Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Women's Fiction]]==Women's Fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lauren Grodstein1471180158|title=A Friend of the Family|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary='A Friend of the Family' is an intriguing and enjoyable read. Set in a wealthy New Jersey neighbourhood, it tells the story of two couples who have been friends for many years. Peter Dizinoff and Joe Stern graduated from medical school together and their wives, Elaine and Iris have known each other for just as long. In many ways their privileged lives have been almost perfect – that is until a shocking event occurs and the two couples react in such different ways that it shatters their friendship and threatens their comfortable existence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099533359</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaybe Tomorrow|author=Kate Long|title=A Mother's Guide to Cheating|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=When Jaz discovers a random text message on her husband Ian's phone, it does not take a genius to work out the meaning of a message as personal as 'what did you dream last night?', followed by kisses and a strange woman's name. Nor does it take a genius to figure out the precise nature of what Ian has been up to with the sender. A subsequent confession and proclamation from Ian that 'it meant nothing; she is nothing' does not diminish Jaz's rage and he is dispatched, forthwith, from the family home. As is the norm in these kind of situations, you turn to the people you most trust to help you through and reinforcements in the shape of Jaz's mother, Carol, swiftly arrive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377505</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louise Douglas|title=Missing YouPenny Parkes

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Sean seemed to have the perfect life. He has a successful careerJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a beautiful wife to whom he is devoted, a daughter whom he adores and he lives in man who's a dream home. But then one day it control freak with all falls apart when Belle announces that she has met someone else and wants Sean to move out. Fen, on the other hand, doesn't have subtlety of a perfect lifehalf brick. She works in a bookshop and is devoted to her young Jamie's son, Connor who Bo, 'has cerebral palsyhis problems'. ThatHe's not asthmatic and the more you read, the least of her problems though as she hides a dreadful secret and fearful more you'll suspect that it will be brought out into he's on the open autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she lives 's a life drawn frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on itself, far time to pick Bo up from her home school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and family and reluctant put in the wrong. It was going to become close come to anyonea head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330454412</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katie Fforde (Editor) and Sue Moorcroft (Editor)Lauren Bravo|title=Loves Me, Loves Me NotPreloved|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=What a feast is presented in these forty stories from well-loved and prolific romantic authors, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Romantic Novelists' Association. In a Who's Who of the genre, there are writers from every age group, including one or two who might even have been founder members of the RNA, back in 1960. My advice is to sip through the stories slowly, rather than gobbling them up quickly and suffering from indigestion.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303373</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lauren Oliver|title=Before I Fall|rating=5

|summary=Samantha 'Sam' Kingston Gwen is, in many ways, your typical American high schooler whose concerns are pretty predictable: boys, friends, fashion, weird parents, annoying little sisters. Today it's Cupid Day, pressing her middle-aged bosom on a chance to show off just how ''In'' you are at school, as measured by the big number of roses you're sent, but Sam's not too worried about that. She knows she's part of starts with a group who, by most definitions, would be called popular, four and though sometimes inside she might feel on the inside a little like ends with an imposter, on the outside, well, sheoh-my-God-I's m-nearly-forty. Having been made unexpectedly redundant - any HR officer worth their salt would argue the definition toss - Gwen finds herself having a bit of a mid-life crisis. Catharsis is key and Gwen has decided now is the time to take back her life''in''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340980893</amazonuk>1398510629

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Suzanne Bugler0008506337|title=This Perfect WorldThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Laura Hamley sees herself The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a fortunate womanglittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. She has Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a successful husband, two beautiful well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, a big house Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in a good neighbourhoodLondon and holidays were spent at Sandcove, and a coterie of friends who fall nicely into the category family home on the Isle of people like usWight. She Even then the doubts about Richard's always beautifully turned out, and her position in the social pecking order is drinking were never less than high. She simply shrugs off the occasional moments of dissatisfaction - what on Earth could far from Margo's mind: ''she have would never be able to complain about?leave him in charge''.

