I am a huge fan of Jane Corry, but this isn't my favourite of hers. It feels completely different to her other books, and I think it may be personal preference. I didn't enjoy the war time narrative, but the present timeline was really engaging. And 15 years ago was also really good.
Overall I enjoyed the book, just was expecting something different from Jane Corry.

This book is a heartfelt tale of friendship and forgiveness that completely pulled me in. It follows Belinda Wall, a buttoned-up housewife whose dull life is shattered when her husband’s double life is exposed, leading to his murder—and her imprisonment. Fast-forward to the present, and Belinda, now a carer at Sunnyside Home for the Young at Heart, crosses paths with Mabel Marchmount, a fiery resident with her own wartime secrets.

Through shared stories—Belinda’s prison memories and Mabel’s heartbreaking past during the Blitz—their unlikely friendship grows. Along the way, we learn about Mabel’s strict Aunt Clarissa, who hides her own secrets, and how the two women help each other heal and forgive.

The book has multiple timelines (WW2, 15 years ago, and the present), but they’re woven together in an intriguing way. While some parts felt a bit far-fetched, I was completely hooked on both Belinda’s and Mabel’s stories. Their connection felt dramatic at times, but their individual journeys were so compelling it hardly mattered.

The characters were beautifully written—Mabel is a feisty delight, Clarissa is intimidating but fascinating, and Belinda is strong and complex. This book had me turning pages late into the night! If you love stories about resilience and connection, give this one a try.

The book starts with Belinda going to prison for accidently kidding her husband. Once she is out, she gets a job taking care of older lady Mabel in a care home. Belinda is there to discover something Mabel is hiding. They start sharing stories about their pasts in hopes Belinda can find out what she needs to. I just did not find this book interesting at all. Tried to skim parts but nothing grabbed my attention.

Jane Corry never fails to write a gripping psychological read and The Stranger in Room Six definitely hit the mark. A really great page turner. Everyone has their secrets and the stranger in room six appears to be pulling the strings.
Sunnyside Home for the Young At Heart now a care home but has been several different businesses throughout the years.
This book is again a great piece of fiction and has everything, murder, romance, friendship and so much more.
I cannot recommend Jane Corry enough, her characters are always believable and captivating.

I have read a few of this authors books but I have to say this is not one of her better ones. The characters were bland and I didn’t really feel them and the storyline was a little rough round the edges and didn’t flow as well as I would have liked. An ok read though.

Mabel, a lady in her late nineties, residing in a retirement home that she is the owner of, and Belinda, a newly appointed carer in said home, strike up an unusual friendship. Both women have their secrets and mysterious past, but bit by bit they unfold their stories to each other, with the promises that neither will tell the other’s history.

Told over three timelines, during WW2, fifteen years before present day, and present day, the plot revels how both women came to be as they are now.

I have read this author previously and found her books to be somewhat of a mixed bag. However, the premise of this storyline was interesting and well worth a shot, or so I thought. Too many inconsistencies (e.g. is Mabel 15 years old or not? Being told to go and play and treated like a 10 year old seems an unlikely comment even in the 1940’s), and there are some unfortunate history errors when all information is well documented.

Choppy, rough chapters, with one dimensional characters and poor execution of plot left me cold.

With apologies to the author, but not one of her best.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin General UK.

I enjoyed this interesting historical drama as it's full of surprises. I found the author's note at the end particularly poignant and added to my enjoyment of the story.

Belinda has been married to boring Gerald for twenty-five years and has two grown daughters, but is still languishing after her university sweetheart, Imran. An anonymous phone call precipitates a turn of events which results in Belinda being charged with a serious crime. I found all of this a bit unlikely and not particularly engaging, but things picked up for me when we started following another plot strand about Mabel's story during the war, which was much more interesting.

It was pretty obvious early on what mean Aunt Clarissa and the Colonel were up to, but interesting to read about.

In a further, present-day thread, we see now-elderly Mabel living in a care home with the ridiculous name of Sunnyside Home for the Young at Heart. (It's desperate for staff, which is realistic, though I'm not therefore sure how a certain carer has quite so much time to spend with one particular resident.) Something's clearly going on there, with Mabel as its target, but it takes time to find out what. (There's one of those "mysterious sections in italics from unknown POV" narrative devices.)

Some things don't ring true. Belinda is told by the police that she, or someone, will have to pay a six-figure sum for her to be allowed bail. While we're all familiar with this concept from US crime dramas, it doesn't generally happen in the UK - bail conditions aren't normally financial. Anyway, this does mean that we get to see Belinda experiencing prison life.

I enjoyed it, especially Mabel's story, but there's something rather prosaic about the writing style, with short, blunt sentences, which doesn't quite engage me. I'm not saying I want it to be overly flowery, but there must be a balance to be found somewhere.

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review!