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Hilary Tailor

The Vanishing Tide Kindle Edition

by Hilary Tailor (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

2,750 ratings

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What if all you inherit from your mother are her secrets?

Isla knows her family kept things from her. When she inherits the cliffside cottage where she spent her childhood, she must face dark shadows of her past—the mother who rejected her in favour of her art, the aunt whose death haunted them both, and the silence that permeated every room. Digging through the belongings of someone she realises she never really knew, Isla finally has the chance to find answers to the secrets her mother spent a lifetime hiding.

But lies can’t be swept away by the tide. And when Isla crosses paths with a mother and young daughter visiting her remote hometown, she becomes entangled in their family’s secrets, too, forcing her to wonder whether the truth she is seeking will really set her free.

Isla’s past is as dark as the ocean around her. But when she comes up for air, the mysteries of this lonely shore will reveal themselves in unexpected ways…

Print length

332 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Lake Union Publishing
Publication date

1 Jun. 2022
File size

5415 KB
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Product description

From the Publisher

Have you ever wondered about the secrets your family keeps? For years I’ve been fascinated by books about families and the secrets they bury—they take up most of the space on my bookshelf—so when I finished reading The Vanishing Tide, I knew I needed this book to join the others. Hilary Tailor has written a beautiful, haunting story of family, friendship, and the secrets that can eat away at us. I was instantly swept up in it!

After the death of her mother, Astrid—a renowned reclusive artist who was always more interested in her painting than her daughter—Isla returns to her childhood home, a cottage perched on the edge of a peninsula at the very northern tip of England. She knows this is her opportunity to finally investigate the one mystery she’s always wanted answers to: Who was the aunt who drowned in the very water that laps at the edge of their land, whose death seemed to permeate the walls of their home but was mourned by Isla’s mother in endless silence?

But no matter how many rooms, drawers, or cupboards Isla searches, she finds that her mother hid her past well. The more she digs into Astrid’s life—a life she now realizes she knew nothing about—the more she begins to question whether she is truly prepared to uncover the truth, because sometimes the truth is more dangerous than silence...

The Vanishing Tide is a richly layered family mystery that will appeal to readers of Eve Chase, Harriet Evans, and Louise Douglas. I promise you won’t be able to put this book down once you start reading!

—Victoria Oundjian, Editor

About the Author

Hilary Tailor is a design consultant, and has worked with clients including adidas and Puma as a colour and trend forecaster. She was raised on the Wirral Peninsula and graduated from the Royal College of Art. The Vanishing Tide is her first novel.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09KLJSRXJ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lake Union Publishing (1 Jun. 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5415 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 332 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 10,853 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 208 in Historical Mysteries (Kindle Store)
- 294 in Historical Thrillers (Books)
- 436 in Coming of Age Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer reviews:
2,750 ratings

About the author

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Hilary Tailor

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Hilary Tailor is a design consultant, and has worked with clients including adidas and Puma as a colour and trend forecaster. She was raised on the Wirral Peninsula and graduated from the Royal College of Art. The Vanishing Tide is her first novel. Her second novel, Swimming Home, will be published in 2023.

Mary Ellen Taylor
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3 star		9%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Mrs. H. Edwards

Encapsulating. Exciting. Enthralling.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 May 2022

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I found this book to be full of wonder and mystery. A ghost story with a twist.
The way the author wrote this book was amazing, she made you want to read it without putting it down. You feel everything the characters feel you see everything the characters feel. I did preamp the twist in the story very close to the start of the book but needed to read it as quick as I could to confirm it. This is not my usual genre but I enjoyed it very much.
I am looking forwards to Hilary Tailor's next book if it is written like this one then I know I am in for a treat.
Thank you for a great read.

7 people found this helpful

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Book Maniac

Well written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 May 2022

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This story is about five main characters, three living and two dead.

Astrid: A driven artist who fell to her death down a flight of stairs.
Clare: Astrid's sister, who drowned.
Isla: Astrid's daughter, looking for missing paintings and diaries to find the truth.
Polly: Astrid's neighbour and friend.
Erin: On holiday with her husband and daughter.

Isla is the main character in this story where secrets are unearthed, guilt over a past action is aroused and relationships are troublesome.

I enjoyed reading about these women. Isla had a miserable childhood that made her socially inept and aloof. She senses that there is some mystery surrounding the death of Astrid's sister, Clare. Astrid refused to talk about Clare or what happened about her drowning but Isla is determined to find the truth so begins searching Astrid's house for clues. She finds the key to unlock Astrid's studio, where she hopes to find answers. She is unprepared for what she sees because Astrid never let Isla or anyone else into her studio. She is also disappointed to discover that the things she is seeking are not in the room.

