Spoilers: There's bad luck during vacations and there's what happened to Sophie Groenvald, protagonist of MaryAnn Clarke's lovely Contemporary Women's Fiction novel, Secrets at The Aviary Inn. She toured Europe with her boyfriend, Marc-Antoine, to get away from a troubled and smothering home life in Canada. Unfortunately, Marc-Antoine abandoned her to travel with other strangers including a very attractive one. As if being an unfaithful narcissist wasn't enough, Marc-Antoine also took Sophie's money, passport, and other documentation so she is left in York, England without money, papers, or any way to get home.
Her sad story and toxic relationship reaches sympathetic ears and she is directed to Aviary Inn, a beautiful out of the way inn run by Mrs. Ava Roxtoby. Ava hires Sophie to work at the front desk and reception center. The desperate situation becomes more tolerable as Sophie earns money, finds friends, gets involved in a couple of serious romances, and gains a benevolent employer in Ava. She also finds some long awaited answers to questions that she has asked that cause her to rethink her family and where she belongs.
Even though Secrets at The Aviary Inn is not a Fantasy by any stretch of the imagination, there is something idyllic, charming, otherworldly, and even enchanting about this book most notably by the presence of Ava and the Aviary Inn.
Sophie’s first description of the Inn is as follows: “A large gray stone house with pointed gables and white fancy bags and rows of chimney pots stands three stories tall with sloped peacock blue awning that read The Aviary Inn on the Mount. It looks like two terrace houses joined, and the house on the left is wrapped in green ivy, with thick, creamy white window frames and mullions with leaded glass plants peeking through. It looks like a fairy tale castle, and I have to remind myself that old houses in England are like really old.”
The description gives an air of a fantasy castle that is beautiful but remote. Even the way that Sophie finds it, through word of mouth gives the overall impression of a space that activates the senses but is very hard to find. It can't be discovered or traveled to through conventional means. It has to be found.
Since the inn is called The Aviary Inn, there is a bird motif throughout the book. Sophie describes the lobby with enough birds that would keep The Audubon Society interested. There are pheasants, owls, finches, sparrows, ducks, and gulls. Ava can often be seen feeding and caring for domestic doves and pigeons outside the inn. Sophie’s co-worker, Zoe, uses “duck” as a term of endearment for friends. This is a place that is definitely for the birds as well as the humans.
The bird motif is not only a reveal of Ava's interests and personality, but it also adds to the off putting but enchanting fairy tale quality of the setting. It is light, airy, a home to humans, birds, and animals. It's practically another world where the terms predator and prey do not exist. Instead it's a community that welcomes all who enter with good intent.
Ava herself gives off the impression of a threshold guardian, almost a sorceress, White Witch, or nature priestess who lives in her own private world. She is an eccentric but kind figure who can be distant and warm at the same time. She approaches with kindness but keeps others at an emotional arm's length by not sharing much about her private life. She seems like the type of person to retreat to her birds and nature because she prefers them to people.
Once Sophie learns Ava’s story, she sees the hurt vulnerable woman who was separated from the people that she loved the most. It's easy to see why Ava created this private personal kingdom, one where she has control over who enters and exits and so she can never be hurt.
In discovering Aviary Inn, Sophie learns important things about her family line. While it might stretch credibility that the strange place that she never before heard of would hold the answers that she so desperately sought, there are some indications that her journey is not as random as previously thought. She had ulterior motives for this trip and came specifically to York to discover her family history.
There are some contrived coincidences and possibilities of fate lurking in the background. Sophie didn't plan on being abandoned nor did she know the exact location where she needed to go in advance. However, she had a good head start and the events in the book helped guide her to that path.
Once the truth is revealed, Sophie and Ava have to see each other as they really are not remote, otherworldly, or fantastic. Instead they see each other as full real complex women with a connection that had been severed by broken feelings, wrong words, understandable intentions but hurtful deeds, and time. Through their words and actions, they are able to repair that connection and create new meaningful ones.
