Kate Lace
Auteur van The Chalet Girl
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Werken van Kate Lace
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Officiële naam
- Lace Jones, Catherine
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Jones, Annie (pseudonym in collaboration)
Jones, Catherine
Lace, Kate
Field, Fiona (pseudonym) - Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- UK
- Geboorteplaats
- 1956
- Beroepen
- romance novelist
- Organisaties
- Romantic Novelists' Association
- Korte biografie
- Catherine Lace studied in different all girls schools from there until she left at eighteen. She joined the army, where she served eight years rose to the rank of Staff Captain. In the army, she met and married her husband. When she fell pregnant, the rules of the time meant that she had to leave. With three kids under four and a half, she was invited to help out with a magazine for army wives and she decide to want write.
Co-authored with a fellow army wife, she wrote a non-fiction book "Gumboots and Pearls" as Annie Jones. After it, she decided wrote romance novels.She wrote six Army romance novels as Catherine Jones, she said: "I loved being in the army. I love writing about it. I was in the army for eight years and I had a great time. I hope this is reflected in my books and I hope all my readers enjoy reading them." Her novel "Praise for Sisters in Arms", shortlisted for the 1999 Romantic Novelists' Association's Award. Now she decided change the type of romance novels and started to used the pseudonym of Kate Lace. Her novel "The Chalet Girl" was nominee to Romantic Novel of the Year Award Best.
She was elected the twenty-fourteenth Chairman (2007-2009) of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and she was also the captain of the RNA "University Challenge - The Professionals" team which made it to the final of the 2005 series.
Her husband has left the army and their kids have grown up.
Leden
Besprekingen
This book takes place in modern times when Cecily thanks to a new friend starts to wonder who a girl in a photo is. All things will come together in the end but the question was how. And that had me wondering.
In 1928 Ida and Freda are 16 and thinking about their futures. Or more like it trying not to think too much about it as parents nag. Ida loves to swim and wants to be free, but being like this she still seems to be the one who has the most to lose. While Freda is a bit more guarded, but at the same time she does not care at all what others think and is free with her emotions and feelings. Feelings towards her friend too. They are quite opposites in a way but they are both outsiders and friendship blossom. We follow them through trying times.
From the start I know that Cecily knew Freda, but she never knew Ida. So this old lady is trying to put the pieces back together. All while I am wondering about 1937 and the baby, but we get to that again and slowly the story unfolds. What really happened. And it's both sad and heartbreaking.
The title comes from the wonder girl that Ida was and that Freda too was. And they were go-getters in their own ways. But the book also shows that even if you have everything then something might still be missing. It's also a beautiful tale about friendship, first Freda and Ida, and then how a young woman named Sarah befriends Cecily and starts asking questions. Friendship through the ages is what the book is about, and how people can change. And of course it's also about those early women who broke boundaries and went where only men had gone before.
Conclusion:
A good story about now and then, and quite the mystery too as the story comes to us as the years go by.
… (meer)
In 1928 Ida and Freda are 16 and thinking about their futures. Or more like it trying not to think too much about it as parents nag. Ida loves to swim and wants to be free, but being like this she still seems to be the one who has the most to lose. While Freda is a bit more guarded, but at the same time she does not care at all what others think and is free with her emotions and feelings. Feelings towards her friend too. They are quite opposites in a way but they are both outsiders and friendship blossom. We follow them through trying times.
From the start I know that Cecily knew Freda, but she never knew Ida. So this old lady is trying to put the pieces back together. All while I am wondering about 1937 and the baby, but we get to that again and slowly the story unfolds. What really happened. And it's both sad and heartbreaking.
The title comes from the wonder girl that Ida was and that Freda too was. And they were go-getters in their own ways. But the book also shows that even if you have everything then something might still be missing. It's also a beautiful tale about friendship, first Freda and Ida, and then how a young woman named Sarah befriends Cecily and starts asking questions. Friendship through the ages is what the book is about, and how people can change. And of course it's also about those early women who broke boundaries and went where only men had gone before.
Conclusion:
A good story about now and then, and quite the mystery too as the story comes to us as the years go by.
