I was drawn to this book because of the interesting premise, the cover, and I love Saffron. I also enjoy dual timelines when it's done well, and here it was. The different timelines did not jump back and forth in a confused manner and was smoothly done by the author. 

The women, Eleanor and Amber, are strong characters and who live in the 1500's and 2019, respectively. Their stories were certainly heartbreaking but I believe it's what made them who they are.
 
This did get a bit slow in parts for me, I think it was slightly more drama involved than I am used to. Regardless, it was still an enjoyable read and it was interesting to see how their lives related to each other.  

3.5 Stars! 

Thank you to Net Galley, Avon Books UK, and Claire Marchant for providing me this eARC in exchange for my honest reivew.

Release Date: August 6, 2020
Avon Books UK  
General Fiction | Historical Fiction

Hello everyone,

This is not a Challenge 2020 read but it is my second Netgalley read!

Here’s the blurb -
Two women. Five centuries apart.
One life-changing secret about to be unearthed…

1538
New bride Eleanor impresses her husband by growing saffron, a spice more valuable than gold. His reputation in Henry VIII’s court soars – but fame and fortune come at a price, for the king’s favour will not last forever…

2019

When Amber discovers an ancient book in her grandfather’s home at Saffron Hall, the contents reveal a dark secret from the past. As she investigates, so unravels a forgotten tragic story and a truth that lies much closer to home than she could have imagined…

<hr>

Amber is suffering. She has just lost her baby daughter Saffron, and has taken refuge with her Grandfather at Saffron Hall. Whilst there she unearths a book dating back to the times of Henry VIII's reign.
<blockquote>"She was turning a page, a fresh start."

</blockquote>The book has a Latin inscription, describing a baby girl called Mary. What happened to her? Why is this book dedicated to her? What secrets does Saffron Hall hold? Amber is determined to uncover them all.
<blockquote>"<em>Dum Spiro Spero...</em>While I breathe, I hope."

</blockquote>Eleanor is 17 years old and has just married a barely there husband who she has only just met. Now she bears his child. She is not the usual Tudor housewife. She has taken her hands to a spot of gardening, growing a spice more valuable than gold - Saffron.
<blockquote>"She'd been used to seventeen years of isolation and peace; how would she live with a house full of noise and clamour all day long? It was unbearable."

</blockquote>She keeps a journal to document her life during the reign of one of the most formidable kings there was in England, Henry VIII. Eleanor is educated, she knows her worth but also what is expected of her.
<blockquote>"This was her world, the only place she'd ever known. And today was her wedding day."

</blockquote>These are two women, born over 500 years apart, but living similar lives. Amber must unearth the secrets and messages in Eleanor's book and find out why her spirit continues to linger in her grandfathers house.

This is a story written in two timelines - a dual storyline. We follow Amber's journey through her struggles and her discovery of the book. We also follow Eleanor's story through her upcoming marriage, childbirth and her life in a Tudor court.
<blockquote>"However could she start to change things? Because change things she would."

</blockquote>This is a story connecting past with present. The author creates a sense of impending doom right from the off with Eleanor and you instantly feel sorry for Amber. I found the writing difficult to read but the story was quite interesting. The book depicts love and hope in a very dangerous time. 2/5 stars for me.

Get it August 6th 2020 on [amazon text=Amazon&amp;asin=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Saffron-Hall-Clare-Marchant/dp/0008406278/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1%26keywords=secrets+of+saffron+hall%26qid=1589988078%26sprefix=secrets+of+saff%26sr=8-1]

Keep reading,

Until next time,

D x

I thoroughly enjoy dual timeline stories and while this had some good things about it, I still felt a little dissatisfied.
First, the good...the writing is fairly well done and I liked the premise and the leads. The author did a good job of letting us get to know both of them. She also did a very good job of bringing the setting and other characters to life.
Now the not-so-good....While learning about saffron was interesting, it got to be very repetitive. Also, Eleanor, at the end professes such deep love for her husband and I don't see it - he was absolutely never at home!! Only long enough to get her pregnant. So how the hell, did she fall in love with him?? I was also just a bit let down with the ending, I would have liked to have a bit more information on what happened to Eleanor and her family.

**Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley in exchange of an honest review**

I really liked this book. Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read it. I love historical fiction and was drawn to the cover and the description. It's an easy read, and ideal for hot summer days like these.
The storyline and characters are great and I could have enjoyed this book so much more if it hadn't been interrupted by grammatical errors and odd typesetting. I can only assume it has yet to be edited? If so ignore the following!

Grammatical errors include unfinished sentences or missing words. Repeated words in consecutive sentences. She was ‘sat/stood’ instead of she sat or she was standing. Confused tenses, ‘were’ used after a singular.
Typesetting messy with sometimes only a few words per line. No spaces between sentences or double spacing instead.

This book made me feel so many emotions! Sadness, gladness, a bit of laughter, but most importantly - Hope.
I love the thread of hope that is woven throughout the story - in both eras of time.
I was impressed with the author's talent for going between time lines - from the mid 1500's to 2019.
The intertwining stories flowed well with each other - giving you a sense of believability.
There was a constant feel of mystery, suspense and drama.
I enjoyed learning about some historical facts concerning saffron, and some of the events surrounding the royalty of that era.
In my opinion, the characters were well thought out, with good dimensions.
I liked how the author was able to describe things, whether it was the landscape, buildings, or even smells, without going into too much detail and describing every leaf and stone - which gets tedious at times.
Overall, this was a well written book, and I enjoyed it. I received an advance copy from the publisher. I am not required to leave a review. If you like stories with two eras of time, some historical facts, and a touch of mystery and suspense, I recommend this book - because you'll probably enjoy it too!

The Secrets of Saffron Hall is a well-written historical fiction novel, which takes place in the present and in the past England during King Henry VIII reign. Beautiful and immersive book, that pulls the reader back in to the old times. Absolutely page turning read.
I liked Eleanor’s and Amber’s characters as well. As they are both strong, independent women dealing with a lot in their lives. A charming book about love and loss.

This debut book was just lovely, with compelling and sympathetic characters that were multi-dimensional and complicated. Set in two eras, one in the 1540s during the reign of Henry VIII and contemporary time, the book shows the timelessness of the human experience of love, grief and recovery from that grief. Two women, 500 years apart share the same tragedy when they suffer the loss of a newborn baby daughter. Part ghost story, part mystery to discover the treasure or secret, part history lesson about the unsettling times when Henry VIII was dismantling the Catholic Churches and monasteries in 16th Century England, part history lesson in court politics and the quickly changing fortunes of courtiers. This work of fiction gives the reader a glimpse of what life was like and how challenging it was for women, who were at the mercy of the menfolk in their lives. The two women share the experience of the loss of a newborn, separation from their husbands and strong female friendships that help them get through their grief. I didn't know about the cultivation of crocus for producing saffron, which was the arcing theme that tied the two stories and gave the estate the name Saffron Hall. As a followup I would love to read the story of Eleanor after she escapes to France.

I really enjoyed this book! I’m a massive fan of #dueltimelines as I keep saying, but each new author offers a new way of doing it. This one is the furthest back in time I’ve gone and also has a base of true historical events which I found really interesting.
At first I found the book was swapping timelines too fast, each chapter going back and forth in time, but as the story developed you spend more chapters in the relevant time and in the end I found the short chapters and quick changing of timelines really kept the story alive and fast paced. The story between the timelines also worked seamlessly. I really liked the main characters Eleanor and Amber I felt you could really connect to both of them and their stories in addition to the other characters that surrounded them who were all excellently written. I found the language and writing easy to read and had no problem keeping up in my post night shifts slump! Will definitely be on the look out for more books by this author in the future.
Thank you to @netgalley and #avonbooks for allowing me to read this one early! Due out August 6th 2020! -Emily

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really enjoyed this book, loved the characters, the descriptions and most of all the storyline, a really good read

Unusual and interesting story,one modern ,one medieval. Two female characters tied by history and loss. A good read.

