The River House

by Margaret Leroy

A gripping novel of literary suspense about a woman forced to reveal a secret that may solve a crime but ruin her life. From almost their first meeting, Ginnie Holmes is transformed by the passion she feels with Will-so much so that she risks her marriage and her children as she abandons herself to their exhilarating affair. They meet in an abandoned boathouse, certain they will never be discovered there.

Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, Marriage, Suspense

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 21, 2005

About the author

I grew up in the New Forest. As a child I wrote elaborate fantasy stories that I never showed to anyone. But around age 12 I stopped writing, and didn't start again till my mid-twenties.

(from the Biography page of her website)

I went to Oxford to study music, at St. Hilda's College. In my twenties I tried all sorts of things - music therapy, play-leading with children with disabilities, work in a toy shop, teaching. I also got married - and divorced. Finally I found work I really enjoyed, as a social worker: I qualified at Leicester University, and worked in psychiatry and then in child protection. It's a reviled profession but I found it fascinating: though, intriguingly, in my writing social workers are more likely to be villains than heroes. Around this time I met Mick, who is now my husband - and I started writing again. I became a full-time(ish) writer after our younger daughter was born.

Reviews

[Michelle Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved all of this author's novels. This book however, I did not love. I liked it. It was a slow move. The second half of the book is way better than the first. I do reccommend it. If you have never read a book by this author, I would not reccommend this being your first book of her's to start with. The Solider's Way, by far is her best book.

[Elly Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3* A great idea for a novel, I thought, so I listened and listened to what was obviously the setup for the action. Just when I nearly gave up, things happened so I continued. I felt that some of the dialogue was not believable and could have used work, but in other places there was some lovely writing, and the story did hold my interest. So I did finish, but this is not one that I will eagerly listen to again. Having said that, I will still listen to more books as they appear from this author as I have a feeling that the writing will get stronger.

[Sami · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 46yo woman in a distant marriage drifts into an impulsive, illicit affair with a man who is also married. This explores the nature of desire and intimacy as these two people seek to keep their affair entirely separate from their regular lives. It might have worked if not for something Ginnie witnesses during one of their liaisons. She must choose between keeping her affair secret and clearing her conscience about what she's seen, which could solve a brutal murder.

This was slow to get started and at times just a tad overly descriptive. The second half picked up quite a lot and I ended up being glad I read it, when for a while about a third the way through I was considering not continuing. I like the author's style though and it's nice to see a book about somebody my age instead of always people younger. I liked the storyline with Ginnie's mother and the secondary characters gave insight into the different kinds of relationships people find themselves in mid-life, which are somehow at once immovable and fragile.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ginnie Holmes is used to dealing with difficult dilemmas, her role as a child psychologist means that she works with vulnerable children, and when one troubled child brings her into contact with Detective Inspector Will Hampden, she is unprepared for the effect that this meeting will have on her life.
The sexual attraction between Ginnie and Will is instantaneous and powerful, their illicit weekly meetings at an old boat house on the river Thames will have disastrous consequences for them both, and eventually forces Ginnie into making a very difficult decision.

This book pulls you in from the very beginning- it explores the nuance of infidelity very well, and keeps the momentum of the story from start to finish...Ginnie's relationship with her teenage daughter Amber is particularly well done.

I really enjoyed it,

[Corinna Lumbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The writing reminded me of Paula Hawkins but with a story and characters that I cared about more. There were elements of the ending that were problematic but it was still worth the journey. I must also say the cover of this book is horribly designed, it made it an anti-cover buy, I wish Little Brown had done better with it. I know it can’t have helped in getting more people to read what was ultimately a solid novel.

[adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book was incredibly slow to start, but picked up at the end… if it didnt pick up, then it would have been 2 stars.
for a mother who cares so much about her children, for her to let one of her children sleep with max is unnerving, i hate that that part of the story is just swam over :/
but, i do like how the book shows the mothering of teenage children specifically and how difficult it can be to live your own life as well as take care of theirs..
it wasnt AWFUL but wasnt great either :(

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing- possibly because it wasn't what I thought it was. My audiobook app had it classified as suspense/thriller which it isn't but I guess it's an okay family story. I felt like it had loose ends. Several of characters were really annoying.

[Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually leave a review but just felt I had to. This book is so beautifully written. Most times I felt as though I were right there with how wonderfully she described certain scenes. I will definitely be reading all of her books :) Again, absolutely beautifully written!

[Shruti Bhandari-Kothari · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is lovely, realistic and well designed. There is a bit much detailing but it works well for this story

[Tricia Cassavaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/4

[Paul Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good plot and poses some interesting moral dilemmas. However I was rather irritated by the use of the historic present tense throughout the book.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 4 out of 5]

As people we struggle with many fears, one of the greatest being the realization that we will keep aging and that our attempts to slow the process are fruitless. That one day time as we know it shall stop, we will be dying, and we will be unable to change mistakes made in the past just as we are unable to take risks we didn't dare take before.

The River House uses this sobering thought as it's central theme, and does it effectively - particularly if you're a woman. It accurately portrays the overly common worries of middle-aged adults who see that life didn't turn out the way they had wished it would, and that dreams don't usually come true in the ways we quite hoped. When we're younger we hold on to the things that give us peace and security to make it through the rough times, thinking that these very things will be the ones that will enable us to achieve the most and become our best.

Sadly Ginnie, the protagonist, is one of those women. She's unhappy with her marriage, which, although a comfortable joining, is more of a stale friendship stuck in the routine of things, completely devoid of passion. Her husband is kind, considerate, and sweet...but also boring, lacking in romance, and tunes out into a world that has nothing to do with her own. They haven't made love in years, and attempts at counseling has failed. She's followed the trail many do, devoting her life to children and a career, yet now her eldest daughter is leaving the nest and she feels an empty hole she's not sure what to do with.

Wanting to try yet again, she embarks on a journey to rekindle the magic of her marriage, feeling that now since they have more privacy with the daughter gone, things can be less awkward. In reality she finds she cannot resurrect something that's not there in the first place. Sinking into a depression flavored by her best friend's misery, which ironically mirrors her own struggles, she slowly allows her to be pulled into passion outside the marriage.

The real heart of The River House lays in these internal struggles. Ginnie is not the kind of woman who sleeps around and steps out on her husband, yet her bitterness and resentment toward life propel her to do something she's always considered morally wrong. Her heavy conscience played on me the whole way, just as her desperate need to experience passion for the first time did.

The pacing is slow, but it fits comfortably with the type of book it is. I like that it is told through the first person, since it strongly enables the reader to sit tightly in the lead's head. Her emotions come through easily, and the pages are filled with genuine emotion and life. Author Leroy writes beautiful words, showing off an admirable classy talent, having each scene a joy to read simply because it's so expertly put. It ends, if you haven't already guessed, the only way this situation can, 'bitterly sweet.'

For the negative, more energy in some scenes would have helped. If more tension/action had been placed, it would have rated higher.A near dreamy state with this genre is the right one, but too much of it without relief can be a little emotionally cloying.

If I took anything from this book, I believe the lesson of it never being easy to tell what's really important and valuable, no matter how old you are.

As it stands, reading this novel will make your head feel dreamy and almost unreal; not an easy feat for any author to pull off. A touching story that is both tragic and beautiful in it's own way - much like real life.

[Lyz Russo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good enough read; finished it in one go, which places it into the class of books I'll dare to review. She has a very riveting style in places. The steamy scenes are very effectively done - tingly stuff. While the parenting style of the main character is hair-raising (absentee), it is very believable; can easily happen to a woman who gives everything to the children that are her patients.

The author's background in psychology shimmers through strongly (I was actually not surprised reading it in her bio after reading the book; the expertise is evident). I have respect for authors who draw on their own professional expertise in their books.

Plot: A bit off-the-wall, which is refreshing; sadly towards the end it becomes a bit predictable (this and the other following points is where she misses out on full stars - let's be fair - if there weren't authors like Pratchett and Tolkien on my shelf I'd be wanting to give her 4 stars - pity the rating isn't out of 10 because she'd get a 7 from me).

