Evergreen Falls by Kimberley Freeman

Like time, we fall forward and then backward in Evergreen Falls by Kimberley Freeman. The time periods are 2014 and 1926. The place is the Blue Mountains of Australia. Most of the action takes place at the Evergreen Falls spa. Lauren is the Historian. She finds a pile of love letters written in 1926 by a Samuel Honeychurch-Black. To find out about the circumstances and the people involved is why the reader is taken back to the Twentieth century. The tale is magnificent. It is about family, love, disaster, wealth, poverty and all of what embodies life.

I became very caught up in the workings of the class system during those early years. Rich people treated the poor and working class differently than they would treat someone from the upper class. It is Samuel Honeychurch-Black who falls in love with a young woman who is working at the spa. Her mother works at home as a laundress and seamstress. Violet and her mother have very little money.

However, Samuel treats Violet, his lover, with tender loving care. However on one night, Violet spots Samuel treating another spa worker with disdain. This part is really upsetting. That he could pretend kindness toward Violet one minute and  treat another person so differently is very hypocritical.

It is these extreme personality changes within the characters that I found intriguing and perplexing. One moment I could feel sympathy for a man like Samuel Honeychurch-Black and another moment simply despise him. It was hard to figure out whether he truly loved the girl named Violet or was he just using her for his own pleasure.

There is also the odd way the parents treat Samuel's sister, Flora Honeychurch-Black. I felt the family put her in a difficult situation. She is packed off by the family to stay with Samuel and protect him from a very strong weakness that had him by the tail.It seemed like the male in the family was more important than the female.

I have learned from Evergreen Falls that all of us whether rich or poor are really just human. We hurt and love in the same way. I think this is why Lauren's found letters and the time spent with her in 2014 glides so smoothly in to 1926. I did not feel uncomfortable with the change from one century to the other one. I only wanted to know what in the world will or can happen next in this novel."kimberleyfreeman.com/novels
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