Thursday, April 12, 2018

Book Beginnings: The Cottingley Secret


The Cottingley Secret, by Hazel Gaynor (William Morrow, 2017). First lines of the book's Prologue:
Cottingley, Yorkshire. August 1921.
Fairies will not be rushed. I know this now; know I must be patient.
Hmmm. Okay. And these are the first lines of Chapter One:
Ireland. Present day.
Olivia Kavanagh didn't believe in happy endings. Life hadn't worked out that way for her so far.
These quotes are from an ARC of the book, so please note that they might be slightly different in the published edition.

About the Book:
[The Cottingley Secret] turns the clock back one hundred years to a time when two young girls from Cottingley, Yorkshire, convinced the world that they had done the impossible and photographed fairies in their garden. Now, in her newest novel, international bestseller Hazel Gaynor reimagines their story.

Initial Thoughts:

Well, my main thought on this one is that I'm really embarrassed about it. It was an Early Reviewer book from Library Thing and I've had it for months now. I just forgot I had it, and it got...sidelined. So now I'm trying to finish it up quickly and do my (very late) review.

My second thought is that I'm not generally a fan of books about fairies. But this episode has always interested me, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Gaynor handles the tale.

And here's one of the actual photos taken by the real Elsie Wright in 1917 (via Wikipedia's USA public domain photo files):

Photo by Elsie Wright (1917)



Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Friday.  As she says, the idea is to post the first sentence (or so) of the book you're currently reading, along with any first impressions or thoughts you have about the book, the author, etc.  It's a wonderful way of adding new books to your must-read list, and a chance to connect with other readers and bloggers.

5 comments:

  1. we all know that I DO judge books by their cover and this one is really intriguing. When I get done with my fascination with Savannah this is next on my list

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOVE that cover, which is why I keep eyeing this book. I am not sure about fairies, either, but maybe there will be just enough other things to keep me intrigued. Thanks for sharing...and here's mine: “MRS.: A NOVEL”

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've seen these photos in the past and have always been intrigued by them. Like you, I wouldn't necessarily read a book about fairies, but it seems this story is more about the people who photographed the fairies. That definitely interests me.
    My Friday post features Mrs. Polifax Mysteries.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I read another re-imagined book about the two girls and their fairy secret. I remember being shocked by the truth. Dang! I really wanted to believe in fairies. My Friday Quotes

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, I think I'm going to have to add this to my tbr. :)

    Lauren @ Always Me

    ReplyDelete

Welcome and thanks for leaving me a comment. I love to hear from visitors.

Also, please note that while I appreciate the thought, I don't play the blog awards game. I think you all deserve awards! But you might think about becoming a follower of my blog -- that would really be the best award.