Blurb:
When Elenora Grey inherits her late aunt’s flower shop in the sleepy Devon town of Totnes, she hopes for nothing more than a quiet fresh start. But Time & Thyme is no ordinary florist. Beneath the ticking clock of East Gate Arch, strange things begin to stir — flowers bloom out of season, a cash register writes its own orders, and upstairs, behind a locked door, is a man who shouldn’t exist.
He calls himself the clockmaker. Calm, unreadable, and impossibly out of time, he knows more about the shop — and Elenora’s past — than he ever admits. As Elenora rebuilds her life from the ashes of fear and regret, she’s drawn into a world where grief takes root and time itself can heal… or haunt.
Tender, atmospheric, and quietly magical, The Clockmaker is a story about second chances, the ghosts we carry, and the courage it takes to let time move forward again.
My Review:
Elenora views her inheritance of her late aunt’s flower shop ‘Time & Thyme’ as the perfect opportunity to escape and disappear from the prying eyes of the outside world. As she absorbs herself in cleaning up the space that’s been left to her, she creates her own sense of routine.
With the surprising arrival of a mysterious man, who refers to himself simply as ‘The Clockmaker’, Elenora finds that rather than being angry and annoyed at his presence (although, initially she is certainly unsettled by his unexpected, regular appearance), she starts to relax and feel a sense of calm and healing as he adds comfort to the regular pattern of her day.
The strength of this novella definitely lies in its atmosphere, and in how the author so perfectly describes the minutiae of small-town life. The fact that it’s a short story and cannot rely on long, plot-driven narratives means that descriptions need to be concise and specific, and Burley gets this right throughout. But she does so artfully, not always stating the obvious, so never leaving the reader with the feeling that anything is being “dumbed down” for them. (I hate when authors do this … spelling things out for readers, as if we can’t figure things out for ourselves!)
This was a thoroughly enjoyable, light read even though it had themes of grief and loss woven into it. Ultimately though, it was hopeful and full of warmth, and it left me with a smile on my face. Magical realism is just that … magical! It adds an element of otherworldliness to our lives: the hint that there’s ‘something’ out there that can reach out at any moment and sprinkle some pixie dust over us and make things wonderful! It’s also a little nudge to remind us that we have the power within us all along really, don’t we?
Thank you so much to Acorn & Ink, Love Books Tours and to the author for this blog tour, and for making an early copy of the book available to us.
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