cadiva's review
4.0
3.5*
I liked this one but it was another with oblique references and sort of fade to black sex scenes which I always feel disappointed with.
In addition, there was a melancholy air throughout the book, understandable given the circumstances, but it made it all a little lacking in different sorts of feelings.
I mostly felt irritated with Michael's rose tinted view of his lost love Thomas, especially when it was clear the man had been a bit of an arse!
Harry I loved though, although I also found him a tad too easy going when he got the full story of what had been going on in the pre war years.
I think my favourite characters were the kids and Eric actually
I liked this one but it was another with oblique references and sort of fade to black sex scenes which I always feel disappointed with.
In addition, there was a melancholy air throughout the book, understandable given the circumstances, but it made it all a little lacking in different sorts of feelings.
I mostly felt irritated with Michael's rose tinted view of his lost love Thomas, especially when it was clear the man had been a bit of an arse!
Harry I loved though, although I also found him a tad too easy going when he got the full story of what had been going on in the pre war years.
I think my favourite characters were the kids and Eric actually
ctsquirrel's review against another edition
4.0
The story was quite soap opera-y: dubious parentage, affairs, and other Great Revelations. As it's been awhile since I've read something of this type I enjoyed it. I liked all of the characters, especially Michael's brother-in-law Eric who is just a good guy.
This Porthkennack novel was a bit lower on the scenery than the previous novels, a lot of beach wandering and Cornish slang but that's about it. I wanted some caves or smugglers or something.
This Porthkennack novel was a bit lower on the scenery than the previous novels, a lot of beach wandering and Cornish slang but that's about it. I wanted some caves or smugglers or something.
kaa's review against another edition
3.0
This series has been hit or miss (mostly miss) for me, and this book didn't really break the mold. The atmosphere of it was really lovely, especially at the beginning, and I really liked some of the themes about war and trauma. However, I didn't enjoy the angst and drama that appeared in the middle, and I really didn't appreciate the duplicitous bisexual trope.
mrnnprsns's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
suze_1624's review against another edition
4.0
A well crafted tale of the immediate post war years, when class and position and proper behaviour were all still in place but changes had been wrought by the war.
Seen through the innocent eyes of the children, Michael’s great friendship with childhood pal Thomas is gradually stripped away to reveal the less idealised truth.
Eric is a trooper. Richard and George, children of the time. Caroline, well only she knows exactly how it all happened but is still accepting of Michael and Harry.
Harry and Michael navigate the interwoven family issues and do come out the other side with what we can only hope is a long term future.
I liked the shell reference - I had thought it would be artillery shells but whilst the war is a constant backdrop it is not the main story line.
Seen through the innocent eyes of the children, Michael’s great friendship with childhood pal Thomas is gradually stripped away to reveal the less idealised truth.
Eric is a trooper. Richard and George, children of the time. Caroline, well only she knows exactly how it all happened but is still accepting of Michael and Harry.
Harry and Michael navigate the interwoven family issues and do come out the other side with what we can only hope is a long term future.
I liked the shell reference - I had thought it would be artillery shells but whilst the war is a constant backdrop it is not the main story line.
alisonalisonalison's review against another edition
4.0
This is lovely. It's well written and engaging and full of twists and turns. Cochrane is so good at conveying a time period and the tone of the writing and the whole atmosphere just seem very post-World War One. This is not really a romance, so if you're expecting grand declarations of love and lots of sex and a sappy HEA, you will be disappointed. It's more of an intimate family drama with a low-key romance as a secondary plot. Mostly the story is about Michael getting his bearings again and making a life for himself after coming home from World War One when most of his friends and former lovers didn't. He goes for a holiday in Cornwall with his family to the place they always used to go before the war and it stirs up all sort of feelings. Much of the plot has to do with family secrets and betrayals and there is a touch of the sensational melodrama here and there. I love how the setting--the landscape and the two houses--is almost its own character. Time seems to exist here almost independently of "real life" and we actually don't know that much about the daily lives of the characters outside of this Cornwall holiday and I quite liked that. Going on holiday is often like that--that sense of leaving the real world behind and existing in a bubble in a different way for a short time. I enjoyed this very much. I thought it was a very well done story.
veethorn's review against another edition
2.0
Hm. This book ultimately only gets two stars because of the evil bisexual trope. And that hooking up with your dead lover’s brother is a little weird. Other than that, it was fine, and really well-written.
the_novel_approach's review against another edition
4.0
Going into a Charlie Cochrane historical novel expecting flash and bang is like going into a Merchant Ivory film expecting Quentin Tarantino. Cochrane’s voice lends itself so beautifully to a story such as Count the Shells, as she consistently captures and conveys the time in which her novels are set through little more than the genteel language and gentrified air of her characters. To look at this novel through a contemporary lens is to deprive oneself of slipping fully into a time gone by, and the bucolic setting and its seaside locale, post-World War I, only adds to the story’s ambiance and contrasts the secrets that are exposed upon Michael Gray’s return to Porthkennack, secrets which threaten to turn a family inside out.