… (meer)
The main character of The Chalet Girl, 19-year-old Millie Braythorpe, is a chalet hostess at an Alpine ski resort. Her job basically requires her to cook and clean and handle basic needs of guests at her assigned chalet. It’s a pretty good gig for Millie, and much-needed since her father, a bishop notorious for his strict and severe outlook, kicked her out of the house for getting pregnant. Millie’s best friend, the wealthy Freya, supported her through her abortion and has helped her get on her feet. But she’s now determined to pay back Freya and eke out a living on her own.
Of course, this being a romance, there has to be a man involved, and in this case it’s a devastatingly handsome gossip columnist named Luke, a guest at the chalet during the last week of the season. He and Millie are immediately taken with each other, although, in true romance fashion, it takes them a while to figure it out. They woo each other over music, snowboarding, and hot cocoa and all seems to be going well until, of course, there’s a misunderstanding that pushes the two apart.
Overall, I found this to be a pleasant, but flawed book. I thought Millie, particularly in the first half of the book, was a little too perfect. Most of her flaws are “faux flaws,” such as an inability to believe in herself and a stubbornly independent streak, the kinds of flaws that make her more, not less, unbelievably perfect. It’s not until later in the book that Millie’s insecurity—which has a legitimate cause—starts to manifest itself in a more serious tendency to overreact and mistrust everyone who tries to help her. It’s at these moments that Millie seemed like a real person, and more of that raw honesty early on would have been helpful.
The love story itself is nice enough. It’s incredibly predictable, not just in the sense that I knew from the get-go that these two would get together (it’s that kind of a book) but because I could see most of the complications and resolutions to those complications coming before they arrived. But the characters are likable and seem suited for each other, so I was happy to join them on the journey. What I particularly liked about the romance is that it’s not really the most important part of the book. Yes, it’s central to the plot, but by the end of the book, it’s clear that Millie’s relationship with her mother is the real love story here. Luke is just a bonus. Millie would have gotten along fine without him. I love that.
Mostly, this book gave me the kinds of things I like in a romance. It’s not perfect by any means. It’s not especially deep—religious faith in particular is treated superficially—but it does have some emotional resonance. The characters are generally likable, although a few of the less likable characters are depicted as nothing more than caricatures. There’s a tendency to overexplain some characters’ feelings and motivations. But I still liked it for the pleasant diversion that it was: a nice book about nice people finding love.
See more at Shelf Love.… (meer)
Of course, this being a romance, there has to be a man involved, and in this case it’s a devastatingly handsome gossip columnist named Luke, a guest at the chalet during the last week of the season. He and Millie are immediately taken with each other, although, in true romance fashion, it takes them a while to figure it out. They woo each other over music, snowboarding, and hot cocoa and all seems to be going well until, of course, there’s a misunderstanding that pushes the two apart.
Overall, I found this to be a pleasant, but flawed book. I thought Millie, particularly in the first half of the book, was a little too perfect. Most of her flaws are “faux flaws,” such as an inability to believe in herself and a stubbornly independent streak, the kinds of flaws that make her more, not less, unbelievably perfect. It’s not until later in the book that Millie’s insecurity—which has a legitimate cause—starts to manifest itself in a more serious tendency to overreact and mistrust everyone who tries to help her. It’s at these moments that Millie seemed like a real person, and more of that raw honesty early on would have been helpful.
The love story itself is nice enough. It’s incredibly predictable, not just in the sense that I knew from the get-go that these two would get together (it’s that kind of a book) but because I could see most of the complications and resolutions to those complications coming before they arrived. But the characters are likable and seem suited for each other, so I was happy to join them on the journey. What I particularly liked about the romance is that it’s not really the most important part of the book. Yes, it’s central to the plot, but by the end of the book, it’s clear that Millie’s relationship with her mother is the real love story here. Luke is just a bonus. Millie would have gotten along fine without him. I love that.
Mostly, this book gave me the kinds of things I like in a romance. It’s not perfect by any means. It’s not especially deep—religious faith in particular is treated superficially—but it does have some emotional resonance. The characters are generally likable, although a few of the less likable characters are depicted as nothing more than caricatures. There’s a tendency to overexplain some characters’ feelings and motivations. But I still liked it for the pleasant diversion that it was: a nice book about nice people finding love.