Characters: The main character is very well portrayed. I have a personal preferential dislike of first-person narrative because many authors lapse into adolescent diaries-style writing, but she pulls it off well - no diary in sight.

Peripheral characters: The mom's decline into dementia follows a classic medical pattern, once again well written. The sister with her avoidance issues comes through nicely; also how the main character realizes suddenly that she and her sister were never and will never be as close as her own two daughters. The older daughter is very peripheral; the younger one - boy what a brat! - very sharply portrayed. The distant husband comes across strongly - as cold, uncaring.

Second main character: This is one of the disappointing parts: He is shallow. Eventually when he shows his heroic side (with him being a policeman, one was waiting for this side, and was wondering about the choices he makes) it is a bit paper-doll heroic.

The only other point is that the dramatic flow sometimes gives way to slightly overly floral descriptions. But then, as I pointed out earlier, we're spoilt.

To summarize: A good read; I've loaned it to a friend. Warning: Not for kids - a bit too hot.

[Karyn Buchanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hard book to read when you are a woman in your 40's like Ginnie. She is losing her children to college, her mother to old age, and her husband is indifferent. She makes bad choices, but you root for her and she does redeem herself. And you are thankful for her insight, and strength of character, and glad you spend a week with her.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow moving, predictable... not my favorite...

[Jim Nail · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second novel in a row I've read about forty-something woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. In this case, Ginny, a child-therapist and mother of two teenage daughters, begins an affair with a colleague, meeting him every Thursday in a broken down, abandoned house on the shores of the Thames. When a body is washed up on the shore near the house, Ginny is witness to something she feels she must disclose, even though it will also disclose her affair and threaten her marriage.

I gave it three stars because I enjoyed reading it, and when I wasn't reading it I wanted to go back and see what happens next. The prose is elegant, well-crafted, like one of those British dramas you watch on PBS as opposed to the clunkier American stuff you see on network TV.

But this is the work of a competent professional novelist, doing what she does best, offering up an enjoyable product to make a living. She works with the nuances of human nature and emotion, especially melancholy, but ultimately it's merely entertainment, not a bad thing, but not really what I'm looking for when I read a book. I'm looking for something that opens my eyes to new ways of seeing the world. I'm looking for the writer who takes chances, sometimes fails, but tries to bring us something new. I want to read a book that changes my life, even in the smallest ways.

[Huw Rhys · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've never read a Mills and Boon novel, but if I had, I would imagine the first part of this book is very similar to that. The second half then turns into a bit of a Whodunnit/ mini courtroom drama.

The sub plot is the mid life crisis suffered by the majority of the protagonists. As do all of the Margaret Leroy books I've read so far. I wonder if there's something she's trying to tell us? She's either had a very exciting life - or a frustrating one. Do middle aged women really crave passionate affairs? Had the author concentrated more on the various mid life crises, and less on the slightly one dimensional affair that drives the plot without any great conviction or passion, then the book really might have scaled some heights. Even then, the rather random concern for the planet and global warming from the cuckolded husband may even transcend any potential analysis that could have been added. It's a confusing book - picks up a lot of interesting themes, doesn't follow through on any of them properly, and lurches from one scarcely believable coincidence to the next.

Despite all of these flaws, it is nevertheless an easy enough read, if not as challenging as it could have been - and as I'm sure some readers would like it to be.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Motivated by my enthusiasm for The Soldier's Wife, I decided to read something else by that author. The River House did not disappoint. In addition to weaving an intriguing plot, Margaret Leroy writes well. Her descriptions are vivid, and the trysts in the river house are no exception! For instance, she often makes reference to the particular type of light on a scene, and various flowers are carefully noted as the author establishes a sense of place. She has a gift, too, for evoking emotion. Especially moving for me was the scene in which the heroine's dying mother attempts to explain the pervasive domestic abuse which had dominated her marriage. The protagonist’s daughter teenage Amber is perhaps the one flaw in the story, as she is so ridiculously self-absorbed and superficial that she lacks credibility. I found the manner in which the mother handles Amber’s affair, once it comes to light, to be quite strange as well. Overall, though, it was a terrific read!

