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    The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall: A Novel
    The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall: A Novel
    The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall: A Novel

    Written by Ann O'Loughlin

    Narrated by Anne Flosnik

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Secrets can’t last forever in this heartfelt debut novel, a UK bestseller and contemporary Philomena story.

    In a crumbling mansion in a small Irish village in County Wicklow, two elderly sisters, Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan, live alone in Roscarbury Hall with their secrets, memories, and mutual hatred. Long estranged by a dark family tragedy, the two communicate only by terse notes. But when the sisters are threatened with bankruptcy, Ella defies Roberta’s wishes and takes matters into her own hands, putting her baking skills to good use and converting the mansion’s old ballroom into a café.

    Much to Roberta’s displeasure, the café is a hit and the sisters are reluctantly drawn back into the village life they abandoned decades ago. But gossip has a long life, and Ella finds herself reliving painful memories when Debbie, an American woman searching for her birth mother, begins working at the café. As the local convent comes under scrutiny, the O’Callaghan sisters find themselves caught up in an adoption scandal that dates back to the 1960s and spreads all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Only by overcoming their enmity and facing up to the past can they face the future together?but can they finally put their differences behind them? An emotionally rich story with flashes of humor, gossip, and tragedy, The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall is a moving debut novel of love both lost and found.

    Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJun 13, 2017
    ISBN9781543606683
    The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall: A Novel
    Author

    Ann O'Loughlin

    Ann O’Loughlin is an internationally bestselling author and a leading journalist in Ireland covering all major news events of the past three decades, including the Irish orphan scandal. She was a security correspondent at the height of the Troubles and was a senior journalist at the Irish Independent and Evening Herald. She is currently a senior journalist with the Irish Examiner newspaper covering legal issues. She lives on the east coast of Ireland with her husband and two children.

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    Reviews for The Secrets of Roscarbury Hall

    3.5/5

    24 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Found this in a long-neglected TBR collection on my Kindle and jumped in without checking the blurb - I was expecting something slightly perkier than forced adoptions and terminal illness! Raised in Ohio, Debbie Kading travels to Ireland after discovering that she was adopted from a convent in County Wicklow. While waiting on answers from the nuns, Debbie meets Ella O'Callaghan who has recently opened a small café in the dilapidated mansion she shares, grudgingly, with her sister. The house is not only falling down around their ears but also mortgaged to the hilt and the bank is threatening to repossess the family home. Debbie agrees to help out and even suggests that Ella move the café to the derelict ballroom, which of course is an instant success (the legal aspect of setting up a business which serves food is lampshaded and then dismissed). Both Debbie and Ella share dark family secrets connected to the terrible - and very real - practice of forced adoptions in the 1950s and 1960s, where babies were taken from mothers considered to be 'unsuitable' and passed onto adoptive families. Debbie's desperate quest for the truth about her own mother causes Ella to relive the painful loss of her two children and the betrayal which caused the decades-long rift with her sister Roberta.After adjusting to the dark subject matter, I was gripped by the storyline and loved the descriptions of the house, Roscarbury Hall. The terse and disjointed pacing of the narrative, however, prevented me from really getting to know the characters aside from revelations about the past. There was something off about the flow of the writing which made a 300 page novel read like the author was still at the plotting stage. Abrupt delivery aside, I loved how the little community of Rathsorney, full of old friends, gossips and unspoken truths, came together to support each other in the end.Not what I thought I was getting, but a swift and engrossing read which helped pass an afternoon.
    • 5/5
      What's It About?n a crumbling mansion in a small Irish village in County Wicklow, two elderly sisters, Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan, live alone in Roscarbury Hall with their secrets, memories, and mutual hatred. Long estranged by a dark family tragedy, the two communicate only by terse notes. But when the sisters are threatened with bankruptcy, Ella defies Roberta’s wishes and takes matters into her own hands, putting her baking skills to good use and converting the mansion’s old ballroom into a café.Much to Roberta’s displeasure, the café is a hit and the sisters are reluctantly drawn back into the village life they abandoned decades ago. But gossip has a long life, and Ella finds herself reliving painful memories when Debbie, an American woman searching for her birth mother, begins working at the café. As the local convent comes under scrutiny, the O’Callaghan sisters find themselves caught up in an adoption scandal that dates back to the 1960's and spreads all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. What Did I Think?Two estranged, elderly sisters, a beautiful period home that is in need of major renovation and a lifetime of secrets. A wonderful recipe for good historical fiction. There is also the added tale of forced and hidden adoption in Ireland going back decades. It may sound like fiction, but unfortunately, it seems to be based on true events. This is an extremely mesmerizing novel...in more ways than one. The characters are drawn with compassion. Loved the Ballroom Cafe. It and its surroundings sound idyllic and "delicious". The story is one of courage, strength and changing worlds. On the other hand it was a heartbreaking story. Set in Ireland it tell the story of an American lady looking for her Irish mother after discovering she had been adopted. She traces it back to the convent for unmarried mothers and a huge can of worms is unearthed, entwining the lives of the sisters and Debbie. Great story...wonderful characters...and very emotional material.