This book lived up to the promise of the description. I always enjoy dual time period novels and this one did not disappoint, both time periods have interesting plots and both heroines were believable and developed well over the course of the book. So many novels set in Tudor times focus on the time around Anne Boleyn being queen so it was nice to read one set in an equally fascinating and tragic period, the rise and fall of Catherine Howard. This setting meant that once the final section of the novel began it was obvious what the tragic outcome would be for Eleanor and her family, but it was still handled sensitivitely by the author and the conclusion for Amber was satisfying. I look forward to more novels by this author in the future.

I loved this book. I’m a fan of dual timeline novels and this one was particularly well done.

We first meet Eleanor, in 1541. In our next chapter we are in 2019 with Amber. This story cleverly weaves parallels between their lives and we begin to see how they are linked.

Eleanor is an educated young lady who finds herself married to a widower with a small daughter after the death of her father. Her portion of the story is a good insight into the hard work involved in growing saffron, but also the court of King Henry VIII. Historians will surely recognise what is happening as they read- I was unfamiliar with some names and therefore was rather more surprised!

Amber is living temporarily with her grandad in her ancestral home, grieving her stillborn daughter. When lightning strikes (literally!) she finds a small prayer book, wrapped in linen. Her chapters deal with her exploration of this book, while she tries to rebuild her life after devastating loss.

I liked both main characters. They were strong women who dealt with the hand they were given.

The book itself was beautifully written and kept me gripped and interested throughout. I wanted to see what would happen in both timelines but I was also intrigued with how they fitted together.

All in all, this is an excelled debut novel and I look forward to reading more by this talented author! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I looooove these types of books and I never get tired of them.

I particularly enjoyed this one as it was very well detailed and easy to read. Some can get confusing to follow, but this one definitely wasn't.

This book could almost have been written by one of my favorite authors of this genre, Suzannah Kearsley. Like many of Kearsley's books, The Secrets of Saffron Hall is split between the present and the distant past. There are mystical links between the narrator in the present and the one in the mid-1500's during the reign of Henry VIII.

Aside from the similarity in style, Marchant's book would have fared a lot better if it had had judicious editing. There are many grammatical errors, like "...pushing a wheelbarrow with Callum knelt inside." Although the planting, growing, harvesting and drying saffron was interesting, there was entirely too much repetition of the process. We got that it was hard work the first two times around.

Having said that, and ignoring the nit-picking, this novel (a first effort) was a page turner and easy to read. Amber, following a tragic stillbirth of her first child, escapes her grief by leaving her husband, a minister, to depart to her grandfather's house, Saffron Hall. (She is ostensibly there not so much to grieve, but to catalogue her grandfather's library) In the tower connected to the house she finds a Book of Hours that is also the diary of Eleanor in 1539 and 40. The book speaks of a child in need of a proper burial and Amber feels a connection to the story of the woman whose book she is reading. (Tudor history buffs will have a blast following the fortunes of Eleanor's husband in King Henry's court.) As she struggles to overcome her own grief, she becomes more and more embroiled in the story of another woman whose child died at birth 500 years ago.

Told in alternating chapters between present and past, the book leads to the conclusions of both stories.

Thanks to NetGalley, Avon and Clare Marchant for the opportunity to read and review an early copy.

Saffron is one of the most precious and expensive of all spices, and Amber has discovered a very old book in her grandfather’s home, Saffron Hall about the dark history of her home and the precious flavoring. Much of the story centers around the court of King Henry the VII and the green thumb of the wife of one of his subjects. Eleanor is able to grow and harvest the crocuses needed for saffron and while at first this ability makes Henry look favorably upon the couple, things take an ugly turn. Stories that connect a past event with the present are everywhere right now and this one is especially good for those interested in the Tudors

Loved this book. It told the story of 2 women separated by over 500 years but both touched by sadness. One in Tudor times and the other in 2019. Both have connections to Saffron Hall. Ancient book of hours is discovered in an old locked tower and the story slowly unfolds of how the house got its name and what ties these women together. Great read. Highly recommend.

This was a lovely book set in the olden days and then the modern day. How two worlds collide. Very interesting sad and funny in places.