See more at Shelf Love.… (meer)
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Statistieken
- Werken
- 20
- Leden
- 161
- Populariteit
- #131,051
- Waardering
- 3.2
- Besprekingen
- 3
- ISBNs
- 63
- Favoriet
- 1
It is 1937, and this novel opens with an episode during which we meet fourteen-year-old Cecily Stirling cleaning up in a maternity hospital in London, when she is asked by Sister to take a baby out of the hospital. We then meet Cecily again, in 2009, right at the other end of her life, as she makes a new friend, Sarah, and slowly makes new discoveries about the past. Then we are taken back in time to 1928, when change is in the air, and it is there that we begin to learn the story of Ida Gaze and her best friend and constant companion Freda Voyle.
Fifteen-year-old Ida is a strong swimmer, whom we meet waiting by the pool at the start of the 1928 Annual Gala in the small Welsh seaside town that is her home. The setting is beautifully and lovingly evoked so that the reader can picture the scene in their mind: 'the lido was a spectacle in itself. With its curved white walls and blue ralings, it was as handsome as a grand ocean liner docked for good on the headland...it was the largest, bluest pool in Wales with the sky stretching forever as its ceiling. It took your breath away, it really did.'
With Freda's great encouragement and support, and inspired by Amelia Earhart's recent feat crossing the Atlantic in the air and landing in the sea off Wales, Ida declares she is going to be the first person to swim the Bristol Channel, despite a large amount of skepticism from the people of the town, in particular because she is a woman. She will swim through 'the dangerous grey waters which separated Wales from England. Men with muscles like prize marrows were always trying to swim from the town's bach to Weston and being hauled out of overpowering currents halfway. Nobody had done it and nobody thought anyone - let alone a girl - would ever get to the other side.'
As the story progresses, the two best friends go to London together, looking for new experiences and exploring new possibilities, pursuing dreams far beyond the limitations and constraints of those available to them in their hometown. Freda had been the more reluctant of the two to leave. She is described by people back in her hometown as an 'oddball', a woman who stood out in those days because she, like Ida, didn't conform to people's expectations - she 'hated housecraft class as much as Ida did' and wore 'baggy trousers', and 'She noticed things, and understood things nobody else did' and she 'never accepted adults knew better.' They are both breaking free from places and people that would otherwise hold them back, Freda because of how she is judged in her hometown, and Ida because her unhappy parents are so narrow in their views. There is a delightfully apt description of them: 'Having a go at Ida seemed to be the only time they talked to each other. She'd come to think of the two of them as a pair of brackets with nothing in between.'
The two friends have different experiences of life in the Big Smoke: Ida seeks to build a career in journalism, and Freda intends to train as a nurse, and as they meet with disappointment and success, their friendship must change to encompass these different lives if it is to stay strong or even survive. For Freda, 'it had always been Ida who made her feel whole'. And equally, Freda 'gave Ida's life such detail.' As the reader gets to know the two friends, there are subtle intimations as to deeper feelings between them. But will the two of them ever want the same thing? I would like to write about the rest of the story, but I will not go into it any further here because what happens from here onwards is for the reader to discover themselves - I must merely write that the second half of the story is very moving and revelatory as the future unfolds and life deals its cards to Ida, Freda and Cecily.
I loved the different parts of the story, moving between the past and present, and how the story gradually builds in mystery, and then we have the unravelling of secrets, as the links to the past are slowly uncovered, until the full picture is revealed at the end.
It was wonderful to experience life with these strong female characters, to endure the pure joys and successes and dispiriting lows and sadness that they lived through, to witness the spirit of these women who broke away, to see how life changed for them and how they changed, who they ultimately became. The author illustrates the way life twists and turns, how we dream of one thing but don't always see what is right in front of us, how much we are willing to do for love and friendship, and the heartache when we can't always be everything that someone else wants us to be.
The author writes beautifully; the descriptions of people and places are so evocative, taking us back to times and places now lost to history, and recreating them vividly for us to experience here. It was an added pleasure to read at the end of the book about the real-life wonder girls of the times, and to hear about the background to some of the places in the story. The novel also has a wonderfully atmospheric and fitting cover image and styling.
Freda remarks at one point that she used to enjoy reading her brother's comic when she was younger, 'but you've got to wonder why it's always the boys who get the heroes as though girls can't do brave things too.' Well, not anymore, for here are those brave girls.
I shed a tear as I closed the book, very reluctant to leave these characters behind.… (meer)