Firstly, despite some misgivings, which I will elaborate on later, I have to say overall this was an okay read.
Present day Theo, newly divorced from her unfaithful husband buys a rundown cottage on the banks of the river Tamar. I found the fact that she bought this having sunk everything she could scrape together, without viewing the property, the first of a series of unlikely situations.
Theo then discovers a pile of unopened letters in the bottom of a cupboard, from a thwarted young man from over 100 years ago which she rightly assumes as being a previous inhabitant.
Theo develops a few friendships with the locals one of whom sees a resemblance in Theo to a long gone relative. the pair begin to read the letters and the story then moves back through time to tell the love story of Alice.
The descriptive style of writing was enjoyable and touched on the sufragette cause and homosexuality.
There were just too many unlikely and implausible connections between characters spanning time to make it believable. I also found Alice a shallow and somewhat annoying young lady.

An absolutely brilliant read I just could not put it down.
Beautifully evocative of the Cornish Devon border in the Tamar valley.
A multi generation saga which encompasses both World Wars and present day. The twists and turns of the saga involve several love stories and unrequited love.
If you only read one book this summer this is the one.
Can’t recommend it enough

Wow this was a story and a half. It covered forbidden love, suffragettes and family secrets. I have no idea how you retell the story. It was set in a lovely part of the UK. . I wanted to live in the cottage.So many great characters. You felt for Edmund and Alice . I am glad they both found happiness in the end. Theo was strong even with her horide x husband and mother . You have to read it

This story is initially about Theo, who following her divorce has bought Boatsman’s, a ramshackle cottage on the banks of the river Tamar which divides Devon and Cornwall. Theo plans to renovate the cottage and restore it’s overgrown gardens.
Whilst renovating the cottage, Theo discovers a stash of hidden letters, sent from the battlefields during World War 1 and the story becomes about the love affair between Lady Alice, staying at the manor house and Zach, who is the gillie living at Boatman’s cottage.
I loved reading this book, especially the descriptions of the setting, characters and details of the renovation, together with the tragic love story. The only thing that stopped me rating this book as a five star was that I found there were too many coincidences to be believable.

Theo has just gone through a fairly acrimonious divorce and is feeling worthless, just as her mother has always told her she is. Almost on a whim she buys a rundown cottage on the River Tamar, which turns out to be more rundown than she realised. But she feels a pull from it that she can’t explain. This part of the story is set in 2019. The second part is pre WWI, where 18year old Alice, doing the season, is due to be presented to the King, but she wants to make a stand for womens rights. She doesn’t want a husband, and after this no one will want her. This story weaves the lives of the main characters together really well,, and synchronicity plays its part too. I love the way that the sometimes implausible seeming plot twists do actually work. The sense of the period before and during WWI is beautifully written and you feel for the young Alice. The letters that Theo finds are really well written, and you can hear Zachs’ voice in them. Sometimes the periods on Alice’s banishment seemed to go on a bit too long, but it’s still an atmospheric and poignant read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the best kind of saga. The river, gardens and countryside of Devon and Cornwall brought alive in the imagination; engaging characters, a mystery and a love story all intertwined in a satisfying way. There are two stories; one set in the present day and a love story preceding and during WW1. This is full of authenticity and touches on controversial subjects as in pre marriage pregnancy, divisions of class, emancipation and homosexuality all done with a very deft pen. It’s a book that is a delight to read and absorb. A beautiful summer read.
Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and enjoy this book in return for an honest review.

Theo is in her mid-50s, divorced from a highly successful man she is nevertheless fairly destitute (because she couldn't be bothered to fight for half of what she helped him to build) and has bought a small derelict Boatman's cottage on the banks of the river Tamar, which divides Cornwall and Devon, sight unseen. As she restores the cottage and gardens she discovers a pile of unopened love letters dating from World War 1 from a male servant who was spurned by his lover.

Gradually Theo pieces together the story of forbidden love and secrets of one hundred years earlier, centred on the cottage and the nearby manor house, Abbotswood.

I enjoyed reading this very much, but now I have finished the novel I am struck by the ridiculous number of similarities that link three separate generations and the amazing coincidences necessary to bring it all together it has just kind of fallen apart in my hands. Also the inter-relationships are so convoluted that I am left with the sneaking suspicion that someone might be their own father (well you know what I mean).

