Author: Anna Romer
ISBN: 978-19-220-5242-1
RRP: $29.99
Lyrebird Hill is a story of the distant past and the recent past converging with the present. Written across two very different timelines Romer brings together the stories of Brenna and Ruby, two women who share a connection with the property of Lyrebird Hill.
Romer has written two distinct timelines and two leading ladies, both of whom grew up on Lyrebird Hill. I don’t want to say too much because there is a large element of mystery to the story and I would hate to ruin it for anyone.
The property of Lyrebird Hill has been passed down through the generations for over 100 years and it is still complete, even through drought and rough years none of the land has been sold off to help out.
In the 1800s there was an indigenous clan living on the land of Lyrebird Hill and there were some very mixed feelings about them being there. Brenna’s father wants to keep his land intact in an effort to keep the clan safe. Brenna spends lots of time with the clan, learning about all of the plants and herbs on the land and what they can be used for. Information which she keeps stored in a beautifully self-illustrated notebook that is never far from her side.
A bad crop sees Michael Magavin in dire straits financially and still determined not to sell off any of the land. In the end an associate offers a proposal which will keep Lyrebird Hill safe, it just means Brenna must marry him and move to Tasmania until she bears him a son. An arrangement which made my skin crawl but I am from a very different time. Rather than risk losing the family land that she loves Brenna agrees to the proposal, not unhappily either because she has been quite intrigued by Mr Whitby. It will be quite a transition for her to leave Lyrebird Hill and the Armidale area behind to move to Tasmania but she feels it is a necessary sacrifice for the safety of the family’s legacy.
Brenna soon comes to see a very different side of Mr Whitby once they are married and her time in Tasmania is quite lonely until she forms a very close friendship with Whitby’s sister Adele.
Alternating chapters focus on Ruby Cardel a young woman who spent much of her childhood at Lyrebird Hill, sometime after the tragic loss of her older sister Ruby and her mother moved into Armidale and the property was sold to a neighbor. The day Jamie died remains a mystery, whatever happened is locked away in Ruby’s mind – she has blocked out a year of her life and believes that it was all a tragic accident.
What will happen when she discovers that it wasn’t an accident? Slowly her life begins to come apart at the seams and glimpses of the past start returning.
Ruby is a beautifully drawn character, she incites such empathy even though there are times her insecurities make her a little painful to watch.
The story opens with her heading to an exhibition opening with her boyfriend. He is a well-known and gorgeous author who leaves her wondering, on a regular basis, why her? He could have anyone so why her. This is quite a common thought for a lot of people in relationships but it’s something Ruby really seems to struggle with.
Right from the beginning Rob seems not quite right for her. He is patronizing and just brushes away her fears. He doesn’t address them so they can work through them, just tries to brush them off with snippets from his books.
Ruby heads back home to Lyrebird Hill to find out what she can from the elderly neighbor who bought the property but things don’t quite go to plan.
The door that has been firmly bolted in her memory was unlocked when she studied her mum’s paintings at the exhibition but it isn’t until she returns home that the flow of memories starts to gain momentum.
Ruby’s story is told in present and past tense and the transition is quite rapid, one minute she’s in the present and going about her day and then she slips into the daydream of a returning memory and takes us with her.
Romer has woven the threads of this tale together remarkably well, even through three timelines the story never lacks cohesion and the flow is quite intense as it all moves towards the climactic coming together of all threads.
Lyrebird Hill is a story I love because it has elements of many genres and the central character is a booklover who ran away from home to open a bookstore – what a heavenly idea that is to me. The mystery woven into the history of both women is gripping and there were some fabulous twists in the story. There was a little romance and there was a side of history we often don’t get.
The way there were a couple of things that tied all of the threads so nicely together was convincingly done and even now as I sit and write this I am still connecting dots and putting pieces together, long after I closed the book.
Anna Romer is definitely batting 2 for 2 and I, personally, can’t wait to see what’s in store for us with number 3.
Some of our very lucky book club readers will also be reading Lyrebird Hill and I can not wait to hear what they have to say about it. Don’t forget to check back here for their thoughts.
They will also each have a question for Anna Romer in their comments and the best ones will be compiled for an upcoming author interview with Romer herself. I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Anna Romer has a magical way with words. From the very beginning this book hooked me in and made me never want to put it down.