And then Mrs Partridge makes an unwelcome phone callThen Richard left them... |amazonuk=<amazonuk>023074401X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julie CohenHadeer Elsbai|title=Nina Jones and the Temple The Daughters of GloomIzdihar|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionFantasy|summary=A sign Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the lives of two women who could not be more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a good booksociety pitted against them. Nehal, for meborn into the upper class, often relates wishes to attend the Weaving Academy to how easily I can put it down. And then how much I want learn to pick it back up again. Nina Jones was a particular challenge for me as after reading it for an hour whilst my toddler napped I kept my thumb in the page whilst getting her out of bed, snuck control her downstairs still saving my page, put on Cbeebies, abilities and then sat next to her on join the sofa to carry on reading for at least another hourmilitary, if not a little bit more than thatbut instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. I then kept it in Giorgina on the kitchen so I could sneak other hand did not have a few more pages in between stirring the spaghetti. And then once my daughter was in bed I went on privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to absently ignore my poorprovide for her family and maintain their reputation, tired, over-worked husband (who got bored and went for a bath) so that I could read on to whilst secretly attending meetings of the end Daughters of the story. I found myself mentally yelling at Izdihar – a fictional character (I hope it was mentally and I wasngroup campaigning for women't actually shouting out louds rights.Giorgina also happens to be in love with Nico..we have very thin walls), I swooned over the heroWhat follows is a story of an unjust society, sniggered often filled with hypocrisy and I even cried a little bit too. Socruelty, from which blossoms a book that induces such family neglect group of admirable women fighting for their rights and an emotional roller coaster of emotions is definitely a good read!overcoming their personal obstacles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755341414</amazonuk>0356520471

 {{newreview|author=Melanie Rose|title=Coming Home|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=We meet the narrator of this story drinking coffee from a thermos in a lay-by, on a cold grey day. All her worldly possessions are travelling with her in her car, including her cat. She has clearly made some momentous decision, and is on her way to somewhere new. I assumed that as story unfolded, I'd learn more about her and where she was going.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561063</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephanie Tillotson|title=Cut on the Bias|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=If ''Cut on the Bias'' is in your local bookshop, you will surely be won over by the feisty cover. Stories about women and their clothes are about identity, so what better start to a set of short stories than a fashion statement cover featuring the bags in which said clothes arrive home?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784132</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Erica Bauermeister B0B575J99N|title=The Monday Night Cooking School|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The Monday Night Cooking School is the first novel written by American writer Erica Bauermeister and it really is a delicious read in every sense. The novel tells of eight very diverse people who attend a cooking class once a month at Lillian's restaurant. Each has a different reason for being there and each has his or her own story to tell. However, over Beneath the months that the course is run, they start to bond through the learning experience and their love of food. It's not the sort of novel where much happens but if you are interested in people and you love food, I am sure you will enjoy this book. Having said that though, I don't think it is a book that should be read if you are trying to diet because you can virtually smell the food as you turn the pages!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038837</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPorticoes|author=Kate Morton|title=The Forgotten GardenBrooke Adams

|summary=Just before the First World War Elizabeth Miller was thirty-four and a teacher at a little prestigious girl 's school in York. It was ''comfortable'' but she longed for something more in life. She'd ''still not found abandoned on the wharf after right vocation nor met the right man'' and now was the time to make a dreadful sea voyage from England to Australiachange. She appears not to know her name – or is unwilling to tell it – and all she will say is that needed challenges. There was a mysterious lady little trepidation when she calls applied for the Authoress had promised to look after herprofessoressa job in Bologna. ThereAfter a telephone interview, she was offered the position and it wasn's no trace of her though and t long before she was exploring the little girl was taken in a by a friendly familybeautiful city. She forgot all about the events until many years later when There were some natural doubts before her adopted father told her what had happenedfirst class but it went surprisingly well.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330449605</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathy Marie Buchanan 0241542405|title=The Day The Falls Stood Still|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=I imagined this title as a 'Gone With the Wind' sort of novel, a saga-esque historical romance, with a characterful heroine and page-turning story line that necessitates reading late into the night. Well, I wasn't disappointed in this paperback edition of the hardback, already a best-seller in the U.S.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925967</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMeredith Alone|author=Nia Pritchard|title=More Than Just A Hairdresser|rating=2.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=It's a brand new year, and Liverpudlian hairdresser Shirley is looking forward to the months ahead following one hell of a new year's eve party. What's more, she's going to chronicle her adventures in her brand spanking new diary which she will write in diligently, even when she's feeling a bit 'morning after the night before'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1870206851</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anthony Quinn|title=The Rescue ManClaire Alexander