Strangely this is the second book in a few weeks which reminds me of those family sagas we used to read in the 1980s, where generation after generation made the same mistakes in love. Maybe its just that this book is set mostly in the present day and in the 1910s but also partially in World War II and the 1980s.

Overall, an enjoyable read, provided you can suspend disbelief.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The idea behind this book was a good one, and I enjoyed the unravelling of all the secrets. However, I felt the book was too long, and a bit dull in parts. The characters were rather cliched, and their dialogue was often unconvincing. This would probably make a good holiday book.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

This is a story of two tales that merge as you continue to read.

At the beginning, Theo has moved in a cottage, one that requires a lot of work on the border of Cornwall/Devon.

The second part is where you read about Alice and Zach, and their love story from before and after the war.

I loved reading about Theo and found myself really interested in it, but towards the end I found that Alice and Zach’s is also beautiful.

Felt that the Alice in Wonderland quotes throughout the book, were fitting.

Recommend It

I thoroughly enjoyed escaping into this book. Liz Fenwick writes prose with such a deft touch that it pulls you right into the heart of the story, effortlessly capturing your attention. This story is split into two timelines – the contemporary thread tells the tale of Theo who, after her divorce, has just purchased Boatman's Cottage on one side of the River Tamar and discovers a cache of letters. These letters tell the tale of Alice, a rebellious debutante in 1918 whose secret, passion-filled affair with junior gillie for the estate, Zach, is the basis of the historical thread in the book. The stories interweave and so do the themes of loss and love, secrets, revelations, duty and disobedience. The family expectations towards both Alice and Theo show how these women are forced into decisions, behaviours and indeed marriages that don't necessarily reflect their own desires despite the differences in the time periods. The river was a constant in both threads, ever flowing forward as these stories unfolded either side of it, and the folklore about the origin of the Rivers Tamar, Tavy and Torridge bought a particular smile to my face. A fabulous read and highly recommended.

Lovely cover and lovely story within. Newly divorced Theo buys a ramshackle cottage on the banks of the River Tamar in Cornwall. There, she finds letters revealing a mystery and this soon becomes her focus as she tries to unravel the story and the ramifications of what she has just found. Whilst her cottage is on the Cornish side, the hotel and estate it belongs to sits on the Devon side and I found this a lovely analogy of the book's themes of separation, love, a river as well as time flowing away from us,

The historical thread of the novel takes us back to 1914 and the writers of those letters. Alice was a rebel before her time and went against social convention. She is banished to the country when she does something deemed wrong and then meets the man who will change her life....

So many threads to this novel to enjoy and it was a treat to see them all woven together..

Just lovely.

A twisting of two tales that intertwine so carefully as the book progresses.
Theo, newly moved in a cottage that's falling apart takes centre stage at the start settles into life at the Cornwall/Devon border.
Alice and Zach take the second stage as their love story before and during the war story untangles and unfolds throughout the narrative.
At first I loved Theo's story and was more interested in hers, by the end the complete reverse.
Alice and Zach's story is heartbreakingly beautiful as so much in society is against them.
Loved the Alice in Wonderland quotes throughout the book, definitely added to it.
Liz has done it again with this escapism Cornish (and Devon) read.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I liked this book but did not love it if you understand, the storyline was good and the characters were okay but it just did not wow me.

. I am a huge fan of Liz Fenwicks books and certainly wasn’t disappointed with this one. The River Between Us is about Theo who has brought a cottage that needs a lot of work doing to it and it’s situated on the banks of the River Tamar dividing Devon and Cornwall. Theo discovers some letters within the cottage and it’s about what secrets these letters reveal and so much more. I loved this book from start to finish. Theo is the beginning of this emotive story, this book is full of wonderful strong characters, characters with there own secrets and there own struggles, living in a time completely different from now and even to when the story is set with Theo in 2019. It’s so much more than a simply love story and I felt at its heart it’s about strength,determination and foremost bravery. You have characters that are fighting for woman’s right to vote, against adversary from her peers and with putting her future at risk. It tackles pregnancy in a time when it wasn’t acceptable to be pregnant when you weren’t married. In parts it’s set during the First World War and the struggles that both men and woman faced and being homosexual in a time when it sadly wasn’t acceptable. This book makes you think, it’s makes you feel, at times it will make you cry, it gives you that warm feeling of a truly good book. You get behind every character, you feel their sadness, their struggles and yes at times there happiness. This story is a love story, it’s a mystery because it keeps you guessing the whole way through and there are many surprise and plot twists. I couldn’t put this down and at times found myself picking it up in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and at the same time I didn’t want it to end and I now have a book hangover. I would recommend this book easily to friends and family.