I’m a visual reader and found the way Anna describes a scene made it so real in my mind. I could almost feel like I was there in the place as she wrote about it and I could almost smell the flowers I was reading about.
The story of Ruby was a wonderful story full of love, loss, relationships and dreams.
I liked that there was a not so functional mother/daughter relationship which helped to show Ruby’s personality and memories.
The twist in Ruby’s story is one that I never worked out and I liked that I never thought to look there. (Don’t want to give anything away)
Brenna’s story was woven into Ruby’s story and in such a magical way they combined wonderfully. There was never a time when one story over ran the other and both travelled through evenly which made for magical reading.
The story makes you realise how truly amazing and powerful the mind is and how sights and smells can throw us back into a memory in an amazing way.
As we read about Brenna’s life we are taken on an amazing journey from the Australian countryside and bush life to a new not so happy life in Tasmania.
Brenna’s relationship with Jindera and Mee Mee was such a delight to read and yet in the end that whole side story showed how harsh and cruel mankind can be.
I genuinely did not want this book to end and when I was finished I gave it a hug and knew that this book would stay with me a long time.
My question for Anna is:
You wrote that you read the letters to your Grandmother from a World War 2 pilot. Did this make you delve more into your family history and uncover some of your own ‘family secrets’?
Can I have a lifetime subscription to your novels please they are like little dances of words on paper.
Thank you so very much for the chance to read such a wonderful novel.
I must admit that it took me a little while to get into this book. I loved the story about Ruby, but the story about Brenna got in the way initially and I just wanted to read more about Ruby, so the first few chapters of Brenna’s story were hard to read. Once I slowed down and started really reading the story, I fell in love with both Ruby and Brenna. They were both so brave and strong and an inspiration to the women of today.
There were women like Brenna who went against their husbands and society to be brave and fight for what they believe in. There are still those types of women around today and I applaud them. I don’t know where they get their strength and self-confidence from -it’s so not me, but I’d like it to be.
I felt that Anna Romer described the scenes in the book well without going over the top – sometimes it seems to me that so much time is spent on describing something that the story gets a little bit lost, but not in this case.
My question to Anna is: Are you a brave, strong person like Brenna who stands up for and fights for what she believes in?
Thank you so much for letting me review Lyrebird Hill. I absolutely loved it and have already passed it on to my mum to read >:o)
I loved Lyrebird Hill – the mix of the present and past sent chills up my spine. I wanted to know more, see more, read more with every turn of the page. I love the way the book was written, it flows easily and I just fell in love with Ruby.
I’d recommend this book to anyone as it was an amazing read.
My Question for Anna is: When going from one era to another did you have to stop in order to go from the voice of the present to the voice of the past or did it flow together easily?
Thanks.
I have just finished reading Lyrebird Hill by Anna Romer. Thank you to B&L and Simon & Schuster for giving me the chance to read this beautiful book. I love the cover of the book which captures your attention as we know from reading the back of the novel that there are two sisters in the story.
This book revolves around a past and present which is always a bit daunting when you start reading but persevere and you then learn of the two main characters of Brenna and Ruby. I found myself drawn to the both of these characters and immediately they became so lifelike to me as I continued reading. I could visually see their surroundings as I have been to both Armidale and Coffs.
Upon reading I wondered how Ruby & Brenna were going to be related to each other as it was Ruby who lost her sister but was unaware at how she died even though she was with her when it all happened. It’s not till the middle of the book that you find how they are related. I loved the character of Brenna, who suffered a lot in her time. I found myself wanting to read more of her character at first.
I found this book to be easy to read as it had romance, mystery, secrets, characters that I disliked from the beginning and other characters that I warmed too straight away. I would find myself upset at times with characters and also bawling my eyes out at things that would happen in the story and then there would be anger and then smiles.
I loved reading this book and found it very hard to put down once I got into the story and the characters. Beautifully written Anna, it certainly captured my attention from start to end. I feel like I have just watched a movie of this book as it seems to be staying in my mind still.
To Anna, I would love to ask the question of when she is actually writing the novel, when it comes to scenes where the tribe were killed or when Pete was shot or animals hurt , do you actually shed tears as you write this? I ask this as I remember in High School where we had to write stories, whenever I wrote something sad, I would find myself with tears as I wrote.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this new novel! I found it to be a nice uncomplicated read, something I’d take on holidays when I don’t need to concentrate too much.
