The Distant Hours A Slightly Longer Review

My reading journey with the Distant Hours is a bit complicated, and longer than it might have usually been, but worth the wait. I first decided to read this novel after hearing the hype over Kate Morton from some friends. I don't know why I picked this one of her novels to start with, especially when House at Riverton seemed slightly more interesting.

I put myself on the library waiting list for this, and I believe I was tenth in line or so. This was at a time when I was reserving a lot of books at once, so, when I finally got the book in, it was on the bottom of the pile. Unfortunately, I had a lot of other material to read and this book got pushed to the bottom of the pile. The day before it was due I was going to try and power my way through it. Quite the lofty goal considering that the book is 550+ pages long. Needless to say, that didn't happen and the book went back to the library mostly unread.

A few months later, my boyfriend's parents came down for a visit and my boyfriend's mom asked me if I had read it. I mentioned that I started it and had to return it to the library. We went to Value Village that day, just to look around, and my boyfriend's mom saw the book and bought it for me, which was extremely nice of her to do.

Unfortunately for me, the holidays got in the way and the book sat on the shelf for quite a while again. Then I finally decided to pick it up and read it. For me, the book was really slow, until more than halfway through. I would say I started to enjoy it somewhere between 300 and 350 pages in.

At that point I really started to get into the story a lot more. I could see myself wandering through the castle. I was really beginning to see things from the sisters' point of view. At one point I thought I had one of the plot points involving the girls father all figured out, but as it turns out I was very surprised with the actual events.

This is told in great detail, and weaves very well through the historical time shifts and sets of characters. All of the characters are so intertwined with one another, you can't help but feel for them. I probably felt the most for Juniper because she seems to suffer the most, and is the most misunderstood. But, each of the sisters endures her own loss, in addition to the losses they experience as a family unit.

I don't want to  give anything away, but lets just say this novel does not end as you would expect. It left me with chills.

Up next for review: Girl With The Dragon Tattoo