For some years the pinned Tweet on Liz Fenwick’s profile has been about kindness, and it struck me that in many ways The River Between Us is too. The First World War heroine, Alice, must learn to be kind to others, and her modern counterpart Theo needs to be kind to herself.

Their stories are more than linked – they are woven together – by place and by so much more. But as always with Liz Fenwick’s books, it isn’t so much the resolution of the mystery that is important, it is the journey itself. And this is an especially rich and sensual one.

Newly divorced Theo buys a ramshackle cottage on the Cornish banks of the River Tamar, once part of the estate belonging to the manor house, now hotel, on the Devon side. The seeds of mystery are planted quickly, as Theo discovers a box of letters dating from the First World War, and when her grandmother dies it comes to light that she had secrets of her own.

In the historical narrative, which begins in 1914, Alice is a rebellious debutante, determined to speak out for force-fed suffragettes to the king and queen during her season. When she does so she is banished to Abbotswood in Devon, where she is attracted to the ghillie, Zachariah Carne.

The coincidences may fall a little too thick and fast for some, but this takes none of the enjoyment from the story. Liz Fenwick’s prose takes the reader from seeing Abbotswood as a prison for a young girl, to casting it in a dream-like quality, full of beauty and wonder, as Theo falls in love. In this book the tiniest of details matter – the tying of flies, the shells in the shell house, the flowers and their meanings. And that is brilliance of it.

But The River Between Us is more than an exhibition of faultless prose; the characters leap from the page and sink into your heart. Both contemporary and historical plots are complex and resonate with each other, and by the end of the story all the strands are as neatly woven together as DNA.

After the breakdown of her marriage, Theo buys the old Boatman’s Cottage on the banks of the River Tamar. As she slowly renovates the cottage, she finds old letters from the first world war hidden within the walls and she sets out to investigate who they were from and how they got there. What she discovers is a sequence of events from the past which will ultimately have an affect on her future.

An excellent book with a compelling storyline. A great read from start to finish.

The cover of this book is stunning, it made me think of the Summer when the sun is setting and the quietness of the river. Liz the author is good at describing things so that you feel as though you are there, Theo goes to live at Boatmans cottage when her marriage fails and it is not as idyllic as she first thought, the place needs a good clean and decorating. But this is the place that in time is just what she needs and time to heal. She soon finds some treasures, a bunch of hand written letters that haven't been touch for a very long time, she sets out on a mission with the help of a few of the villagers to discover who the people were that had written the letters, she uncovers some things that she never would of imagined. I liked how the book progresses, you feel as though you are on the journey with Theo, I couldn't wait to find out what the letters entailed. Also hearing about what Theo does to the cottage inspired me and I enjoyed reading about that part of it too. I can't wait to read Liz's next book.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

There can be no greater tribute to a writer than to say that her characters are so real you want to argue, challenge, debate their actions with them. The author certainly managed that with her main characters. Alice was so real that O could not understand why she didn’t respond to my comments and arguments. Her behaviour was imperfect and her actions unfair at times but they were always authentic. Very, very real!

I found Theo’s story equally involving although many of the events and actions annoyed me. However it is again a tribute to the skilled writing of Liz Fenwick. that this character became real.

I thought there were too many characters and found it difficult to keep track of them. However Alice and Theo were brilliantly observed and nuanced characters.

I thought the plot somewhat convoluted, repetitive and heavily reliant on coincidences. There were also so many tropes in here, secret brothers, class divide, marriage of convenience, hidden homosexuality, swapped identities, illegitimate children, hidden treasure, revolting unfaithful husband etc etc.

I found it difficult to believe Theo would allow her husband to keep everything despite his infidelity and simply walk away from her home of so many years.

I could not stop reading this - it is very well written but I think it over long, over complex and repetitive. Still 4 stars though.