House Between the Tides Review

This book centers around a house on an island off the coast of Scotland, and two women who are involved with it. Hetty, who lives in modern day London, is the last of her line and inherits the house; she plans to turn it into a hotel. Beatrice, who lives in 1910, is married to Theo Blake, Hetty's indirect relative and the owner of the house. A skeleton is discovered underneath the floor in the modern day, and the story goes from there. I found Beatrice's story much more interesting than Hetty's unfortunately. She was a woman of her age, but she tries to do the right thing for the people living on her land. Hetty seems caught between her revolting kind-of boyfriend Giles and his plans for the island, her desires, and the wants of the native people. My sympathy for her is kind of limited, as the locals make it clear they don't want a hotel on their island, and she just ignores them. She even goes so far as to ignore the wishes of her ancestor, who had given land to some of the tenants but died before it could become official. She comes off as a little greedy and selfish. I get that she wants the house to be a fresh start for her, but she's not the only one affected by her plans. And she should have been honest with Giles and told him and his cronies to take a hike. Because it kind of seems like she doesn't like him that much, but she'll use him as a security blanket. Beatrice's story, on the other hand, is more sympathetic and downright tragic. She's a much more real character, and if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have enjoyed the book nearly as much. It was a good book though, despite Hetty's flaws. I'll definitely be checking out her other books.