It is four years since Martha Ryan’s world crashed around her. Fleeing to England tostudy teaching, she left everything behind. Her beloved seaside town of River’s End, herbig sister, Dorothy, and the one man she loves beyond reason.After the untimely death of her father, she finds a new home in Ireland. There, shebuys a cottage, embarking on a career as a teacher in the small town, and … the small town, and travelling during
every long school holiday. She finds friendships, relationships, and adventures.
But dreams haunt her. Deep down, she longs for her home town in Australia, and to see
Dorothy. Will a life well lived be enough, or is one letter the turning point to risk everything
she’s come to love?
‘Martha’ is a short companion story covering fifty years in about sixty pages. Read first, or alongside any of the books in the series. It fills in the missing years of Martha Ryan.
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Firstly can I say how much I love this cover, then I will say how much I loved this short story, MS Nefri Clark has bought us a novella to explain what happened to Martha when she left River’s End and then returned to the love of her life.
Martha is one of my favourite characters in this series and learning about her emotions and what she went through when she left River’s End showed so much more of her character and strength, the joy of teaching, her little cottage by the sea in Ireland and the friendships she made as well as the wonderful places she traveled to, it also showed the heartbreak that family can cause, the rift between her and her sister Dorothy, not being close to her mother and the death of her father, and of course the love for Thomas the man she would always love.
This is a quick read that left me feeling very good, I have loved this series from book one and this novella is a wonderful extra that is sure to answer a few questions for those who love River’s End and the characters that we have gotten to know and love. Thank you Phillipa Nefri Clark for telling us a little more about Martha, this is a must read for all who have read the series and I strongly recommend this series.
I have loved each book in this fabulous series, and do hope there will be more in the future.
Martha was away from Rivers End for almost fifty years after the break up of her relationship with Thomas, the only man she has ever loved.
This story covers her time away, her career, her new home, the places she visited and the people she met.
The author has cleverly answered questions, and filled in the missing gaps in this well written book.
Martha is an excellent short novel giving us back-story to Phillipa Nefri Clark’s novel, The Stationmaster’s Cottage. We follow Martha from 1972 in River’s End, Australia, when she flees all she knows and loves following her breakup with her forever love Thomas.
Martha chooses to attend schooling in Ireland, where her mother and father now reside among paternal family. We have an occasional flashback to Australia, giving us insight into the relationship between Martha and Thomas, and a steady march through the mostly uneventful life of Martha. After college, she buys a small house near the school where she will begin teaching and settles herself into a simple, single life. Her summers are spent traveling around the world, often with a married couple she met in Egypt, and she doesn’t really date, nor consider that her life is not complete as it is. And thus it goes. She loses her father, a grievous blow, and eventually her mother re-marries. Her sister Dorothy is married with children and seem content to remain in Australia. Martha doesn’t want the memories a trip home would bring, and eventually, the sister’s lost touch except for exchanging birthday and holiday cards. Their mother still owns the maternal family home in Australia, the Palmerston House, but she and her new husband continue to rent it out and reside in Ireland and England.
And then, in 2009, there is a letter from her sister Dorothy. Dorothy would like to clear up Martha’s perception of the events of 1968. She needs for Martha to return to River’s End so they can speak one more time of the engagement party for Martha and Thomas when Martha’s world fell apart. Dorothy has heart problems, and cannot travel. But can Martha make herself return to the place where her dreams turned to dust?
I received a free electronic copy of this prequel to The Stationmaster’s Cottage, River’s End Book I, from Phillipa Nefri Clark. I have read this story of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.