|summary=This love affair tale with the city of Liverpool is mostly told through the eyes of architect Tom BainesWhen we first meet Meredith Maggs it's Wednesday 14 November 2018 and she's not left her home for 1,214 days. With the Second World War looming She'd ''like'' to: in fact, Baines is desperately working she so nearly does. Her outdoor clothes are on a book and she's even considered which shoes to wear if she's going to catch her train. Then, she can't. She simply can't force herself to capture leave the memory safety of buildings her home. She's fortunate that are at riskshe has a good friend, Sadie, and appears a man more in love who visits regularly with the past and solidher two children, cold structures than mankind.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531933</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lorraine Jenkin|title=Chocolate Mousse James and Two Spoons|rating=4Matilda.5|genre=Women Sadie's Fiction|summary=From the first sentence: 'With one hell a cardiac nurse and full of a crashsound common sense. In fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, Lettie Howell’s dinner service hit the wall…', I knew that I was going to enjoy this taleFred. An opening thus full of expletive Groceries are online deliveries and resounding Welsh Voice immediately makes it clear who’s the boss and I there's also an internet-based support group where you'll find Meredith as JIGSAWGIRL, so you can relax, knowing I’m guess what she does in competent handsher spare time. WelcomeThen Tom McDermott arrives. He's from Holding Hands, Lorraine Jenkin, to my handful of favourite chick-lit authorsa charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1870206959</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ru Freeman0008441618|title=A Disobedient GirlOther Parents|author=Sarah Stovell

|summary=ThereJo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didn's evidently t live up to her retired predecessor there could well be a house price slump in that part of the town. The school had an active Parent Teacher Association and the funds which they raised were a market for scandalous talesconsiderable benefit to the school. There was one difficulty, or else many a womenthough - they were ''devastatingly shockable''s weekly would have gone out of business by now, but this bookwith two members, though full of scandalin particular, is slightly differentcausing problems for the head. This isn't council estate scandal or even trashy celebrity scandal, it Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected to Jo's juicy, firmly middle class scandal of restrictions on the type [[:Categorytoys children could bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe:Zoe Heller|Zoë Heller]] might write about, and it's wickedly captivatingLGBTQ education.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847396542</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jules StanbridgeGiovanna Fletcher|title=A Date in Your Diary|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Harry knows that a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, but she also knows there's a difference between what we need and what we want – and she wants a bloke. More specifically, she wants a date for the latest in a string of friend-and-family weddings, a wedding where, thanks to a 'tricky' seating plan, she will be sitting Walking on the same table as her most recent ex...and his new girlfriend. With no prospects in sight, Harry comes to the conclusion that internet dating might be the way to go. At best, she'll find a guy who ticks all her boxes and will joyfully accompany her to the wedding before they live happily ever after, and at worst, well, she might get a story out of it, never a bad thing for a magazine journo.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347137</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sharon Owens|title=The Seven Secrets of HappinessSunshine

|summary=It was hard to think that life wasnMike't perfect for Ruby O'Neill. She and Jonathan had an idyllic marriage and a beautiful home. There was a job in a dress shop which she enjoyed and although she might not be close to her parents she had good friends. It s wife, Pia, who he was Christmas Eve and the tree had just been delivered by a lovely man on behalf of the garden centre when her world fell apart. Jonathan had been killed in a car crash.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141028564</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sarah Duncan|title=A Single to Rome|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Natalie is in love with Michael. They've been together for three seventeen years, but Michael wants some spacehas died. He hasn’t said And whilst he doesn’t love heris dealing with his grief, so there is still a chance he could come back… Then he goes are their best friends, Vicky and finds himself a new girlfriendZaza. DevastatedBut Pia left them all some 'rules' to follow, Natalie consoles herself with the knowing that she was dying and that they would need help to carry on living. Whilst some of the rules are around practicalities such as clearing out her friendswardrobe, who persuade her to go speed dating. There she meets Guy, a friendly man, who like her is trying another one that Mike discovers one day encourages him to get over someone – his new ex-wife Vanessa. But Guy is take one of the nice onestheir trips away, and before she knows itVicky and Zaza, he has been invited to her friend’s wedding as Natalie’s date. At least she won’t be going alone struggling with their grief and Michael will be there. But her love their own life isn’t her only worry. Past actions have come troubles, decide to light that have put her career drop everything in danger. At a losstheir own lives, Natalie turns to Guy for help, who offers her the use of his flat in Romeand go along with him. A place to escape? Or a place to dwell? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755345932</amazonuk>140593560X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lesley PearseB09FS89KX9|title=StolenFall On Me|author=Penelope Potts

|summary=The story Life should have been good for Hollie: She was just going into the final year of her veterinary degree and - three years later - was still working at BB''Stolen'' is an interesting ones diner. David Mitchell is walking along Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was a beach good boss. Hollie had moved in Selseywith her boyfriend, Sussex in May 2003, when Marcus: her mother thought he comes across a young woman – beautiful, half-drowned was great and barely alivehe was doing well in his career. She is taken Hollie wasn't quite so certain though: Marcus wanted to hospital control her and most of all he wanted her to leave her photo is featured in job at the newspapers, as the police hope to discover who she isdiner. Meanwhile, Dale, a female hairdresser, sees Then there was the photo and believes the girl to fact that he would be Lotteviolent, who she befriended on a cruise they were working on. Along with Dale's colleague Scott – who also knew Lotte – they visit the girl, but she has amnesia both to her and seems to have forgotten almost everythingother people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718152859</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie Highmore0008421714|title=The MessageMrs March|author=Virginia Feito

|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=''The Messageproblem began just after the publication of George March'' is very much a twenty s most successful novel to date. Everyone but Mrs March (we know her first century tale as it all hinges on a voicemail message made from a mobile phone. It is also based name only on the fact that it is very easy last page) seemed to send a message to one person when either be reading it is actually meant for someone elseor had already done so. This is what happens Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to Jen when buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, as she receives a message from her husband Robert. There is nothing particularly special about was wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this message; that is until Jen realises that she is not the intended recipient and then it has first time he's based a shattering effect character on you?'' She mentioned that Johanna, the principal character had 'her marriage.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343018</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ann Pearlman|title=The Cookie Club|rating=5|genre=Womenmannerisms''s Fiction|summary=Chocolate bonbons with an almond glaze. Peanut butter cookies double dipped in chocolate. Coffee and raisin hermit biscuits. Crisp vanilla fingers with toasted almonds. Thin crunchy crisps flavoured with molasses and ginger.  If you're even Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the slightest bit peckish after fact that, I guarantee you'll be starving by Johanna is the time you finish this wonderful book full whore of festive flavourNantes - ''a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376843</amazonuk>''

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eloisa James1473685745|title=When the Duke ReturnsUnbreak Your Heart|author=Katie Marsh

|summary=If you like novels in which little happens as the story strolls towards its happy endingWhen Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, then Nia PritchardSimon was angry and Beth was doing her best to apologise for having knocked Simon's sequel to 'More Than Just a Hairdresser' may suit youson, Jake, off his bike. If the Liverpudlian vernacular and setting pushes your buttons, then maybe youHe wasn'll enjoy its light-hearted picture of Scouse lifet hurt but Jake has history. My mother-inHe has HLHS -law will probably love it. I'm sorry to say that it wasn't my cup s Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of tea at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784124</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jessica Porter |title=Sicilian Sunset|rating=3|genre=Womenyou who are not ''s Fiction|summary=Sarah Livingstoneau fait's jewellery business was struggling but she was still annoyed when her father called James Ross for help. Sarah and James had had a relationship some ten years earlier and Sarah really didn't want to work with him, particularly after her marriageyour medical acronyms. Most people thought that her husbandWhen he was born, the left side of his heart hadn's death in a plane crash had been the cruel end to a good marriage. Only t developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few knew that he had been about to leave her to live with another womandays old. ItSo, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they's left Sarah very reluctant to get involved with any manre driving.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089430</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret ThorntonC J Carey|title=Until We Meet AgainWidowland

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=In the fateful summer of 1914 Tilly Moon is settled in the midst of the Moon family in Scarborough. It's an extensive clan with the usual close relationshipsApril 1953, unusual situations and slight distances between people for no apparent reason. TillyAdolf Hitler's an accomplished pianist and she longs schedule includes going to Moscow to take her music studies further, but there's someone who's attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to mean more London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to her than her musicthe throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. Her twinFor yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn's best friendt happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, Dominic Fraser is the apple we share enough of her eye and he feels the same way about herblood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''. There are war clouds on But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the horizon though drudges, and when Britain declares war beyond those, right on Germany Tommy down to the childless, the husbandless and Dominic are quick the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to enlist as were many take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the men in and around party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the Moon familyfirst emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007486</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Liza PalmerRuth Hogan|title=A Field Guide to Burying Your ParentsMadame Burova

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Grace is reluctantly participating This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connected. So we have a 5k race when she receives the news: her estranged sister is calling to tell her their estranged father has had bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a stroke. That's two lots of estrangement girl in just two generations of family, but a summons is humdrum job wanting to become a summonssinger, and Grace soon finds herself dragged back into chiefly, Imelda, the heart third generation of the Madame Burova, ''Tarot-Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant'', to use her family she deserted's sea-front booth. The singer, working with the others to discover the many hidden secrets of scryer and the father who deserted them all. Itsufferer's mother will all become staff at a tough jump from revamped holiday camp, but just before then we see Imelda fly solo for the first time in the family stall. We also see her on her happy life last day, fifty years later, in possession of a pair of letters that will change everything for a good jobwoman called Billie. Just who is she, a new boyfriend and a home of who delivered the secrets about her own to return to the family life she left behind a long time agoImelda, and Grace has why did it have to decide whether she can ignore the pull of her biological siblings once more or whether the remain a secret all this time has come to let bygones be bygones. After all, while there are lots of four letter words she would associate with her family, ''love'' is not one of them.?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340962151</amazonuk>152937331X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julia WilliamsJennifer Saint |title=Last ChristmasAriadne |rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=With Christmas fast approaching, what better way This re-telling of getting in the spirit myth of things than by reading this excellent book that captures the joys Ariadne and stresses of the festive season so well? The reader follows four different people – Catherine Tinsall and her husband Noel, Marianne Moore Minotaur is interesting and Gabriel Northunusual. Each of these characters have their own reasons for not really looking forward Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to Christmas (mainly because of a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the experience viewpoint of last Christmas) and these reasons slowly become apparent Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the story progressesheroics of Theseus.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847560865</amazonuk>1472273869