The dual storylines were an interesting way to narrate the story and I was keen to get to the part where the stories finally merged. Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking themes for me was the differing attitudes towards the indigenous population during early settlement. Few authors really want to tackle and acknowledge this, but I think the author managed to provide a real insight into this historical issue.
So, in short, I’d recommend this as a good read for someone who doesn’t want something too taxing!
I forgot to ask my question…How much time did you spend researching prior to writing this novel as there are clearly elements of historical fact within the text?
I really loved this book & found it both enthralling & entertaining. Both of the main characters were strong & the descriptions of the landscape took me there everytime.Once started hard to put down but could pick up the storyline each time.Will recommend this book to my friends & family as a very good read.Thank you for giving me the chance to read it..
My question to the Author : Do the ideas for a book come easy or do you have to work on them?
Lyrebird Hill is a great read. It is a beautifully written novel that is very difficult to put down. It reveals family secrets from both past and present as you read about the lives of Ruby and Brenna. The author has the ability to make you warm immediately to these characters as they deal with tragic events that have taken place.
There were twists and turns I didn’t see coming. Anna Romer’s first novel Thornwood House is now a must read for me/ Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this very enjoyable novel.
Lyrebird Hill, a good title because the Lyrebird is apt at mimicking and taking on the sounds of other animals and making you believe you have heard something… when in fact it is something entirely different.
It would seem that the author of this book was also very clever in taking a situation and allowing the readers mind to race ahead and make a number of assumptions while reading. I was intrigued from the start and hooked from the moment I was able to draw the correlations between 1898 and 2013.
A very intricate story with blending and blurred hereditary storylines. Very real and believable that this could have happened which is always to me a better read.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a more intricate storyline. I believe this is a book worthy of being kept on the bookshelf when finished, I feel certain I will “see more” when I decide it is time to reread this book. A definite keeper and an now intrigued to look to other books written by Anna Romer. Thanks you for lighting up my night with a truly spellbinding tale.
My question for Anna Romer: Was it your intention for this story to take on the traits of a Lyrebird and make us rethink that things are not always what we think they are…. even if we hear it that way?
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I loved how the author incorporated the 1800 characters with today’s characters. So clever. I found it hard to put this novel down and wanted to continue to pick it up and read more and more of this gripping story.
With such strong and interesting characters it is definitely one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure to read in a long time.
The dysfunctional mother daughter relationship is something I can definitely relate to. Coming from a difficult background myself this book took me back to a difficult time in my own childhood.
There were so many twists and turns I’m sure no-one else would have seen coming. I was kept entertainment and entranced throughout the whole read. .
It must have been hard for Brenna to go against her husband and fight for what she truly believed in. I also was thrilled for her when she fell in love with a man so very different from her husband. One that was kind and generous not like the hard man she agreed to marry to save her beloved Lyrebird Hill. I will definitely recommend this book to all my friends and again I thank you for the opportunity to read such an amazing book.
Great summer time read!
I have just finished reading Lyrebird hill and thought it was a fantastic read. The storyline was well written and easy to follow. I loved how both stories intertwined and at the beginning of this book I preferred to ready the chapters for Ruby perspective, however towards the end Brenna’s chapters really drew me in. Her experiences and love that she felt was true and I felt like I could relate to her better. I really wished her true love Lucien had survived and that they lived happily ever after but that is life. The friendship that she forged with Adele is truly precious and this is proved when Adele sacrifices herself so that Brenna can raise her own child. I must admit I was a bit sad when I thought Brenna did past away in jail and it wasn’t until you read the final letter from Adele that it all comes together and you realise that those two women were the bestest of friends.
I did have trouble believing that Ruby didn’t recognise her boyfriend of 3 years and that he was her sisters killer as surely she should of recognised him or put it together sooner.
Overall the author Anna Romer wrote a beautiful novel and an enjoyable read. She really bought the characters to life and the landscapes that were described sounds just beautiful. I look forward to reading other books by Anna.
HI Anne,
My question for you is – who’s perspective did you prefer to write – Brenna’s or Ruby?
Oh and one more – did you know how the story was going to end before you started writing, or did you go where the story was leading you?