The Skylark's Secret

By: Fiona Valpy

Narrated by: Mhairi Morrison

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Loch Ewe, 1940. When gamekeeper's daughter Flora's remote highland village finds itself the base for the Royal Navy's Arctic convoys, life in her close-knit community changes forever. In defiance of his disapproving father, the laird's son falls in love with Flora, and as tensions build in their disrupted home, any chance of their happiness seems doomed.

Decades later, Flora's daughter, singer Lexie Gordon, is forced to return to the village and to the tiny cottage where she grew up. Having long ago escaped to the bright lights of the West End, London still never truly felt like home. Now back, with a daughter of her own, Lexie learns that her mother - and the hostile-seeming village itself - have long been hiding secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew.

As she pieces together the fragments of her parents' story, Lexie discovers the courageous, devastating sacrifices made in her name. It's too late to rekindle her relationship with her mother, but can Lexie find it in her heart to forgive the past, to grieve for all that's lost, and finally find her place in the world?

©2020 Fiona Valpy. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Good Listening

When I'm driving to work I listen to my books,
I enjoyed and look forward to listening to this story

Enjoyable Story

The narrator was very good. The story was good also. I enjoyed listening and learning more about WWll in Scotland and how good most of the people were. I would love to go to Scotland because some of my ancestors are from there!

Another enthralling story

I Love the way she writes. The descriptions put me right in the middle of the story. The performance was excellent.

Page turner

I learned more about rhe Scotts were involved with the Artic convoy with the American Merchant Marines to bring needed supplies to Russia. A story of WWII it’s
‘S effects on a Scottish costal town, class culture love and music

Dual Timelines

The story is about two single mothers whose stories are in separate times. They are a mother and her daughter. The mother lives in rural Scotland and raises her daughter with the help of her father (the gamekeeper), who lives in a cottage on a large estate and helps the Laird as a gamekeeper with WWII going on as a subplot. The younger daughter begins in London - After the deaths of her mother and grandfather. She is a vocalist whose star is rising until she becomes an expectant single mother. She has to move back to Scotland to put a roof over her and the coming baby's head in the gamekeeper's cottage. She does not want to leave London to return to the small village with her tail between her legs, having failed at becoming a singing starlet and a second-generation unmarried mother as she expects to be seen by the villagers. She had never known her mother's secrets and became determined to uncover them.
It is a lovely book to listen to, as the narrator has a silken voice.
As the secrets begin to unfold, the narrative is in the present tense of the first period.
Like others mentioned, I didn't know what happened to Scotland in the war. I am an avid reader of WWII historical fiction. If war is not your thing, I would like to note that the tales of the war are light and sparse. It isn't a story about WWII.
The Skylark’s Secret is Another fine book by Fiona Valpy.

In the end I loved the story of romance in WWII

When the book started, it seemed to spend a lot of time on small details and Lexi's life in London singing on stage. I loved the narration but I started to wonder where the story was going, especially since it is described as a WWII story in Scotland. Then Lexi moved back home to Scotland with her baby (but not the baby's father), and again it focused on day-to-day life in the current time with flashes of her mother's life during WWII when the Arctic Convey fleet was working in and out of the harbor. It still seemed like a romance with the war in the background. Eventually more details about the war and the fate of the characters who were involved with the convoys came out and then the story became more interesting. Finally I really enjoyed the tale, although it was a tearjerker, as well as Lexi's relationship with Davey who spans both time periods.

Such a good story

Character development was very good and I got to know the relationships easily. The performance was spot on and helped get me into the story quickly and easily. Such a lovely listen.

Beautiful book

The Skylark's Secret is such a warm, full of love, happy, sad, heartbreaking- - - a book beautifully written; just like life ends up being for most of us. perhaps not with the same situations but with heartaches and enough happy times to make the heartaches worth the love that comes from them. Thank you for such a heartwarming story!

Nice Scottish war time story

The scenery is beautiful, and the story nice and sweet. But the two main women characters seem weak and lacking in character. They don't stand up for themselves. There isn't much deep feelings other than everyday appearances. Not characters I can feel for or vouch for.

Performance has a nice accent and is smooth to listen to, but does not vary enough at places it should.

Between 4 and 5 stars overall.

Beautiful moving story about WWII and the Scots!

I enjoyed every second of this book and the announcer did a wonderful job! She made it all feel so real! I am so sorry it's over. What will I do now?