Abandoned by Booklikes

Even though I gave this five stars, I do want to say that the back and forth between timelines got a bit much after a while. I still loved this book, but when I re-read it in the future, I will probably just skip over that and stay mostly in the present parts of this book. 

"The Shell Seekers" follows Penelope Keeling and her family. Penelope is 64 years old and  is self-sufficient and determined to do her own thing, even though two of her adult children (Nancy and Noel) are hell-bent on either making sure their mother has a carer and finding out where the paintings their grandfather did (one of them called the Shell Seekers) in order to sell them after finding out how much they are now worth. 

The only child of Penelope's that will not make you want to smack them upside the head is Olivia.  

The book showcases Penelope's life, we follow her childhood, dealing with World War II, and then a loveless marriage that causes her to do what she can to support herself and her children due to her terrible husband. The book goes from that and to the present with her finding new friends that she cares about, Antonia (related to someone who was once close to Oilvia) and the gardener.  

I will say that due to reading "September" it was nice to find out in a little way what happened to Penelope's children, and we get to see a much different side to Noel. That said, reading this book, I ended up really disliking him and Nancy. Frankly I wish that Penelope had a chance to really tell off her two children. Selfish wasn't even the word.

Nancy without realizing it, seems to be in a loveless marriage and her two children are going to just disappear from her life one day. She blames her mother for a lot of things that made me want to tell her to grow up myself. 

Noel is hell-bent on money. You don't really get why since he seems to be doing well. 

Olivia seemed to be the only child that got her (we find out why that may be later) and the one she was closest to. We do find out about a man that Olivia was in love with, but that whole part was boring to me. Not enough for me to lower my rating, but enough for me to go okay, can we please get past this soon?

The writing was lyrical and once again I do think that Pilcher's books shine when she describes what is going on during World War II. That said, the flow of the book was affected by going back and forth to Penelope's past and the present day. We also would switch POVs too, so you don't just stick with Penelope through this, you go and read Nancy's, Noel's, and Olivia's, and even Penelope's mother, etc. in this one. 

The main setting of this book was Cornwall. I swear after reading the last couple of Pilcher books I need to visit there and Scotland. She really does a great job making the places in her books feel like characters. 

I have to say that the ending of the book was a surprise. I don't want to spoil, but thank goodness for Olivia. I would have loved to read a book with her in it as a central character again. Too bad that Pilcher is retired.