[BookDigger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this, mostly intrigued by the mentioned suspense. As I read, I felt sick and kind of annoyed at her infidelity. I kept reading out of the need to complete the novel. Though, as it came time for her decision, I was pulled in. For her to have to decide to just sweep it all under the rug or to air her dirty laundry was a huge step and it made the novel 10x better to know that she made the right decision. It was realistically captivating because her struggle illuminates how every decision we make can and most likely will alter someone else's life in some way. This novel made me appreciate my relationships and to think about how I treat my loved ones and my attentive nature towards them.

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would probably give this a 2 1/2. It is about a woman whose daughters are growing up, one off to college and the other 16 and her husband who doesn't have much to do with her. She is a child psychologist and trying to help one of her patients. She asks the advice of a detective and they find a bond with each other. It turns into an affair which lasts for 3/4 of the book.

I was disappointed with this book. The characters were flat and it didn't really get good until the last quarter. This is the 2nd book by Leroy that I've read, the other being "Yes, My Darling Daughter" which I enjoyed.

[Pat Osment · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book,largely due to the wonderful descriptive style of the author.It was easy to picture the river where the lovers went and where the murder occurred.The central character Ginnie was very strong and believeable.you got the sense of the turmoil she was living, the harrowing job of dealing with child abuse, the coldness of her husband, her mothers illness and the childhood violence of her father.I did find her acceptance of her daughter Ambers romance a little strange but I guess she was still feeling guilty about her own affair and the effect it would have on her daughters.I will look forward to reading another book by this author.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of like a more upbeat Anita Shreve. Great plotting and a rich cast of characters. I was pretty annoyed by the "licorice eyes" description of the daughter that ran throughout, mostly because I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to mean. I think licorice must not be red or black twists in the UK. Also, uses the phrase about drinks "sliding into my veins" repeatedly. I'm wondering if that's a normal UK colloquialism. It seemed a bit affected to my ears. But I'm quibbling really. Quite enjoyed this book. I'm hoping her next batch of heroines have more emotionally available husbands!

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward the reading this book but I ended up disappointed. I thought the story sounded great by the reviews but it was very slow moving and not very exciting. I think the author should have gotten a little more detailed with the murder scene and it would have been a little better.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

More wows for Margaret Leroy. I seriously need to read everything she's written. This book takes us to London, into the life of Ginnie who is a mom of 2 teenagers, a wife to a withdrawn husband, and a career-woman. She juggles her family life, her work life, and an increasing need for satisfaction in her personal life in this book. I read it in one day. Definitely good!

[Emma Kaufmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A married child psychologist drifts into a mid life crisis, an affair with a policeman, and becomes witness to a murder. Should she go to the police or not? Intriguing book but too much description of every little detail of her day.

[Jerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lends some insight into mid-life crises and what choices people make from there. The most interesting thing I found was that the author is British and there was a difference not only in language terms, but in how teenagers are raised from my viewpoint. They're quite a bit more relaxed!

[Doreen Dooley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be a bit of a mixed bag, as it was slow to start, then had a weird sex/ love section which gave way to the next stage being half introduced as a plot which left the ending weak and leaving lots of why questions.

[Donnetta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so glad I read The Soldier's Wife first. It's hard to believe the same author wrote it. It's a great disappointment. The story is not exciting. There isn't much mystery. The manner in which she allowed her youngest child to behave was irresponsible and in the US criminal.

[Kate Hewitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books with flawed characters, but they still have to be likeable. This woman wasn't, and neither was the man who might be considered the hero. All in all, it felt like a story that's been told a thousand times before, and not as interestingly.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very compelling read. The material was not surprising (middle-aged love affair, worry about parenting, witness to a murder suspect) but it was handled very well. Nice atmosphere surrounding the islands in the Thames River.