I did finish the book and I enjoyed the characters. Robert and Lucy seemed good for each other, but jumped from them talking to him proposing very suddenly at the end. Just awkwardly.
Thank you #netgalley for the chance to read and review this book!

I sincerely tried with this novel simply because I loved the title and the premise of it. However, I found it incredibly hard to finish. It introduced a number of characters that could have fleshed out the story better if they had not simply been peripherally thrown in. I had trouble following the story at times and at others, it was just a bit too dry. It felt like there were unnecessary words or descriptions that didn't really advance the story. There was some drama but nothing to tie to me to the characters or the book.

I found this book quite odd.

The main character is Lucy, a war widow living in the offices of her uncle’s publishing firm.

There are many peripheral characters and I found them all rather confusing. I couldn’t quite work out which story the author was trying to tell and the genre seemed to flit between a straightforward romance and a gothic horror.

I finished it, mainly to see how it ended rather than for any real concern or love for any of the characters.

Not my cup of tea, but thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book.