When out for her morning run, Isla sees a child in the water. Her first instinct is to keep running but then she turns back to rescue Erin's daughter, Frankie, unaware that her hesitation has been seen by Frankie's father, Mark. Isla gives Frankie CPR and saves her life but Mark feels hatred towards her for not instantly going to Frankie's aid.

Erin is riddled with guilt for falling asleep after a heavy night's drinking and failing to keep her daughter safe. She demands answers from the doctor when her daughter does not speak when she comes round in the hospital. She is cautioned to be patient but with her pushy nature, patience is not one of Erin's virtues.

The aftermath of Frankie's near drowning and refusal to talk, leads Isla to offer to teach Frankie to paint, saying it might help to give her a new interest. With Erin's reluctant permission, the suggestion is taken up and Frankie gradually begins to talk to Isla. Both are unaware that Erin has sneakily placed a Dictaphone nearby to eavesdrop on what happens between Isla and Frankie. Erin becomes jealous and angry when she hears Frankie begin to talk to Isla but still won't talk to or her or her father, who is a bit spineless and under Erin's thumb. Erin finds out that Isla hesitated before going to the rescue of her daughter and flips completely, pushing Isla out of her house and telling her to stay away from both her and Frankie.

The secrets behind the deaths of Clare and Astrid eventually surface when Penny's conscience compels her to write Isla a letter exposing Astrid's secrets. Penny's letter explains why Isla's relationship with Astrid was so difficult and Isla feels as if a weight has been lifted from her spirit. When Isla eventually locates Astrid's missing paintings and diaries even more things become clear and Isla is finally able to forgive Astrid for the neglect she had as a child.

I wish the ending had been more fleshed out as it left me hanging without any satisfactory closure. It would for me, have been better if it gave Isla's reaction to what happened at the end.

In real life, I am not sure how I would have reacted to Isla's hesitation to rescue Frankie but, on balance, I would have been grateful that my child lived and would get better and forgive a bit of human frailty. This is not an action packed book and moves along at a sedate pace. It is the characters that hold the interest and their interactions with each other. I would read this again.

3 people found this helpful

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SA

Interesting story well worth reading.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2022

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Excellent book. Really enjoyed it and read it in 1 hit.
So glad it ended how it did. Recommend you have time to enjoy it. Great holiday read.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Wonderful beautifully written book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2022

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I loved this book. It has a good story that makes you want you keep reading, wondering how it is going to end. I liked the main character Isla and wanted things to end well for her, plus wanting her to discover the secrets of her past and in doing so find herself. I would not have known this was a first novel and look forward to the authors next book ( please let there be a next book). If you enjoy books where the characters and the story unfold slowly, books about people -both their flaws and their best traits - then I would highly recommend this.

2 people found this helpful

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BookWorm

Interwoven stories reeled me in…

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2022

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I loved this book. The interwoven stories of Isla, Astrid, the absent Clare, Penny & Jacob, Frankie, Erin & Mark created a wonderful tapestry of a book and the atmospheric writing created the landscape perfectly.

4 people found this helpful

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I. Smail

A fascinating story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 May 2022

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This is an amazing story, and one that I could easily have read in one day, but decided to spread the enjoyment over two days as I didn’t want it to finish.
I found the book vaguely reminiscent of Joanne Harris’s Chocolat, not in terms of the storyline, but in the general feel.
Hard to believe this is a debut novel.

3 people found this helpful

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Ms Judith Connett

Outstanding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 June 2022

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It is hard to believe this is the author's first novel. It is excellently written, very descriptive I could really feel the salt air and the sand. The interactions between the characters were excellent and I could feel the emotions of all of them. This is a very original storyline if I could give it 10 stars I would. Isla has a lot of difficulties emotionally regarding her unhappy childhood but things do get resolved. I came to dislike Erin immensely, I found her to be an extremely selfish individual who could not see beyond her own needs. Highly recommend this.

One person found this helpful

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Hazelbank homebody

Eerie, intriguing and captivating.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 June 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a beautifully written story. Isla returns to her childhood home after the death of her emotionally remote mother, Astrid. Astrid was a renowned artist and her home is full of her work. Some of it quite disturbing.

Why was Astrid so detached from Isla? Isla looks for answers in the home and from Astrid’s neighbour and best friend. Why did Astrid refuse to talk about her beloved sister who drowned when Isla was a baby?

This is the story of a woman’s journey to understand her mother. It’s beautifully written and the descriptions are incredibly evocative - some parts are genuinely creepy though and the tension created is palpable.

I absolutely loved it!

There were a couple of things I didn’t understand though, I was left wanting a little more in the way of explanation for a couple of things - which I won’t discuss - spoilers! But all in all it was an incredibly enjoyable, spooky but ultimately satisfying story - read it, but maybe keep the lights on!

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