The book’s title is such a poignant complement to the hidden meaning behind Michael’s shell counting with his young nephew, Richard, and reflects the losses he has experienced even before the war began. For someone such as Michael, someone who prefers men, the practicality of caution tempers every frisson of attraction; although, when this novel begins, Michael’s heart is not his own—it belongs to grief and regret over the last words he spoke to his first love in a heated moment of youthful pride and anger. Michael may have lost the opportunity to make amends with Thomas, who didn’t return from battle, but as this is a story of second chances, Michael does get an opportunity to find love again, with the last person he might have expected.
Harry Carter-Clemence is Thomas’s younger brother, and remembered by Michael as the nuisance he and Thomas had often escaped from to find their stolen moments of heated passion. Harry has grown up, however, having fought in the war himself, and Michael can’t help but notice it, even as some shock registers along with the appreciation for Harry’s resemblance to his brother. Their connecting in the present is made all the more difficult with ghosts of the past hovering on the periphery and ultimately intruding on their time together, and the sense of Harry’s hopefulness adds a sweet overtone to the drama that lies ahead. When pillow talk reveals a rather messy family secret, a betrayal from which Michael might not rebound derails a relationship that had just barely been kindled.
Not given to hyperbolic dialogue or extremes in behavior, there is even a sense of propriety in Matthew’s anger when the trail of lies and secrecy begins to unfold before him, which might just be a reflection of that stiff upper lip we hear so much about, and there were times I wondered at the placement of or, perhaps, the misplacement of his ire, but if anything, it made him all the more human for it. Michael is dealt quite a blow, and nothing is simple anymore, although the one person who is most affected by what’s happened, Michael’s brother-in-law, Eric, is a means for the author to craft him into a standout character among this cast. Eric exemplifies wisdom and an admirable capacity for forgiveness when Michael needed it most, and I adored the man for his kindhearted and pragmatic nature.
Charlie Cochrane handles any question of Michael’s feelings for Harry stemming from his former relationship with Thomas with a careful eye towards obliterating any question in readers’ minds that Harry is riding on his late brother’s coattails, and I was happy when they overcame their external obstacles to begin something of their own making.
Count the Shells is the third book I’ve read in the Porthkennack universe, the second of Charlie Cochrane’s contributions to the series I’ve read, and I haven’t been disappointed yet. This is a quiet story, idyllic in setting and heartfelt in emotional tone, and another lovely historical offering from this author.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach
The book’s title is such a poignant complement to the hidden meaning behind Michael’s shell counting with his young nephew, Richard, and reflects the losses he has experienced even before the war began. For someone such as Michael, someone who prefers men, the practicality of caution tempers every frisson of attraction; although, when this novel begins, Michael’s heart is not his own—it belongs to grief and regret over the last words he spoke to his first love in a heated moment of youthful pride and anger. Michael may have lost the opportunity to make amends with Thomas, who didn’t return from battle, but as this is a story of second chances, Michael does get an opportunity to find love again, with the last person he might have expected.
Harry Carter-Clemence is Thomas’s younger brother, and remembered by Michael as the nuisance he and Thomas had often escaped from to find their stolen moments of heated passion. Harry has grown up, however, having fought in the war himself, and Michael can’t help but notice it, even as some shock registers along with the appreciation for Harry’s resemblance to his brother. Their connecting in the present is made all the more difficult with ghosts of the past hovering on the periphery and ultimately intruding on their time together, and the sense of Harry’s hopefulness adds a sweet overtone to the drama that lies ahead. When pillow talk reveals a rather messy family secret, a betrayal from which Michael might not rebound derails a relationship that had just barely been kindled.
Not given to hyperbolic dialogue or extremes in behavior, there is even a sense of propriety in Matthew’s anger when the trail of lies and secrecy begins to unfold before him, which might just be a reflection of that stiff upper lip we hear so much about, and there were times I wondered at the placement of or, perhaps, the misplacement of his ire, but if anything, it made him all the more human for it. Michael is dealt quite a blow, and nothing is simple anymore, although the one person who is most affected by what’s happened, Michael’s brother-in-law, Eric, is a means for the author to craft him into a standout character among this cast. Eric exemplifies wisdom and an admirable capacity for forgiveness when Michael needed it most, and I adored the man for his kindhearted and pragmatic nature.
Charlie Cochrane handles any question of Michael’s feelings for Harry stemming from his former relationship with Thomas with a careful eye towards obliterating any question in readers’ minds that Harry is riding on his late brother’s coattails, and I was happy when they overcame their external obstacles to begin something of their own making.
Count the Shells is the third book I’ve read in the Porthkennack universe, the second of Charlie Cochrane’s contributions to the series I’ve read, and I haven’t been disappointed yet. This is a quiet story, idyllic in setting and heartfelt in emotional tone, and another lovely historical offering from this author.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach