Stevie‘s review of Once the Clouds Have Gone by KE Payne
Contemporary Lesbian Romance published by Bold Strokes Books 13 Oct 14
There are times when I really appreciate stories about ordinary people in relatively ordinary situations – a setup that seems to occur more in books by British authors than in their US counterparts (or maybe I just find it easier to relate to the ordinariness of the British characters and situations). KE Payne may just turn into a go-to author for me on the occasions when I don’t want extraordinary characters in improbable situations; even when she’s writing about television stars, they’re very down-to-earth types from ordinary family backgrounds. This time, however, she’s turned her keyboard to writing about rural Scotland, and I can very much relate to the problems her characters find themselves facing.
Tag and Freddie have both experienced bereavement and painful relationship breakups and now have additional responsibilities, as a result of losing family members. Freddie took on the guardianship of her sister’s young daughter and was then dumped by her girlfriend, who couldn’t cope with the responsibilities of parenthood. Meanwhile, Tag ran away to the bright city lights in England to avoid working in her family’s milling business, only to have a disastrous relationship with a married woman – who is still her employer and landlord – but now is forced to return home, after inheriting a half share in her father’s business following his death.
What Tag would like to do is sell her shares to her older brother, who has been working in the business his whole life, but the business is failing and he seems powerless to fix things – especially since their father let him play no part in managing the accounts and told him nothing of the debts that were mounting up. If Tag and her brother can’t rebuild the business, then many members of the local community will lose their jobs – including Freddie, who runs the small coffee shop attached to the mill.
No matter how many times Tag claims she wants to tidy everything up and get back to her old job, she can’t resist helping, even to the point of neglecting the work her boss keeps sending her (in spite of having granted Tag compassionate leave) in favour of finding ways to generate publicity for the mill and lure passing tourists away from the new bypass and into the town. She also finds herself being drawn into two families – her brother’s, in which her nephew goes from resenting Tag for leaving him at a young age to becoming a fan of his ‘cool auntie’ who likes snowboarding and computer games and who encourages him to draw and to stop hiding his art from other people. Meanwhile, Freddie’s niece quickly comes to adore Tag and insists on her joining in family outings, but Freddie is very aware of how hard her last relationship breakup was on all of them and is reluctant to let her niece’s heart be broken again – never mind her own.
I love the gentleness of this story and the fact that there are no real bad guys beyond the two women’s mostly absent exes – and they seem self-centred and selfish rather than deliberately evil – and the real conflicts are against outside forces: the weather and the changing structure of rural life and business to accommodate a greater income from tourists, rather than relying on traditional industries and agriculture. Definitely one to reread over the winter in front of the fire.
Grade: A
Summary:
Nine years after leaving the small Scottish town where she’d grown up, Tag Grainger is forced to return following the sudden death of her father—and back to a life she’s long since put behind her. After inheriting a share in a family business she wants no part in, Tag is overwhelmed by the dark clouds of her past: her brother can’t forgive her, the nephew she adored doesn’t remember her, and everywhere she goes there are whispers about how she abandoned her family.With her old wounds reopened, Tag longs to escape again, until the appearance of the intriguing and spirited Freddie Metcalfe forces her to reevaluate much more than she thought she needed to. But while Freddie is nursing her own broken heart, can she help Tag reconnect with her family and move on from her past?
Read an excerpt.
