Escape into Another World!

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started reading Distant Hours last night (Friday) and just finished it (Saturday at noon). Like Thirteenth Tale I was loathe to put it down until I was finished. Other than making breakfast I have done nothing but read, and am, in fact, still in my jammies!

I was hooked by the second paragraph:

"It is moonless when the Mud Man comes. The night has slipped on a pair of fine leather gloves, shaken a black sheet across the land: a ruse, a disguise, a sleeping spell, so that all beneath it slumbers sweet."

I loved the descriptive language the author use, like "wrestle my attention forwards", or speaking of the library books "My fingers positively itched to drift at length along their spines, to arrive at one whose lure I could not pass,to pluck it down, to inch it open, then to close my eyes and and inhale the soul-sparking scent of old and literate dust." (I can so relate!)

It's been a while since I've had book take me so far out of the present and totally immersed in the world created in the book. This is the power of a good story and I wish there were more of them out there.

Chapters switch between time frame and character voices. If this is challenging for you, it may not be the book for you. However, I loved how each character had a place in the story and how it was all tied together at the end. To learn more, you'll have to read it yourself.

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