Precious Time by Erica James

Single mum Clara Costello decides that she needs to spend more time with her son Ned before he has to start school in September.  She therefore gives up her well paid job, buys a second hand camper van and sets off to travel around the country for a few months.  After only a few short stops she heads for Deaconsbridge in the Peak District as she wants to show Ned the Mermaid Caves.  

They arrive too early for the spring opening of the caves and so decide to look for a camp site on which they can stay for a week.  None is to be found.  Whilst looking, they meet old Mr Gabriel Liberty a curmudgeonly widower onto whose land they have wrongly turned.  They end up doing a deal that they can stay on his land for a week in exchange for Clara helping Mr Liberty to clean and tidy his home as his Doctor has threatened him with intervention by Social Services if he doesn't sort things out.  They strike up a good friendship in this time.  

Mr Liberty sees a small amount of his son Jonah who lives in the village and does his weekly shopping.  He has not had contact with this older son Casper and twin sister Damson for quite some time.  Relationships within the family are quite strained.  Casper wants his father to sell the family home, downsize and split the money as he is yet again heading into financial difficulties with his business.  Mr Liberty is determined to stay just where he is.  

I have previously read 'Gardens of Delight' by the same author and would happily read more of her work.

The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The story is set in 1943.  Maximilian Carver decides to move his family out of the city and to a beach house where he believes they will be safer and away from the war.  The beach house has been standing empty for some time.  The previous owners, who had the house built, had moved away after their young son had drowned.

When out riding around town on a bike, Max, the middle child of the family, meets Roland who is the grandson of Victor Kray, the local lighthouse keeper.  Roland shows Max around and they arrange to meet the next day to go diving around 'Orpheus' a local shipwreck.  Max takes his older sister Alicia along and the three become friends.  

Victor Kray was the sole survivor when 'Orpheus' hit rocks in a thunderstorm and sunk almost 25 years ago. He was so grateful for the help he received and, to ensure all future boats in the area were kept safe, Victor built the lighthouse and became its keeper.  

Not everything is quite as it seems.  There is mystery around the boat and its passengers - no bodies were ever found.  Max finds a locked garden area behind their house which contains statues of a circus troupe set out at points of a star within a circle - he is sure that they change position. Strange voices and noises are heard within the new house.  Max is certain that Victor is not telling them the whole story about the shipwreck, but is keeping back some important information.  As more strange things start to happen and lives suddenly become at risk, Max must try to find out what it is that Victor knows. 

This is not a very long book but is an interesting and engaging story.  I have previously read, and very much enjoyed, 'The Shadow of the Wind' and 'The Angel's Game' which are both longer and more complex stories.  I have 'The Prisoner of Heaven' on my bookshelf. 

The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

The story is narrated by John who is the middle child of Win and Mary Berry.  The family consists of Frank, Franny, John, Lilly and Egg.  

Win and Mary meet and fall in love one summer when working at the Arbuthnot-by-the-Sea hotel in Maine.  Whilst working there they meet and befriend Freud who spends the summer at the hotel entertaining guests with his bear called State O'Maine.  By the end of the summer Freud decides to go to Europe and he sells the bear to Win.  

Many years later, after marrying Mary and having a family Win decides that he wants to buy the old, empty local girls school and turn it into a hotel.  This becomes the first Hotel New Hampshire.  He then hears from Freud who asks him to come to Vienna to help him run the Gasthaus Freud.  Win moves his whole family to Vienna to take up residence in another hotel - which in time will become the second Hotel New Hampshire.  Not all the family make it to Vienna due to a plane crash, but those who do have to try to make a go of a new life in a new town in a very run down hotel which has one floor dedicated to the local prostitutes for their business and on another floor there is a group of radicals who spend their time writing and plotting.  Freud now has another 'smart' bear called Susie.  

They are a bizarre and eccentric family.  Frank, the oldest, is quite studious and helps everyone with translations of the language when they move.  Franny takes over the role of mother to her siblings and the family is guided by her.  John takes up weightlifting to build up his body so that he can protect his family.  Lily is very small in height and tries to find ways in which she can grow. 

This is a strange story about an odd family.  The father never really seems to know what the rest of the family are up to.  They are generally guided by Franny and Frank.  They do all love each each other, stick together and take care of each other.  John and Franny spend most of their lives resisting their attraction to each other.  

Many years ago I read 'A Widow for One Year' and I have seen the film 'The Cider House Rules' although I have not read the book.  I have 'The fourth Hand' on my bookshelf.