Hither, Page
2019 • 230 pages
Ratings11
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings11
Average rating3.8
A jaded spy and a shell-shocked country doctor team up to solve a murder in postwar England.James Sommers returned from the war with his nerves in tatters. All he wants is to retreat to the quiet village of his childhood and enjoy the boring, predictable life of a country doctor. The last thing in the world he needs is a handsome stranger who seems to be mixed up with the first violent death the village has seen in years. It certainly doesn't help that this stranger is the first person James has wanted to touch since before the war.The war may be over for the rest of the world, but Leo Page is still busy doing the dirty work for one of the more disreputable branches of the intelligence service. When his boss orders him to cover up a murder, Leo isn't expecting to be sent to a sleepy village. After a week of helping old ladies wind balls of yarn and flirting with a handsome doctor, Leo is in danger of forgetting what he really is and why he's there. He's in danger of feeling things he has no business feeling. A person who burns his identity after every job can't set down roots.As he starts to untangle the mess of secrets and lies that lurk behind the lace curtains of even the most peaceful-seeming of villages, Leo realizes that the truths he's about to uncover will affect his future and those of the man he's growing to care about.
Featured Series
2 primary booksPage & Sommers is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Cat Sebastian.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is a great read and I'm glad to see Cat Sebastian trying out a different historical era (post-WWII). I loved the setting of a quiet village in the English countryside and all of the domestic moments. In fact, those cozy scenes aren't just fluff, but are relevant to the romance plot and to Leo's character development: After a lifetime as a spy, he isn't sure if he deserves to have people who care about him. So we're often seeing his baffled reaction to pleasant but ordinary moments.
This may have been my own shortcoming as a reader, but in the end, I wished I'd had a little more time in James's point-of-view. I'm not really sure why he developed feelings for Leo. However, I did understand Leo's perspective and I enjoyed his growth as a person over the course of the story. I also liked the mystery - multiple mysteries, really - and while they kept me guessing, the solutions weren't out of left field.
I'm so glad I read this, and I'm sure I'll listen to the audiobook many times when it comes out. I hope that the series will continue very soon!
I found this book a bit boring - it's basically a novelised version of the dozens of BBC murder mystery TV series out there with a side of mediocre romance. As I'm not a huge fan of spycraft or the genre, I wished the book focused more on the characters themselves rather than them trying to solve the murder. I had a hard time keeping all the characters straight as they're kind of dumped into the first few chapters without a lot of development, as well as the book going between calling them by their last or first names by different (or even the same) characters.
The romance between James and Leo is stilted and underdeveloped. In the beginning Leo just wants a cheeky flirt and to maybe get a leg over, but by the end of the book he's willing to give up his entire life just to be with James who seems much older and much more boring. I see them not really sticking together very long so the ending left me a bit dissatisfied. Perhaps the sequel (or subsequent series) will help make this feel more believable and natural, but it's poor editing that it wasn't felt in the first book. It's saving grace is that it's under 200 pages, so a quick read, or it was in danger of being buried in my DNF graveyard.
Not entirely sure how to rate this. Hoped for a romance. Got a mystery. Not interested in a mystery. Also, starting to suspect that I may be in a slump. I know what needs to be done.
