I’m back!! Today is my second stop on the ‘Drumbeats Trilogy’ blog tour, and this time I am reviewing the second book ‘Walking in the Rain’. Thanks again to RaRaResources for the blog tour invite and ARC. Here is my review:
Jess happily marries the love of her life She wants to feel safe, secure and loved. But gradually it becomes clear that her beloved husband is not the man she thought him to be. She survived civil war and injury in Africa, but can she now survive the biggest challenge of her life?
What does TWG think?
‘Walking in the Rain’ pretty much picks up from where we left off in ‘Drumbeats’, so I do recommend reading the books in order as the trilogy seems to be written as one continuous story just split into three chunks.
Anywhoo, my thoughts; this review is going to be quite challenging to write as I have extremely strong thoughts about one of the characters in particular, so I don’t wish to unintentionally give anything away whilst I badmouth them ;). If you have already read the book then I am positive you will know who I am talking about. If you havent, lets just say that this person is a vile, waste of space that I wouldn’t pee on if they were on fire. Harsh, but true.
Why Jess didn’t stick to her guns was beyond me. She obviously had an inkling that not all was well! I know that things were very different in those days, and it’s a shame that females got treated by the government in the way that they did. Utterly, utterly shocking.
Do I wish that Jess had more backbone? Yes! Do I think that the way in which she would be percieved by outsiders frighened her? Yes – how could it not? Who would have believed her anyway? It was a tough one to gauge, that’s for sure.
‘Walking in the Rain’ very different to the first book of the trilogy as, not only is Jess a lot older, the themes which occur throughout the storylines differ greatly. For example; Africa and poverty/war was the main topic in book one, yet in book two family life and women’s rights were the topic of conversation.
Julia Ibbotson definitely isn’t a one trick pony as she carried the strength of her storytelling from book one into book two seamlessly, and as though there hadn’t been a break inbetween stories. Personally, I found ‘Walking in the Rain’ quite hard to read at times because I just couldn’t fathom the choices of one particular character. Their actions astounded me, yet they created such an emotionally charged atmosphere throughout the book which meant that Jess just had to pull her finger out.
I really enjoyed yet another poignant novel from Julia Ibbotson – her characters would be proud of her for giving them, and many other women, a voice they so desperately needed heard.
About the author.
Award-winning author Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and concepts of time travel. She read English at Keele University, England (after a turbulent but exciting gap year in Ghana, West Africa) specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. She wrote her first novel at 10 years of age, but became a school teacher, then a university lecturer and researcher. Finding Jess (2018) is her sixth book and the last of the Drumbeats trilogy (which begins and ends in Ghana). Apart from insatiable reading, she loves travelling the world, singing in choirs, swimming, yoga and walking in the countryside in England and Madeira where she and her husband divide their time.
Acclaimed author of:
Drumbeats (2015), the first of the trilogy set in 1960s Ghana: sometimes you have to escape to find yourself.
Walking in the Rain (2016), the second in the trilogy set in 1970s and 1980s England: never give up on your dreams.
Finding Jess (2018), the last of the trilogy set in 1990s England and Ghana: can the past ever be left behind?
Also by Julia Ibbotson:
A Shape on the Air (2017): historical (Dark Ages/early medieval) time-slip romance. Two women 1,500 years apart, with one aim: to reclaim their dreams and fight the dangers that threaten them both across the ages …
The Old Rectory: Escape to a Country Kitchen, (first published 2011, rereleased 2017) a feel-good story of the renovation of a Victorian rectory interwoven with period recipes to feed the soul, all from the rectory kitchen.
S.C.A.R.S (first published 2012, rereleased 2016) (children’s novel): a troubled boy slips through a tear in the fabric of the universe into a parallel medieval fantasy world of knights, dragons, and a quest for the triumph of Good over Evil. But can he save himself?
The Writing Garnet 