There is a decent plot (or three) hiding in all this mess. How Tamara and her mother recover from the suicide of their father/husband would make a good story in itself. The secrets of the Kilsaney family and the burned castle provide enough intrigue for a mystery. Tamara’s change from a spoiled, tempestuous teen to a young woman who finds happiness in a small Irish village could also have been developed into a decent book. But all these plot lines and magical elements seem to have been thrown together without thought. Instead of a hearty stew that melds different ingredients into a delicious and substantial dish, we get a slop jar of leftovers.

I give it two stars because 1) there were parts of the story that I found interesting and 2) Ali Coffey did a good job of the audio version. I don’t think I’d recommend the book to anyone, and I’m not interested in reading anything else by Ahern.

Instead of rags to riches, Tamara Goodwin and her mother went from riches to rags. After Mr. Goodwin committed suicide they were penniless and went from a huge house to a small cottage that Tamara and her mother had to share with relatives.

Enduring her uncle's crude ways, tolerating her aunt's constant cooking and hovering, having no friends around, having nothing to do in this small town, and dealing with her mother's silence was not how Tamara wanted her days to be. Her aunt and uncle were quite bizarre and seemed to be hiding something. What it was Tamara had no idea. Everything was hush hush and Rosaleen seemed to hide behind her huge tables of food and Arthur said nothing about anything. Tamara wasn't a pleasant young lady to begin with, and this situation didn't improve her mood.

As mean as she was, Tamara was quite funny....always joking about things. She also kept looking back at her life and wondering if it really had been better when she was rich. There was a lot of introspection, and the characters' lives were paralleled with inanimate objects and thoughts. Tamara actually met interesting people in the town and discovered a history of the castle.

The main focus of the book was based on a diary Tamara found in a mobile library that stopped in "Hicksville" once a week. The diary was quite interesting as well as shocking because of the content. The content contained something hard to believe. She would read the diary every day and the next day it would be filled with pages of even more interest.

The book was skillfully written....the author has a great style. You can actually see the grimaces on the character's faces simply because of the wonderful description; you can also feel Tamara's frustration, and Rosaleen's fear of something.

The book was imaginative, creative, and a book that was difficult to put down.....a marvelous read. It also was magical and a little out of the ordinary. Being out of the ordinary made it unique, enjoyable, and appealing. I liked the characters for the most part, but they were an odd bunch, especially Rosaleen with her odd ideas and her secret ways of dealing with situations and people.

I would consider THE BOOK OF TOMORROW a light read but with undercurrents of secrets, revenge, and jealousy along with a web of deceit and all of it being nicely tied up in the surprise ending. 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge by the publisher in return for an honest review.