147 - Yes, My Darling Daughter; Margaret Leroy

Grace is a single mom, who works in a flower shop full time, and spends her free time with Sylvie, her sweet little four year old daughter. The two live a simple life, in a not so great part of London, but their life seems happy enough. All seems perfectly normal with Sylvie until she begins having problems in preschool. She has outbursts, exhibits an extreme fear of water, and says odd things to her playmates. She also refuses to call her mother “mum”, and always called her “Grace” instead. She also tells her mother that she does not like living where she does, and wants to go home.

Grace is not sure what to do about the way Sylvie has been behaving. She takes her to a therapist who tends to blame the behaviour on her lifestyle. One day while Sylvie is flipping through a magazine, she becomes fixated on a photo of an Irish fishing village called Coldharbour. Her response to the picture is :

“It’s my seaside….I lived there…I lived in a little house, a white house….I had a cave and a dragon”.

Is it possible Sylvie lived in a past life? Grace and Sylvie are invited by Adam, a university professor involved in the paranormal , to go to Ireland on a research grant, and see whether there is any merit to what Sylvie has been saying.

Part, mystery, part Gothic tale, Yes, My Darling Daughter, had me anxiously turning pages to find out how it would all end. Although things got wrapped up, just a little too neatly, I still really enjoyed this book. I loved that it really held my interest, and that I was able to read it in one day.

RECOMMENDED.