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Camilla NoliLucy Holland|title=The Mother's TaleSistersong|rating=45|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=''It Sistersong is early evening. part of a genre I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and child''fairy tales.  No doubt about it: These stories, for most of us, are a new mother totally smitten cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with her sonfresh eyes and a fresh perspective. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding. A happyIf handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, generally relaxedfleshing out characters, child. Gorgeous.  But Zach isn't her firstexamining relationships and re-bornevaluating the role of women. First there was Cassie. A child who entered Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the world screaming and has since learned exactly what power she can wring plot is handled with such lungs. Not yet two years oldcare, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, Cassie adores her fatherto feel real and human, but even him she manipulatesmost importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. Her mother she terrorisesThis is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409101584</amazonuk>1529039037

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue MoorcroftB08NF79QXT|title=Starting OverCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=43

|summary=The story opens Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when Tess bumps her old reliable car into a breakdown truckshe's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. That She's rather convenient, since delighted and the two people she isn's brought with her to the event couldn't hurtbe more pleased. Sonja, and the guy driving it is able to tow her to his garagemother, is an ex-model and then give Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her a lift to her new homelooks from. Naturally, since this is the Jessica'chicks thirty-litfour and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica' genres husband, Tess Charles and the trucktheir four-year-driverold daughter, who goes by the unlikely name of Ratty (an abbreviation of his surname) feel mutual antipathy of the sort thatAva. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn's clearly going to lead, sooner or later, to strong attractiont for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931224</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella WhitelawB08GFSK2WZ|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd

|summary=You'll like Sophie GreshamGeorge Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright 's not had sex for eight months and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenes. She's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive stuck in the prompt corner she loves karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is being visited on her job and most of the cast in the theatre companyshe has a real talent for attracting drama. ItHer life's a bit of a shock though when chaotic: she realises that dealt with the guest producer leak from New York is Joe Harrison, the man shower by putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she helped out when he had nothing to eat was in it and nowhere to sleepleft her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman. Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime sheShe only has to take her mother's had dog out for a walk for her to develop end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a protective shellphoto being taken by someone who shares it around the office.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer BohnetB08CHJLNBS|title=Follow Your StarCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3.5

|summary=ItHe's three years since Nanette Weston left MonacoCharles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She'd been engaged s Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life little deeper. Charles is more of the wealthy a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but a serious car accident had ended , above all , he's shocked thatEmilia reads ''The Guardian''. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of the alcohol shehis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it'd consumeds obvious to his friends. Her slow recovery was hindered And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by the end of her engagement but Charles's superficiality, why does shefeel drawn to him? The relationship's found some contentment in being obviously a nanny to two young children. When her friend and employernon-starter, Vanessa, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back to Monaco where their father lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>isn't it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Miss ReadHelly Acton|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenThe Shelf|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush GreenWhen we meet Amy, this book is the latest she's in a series surrounding familiar charactersrelationship with Jamie. There is the feisty Ella BembridgeYou can't really call it a partnership, who is finally having because things tend to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight fails. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about herget done on his terms, but she refuses to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided it's time to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner and sticking around because she hopes she can afford to take care of change him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play. Ah, despite a number of set-backsyes. Will everything be in place for ChristmasHaven't we all been there? And will independent Ella make a decision about Things are looking up when he tells her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maxine Barry|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Two young women both have to pack for a love of the Thamessurprise trip. Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank. It's here that guests come who want to Could this be pampered and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it? Is he 's not pampering he's looking for. Hefinally''s buying a piece of land not far from going to get down on one knee? Was the Ray of Sunshine work (and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eye.wait) worth it?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>1838770879

{{newreview|author=Leah Fleming|title=Remembrance Day|rating=4|genre=WomenWhen Mike Parker's Fiction|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady in girlfriend comes into school with a wheelchair watches black eye, claiming he gave it to her, her whole world is tipped upside down. Her relationship has just ended and now she's the unveiling talk of the new war memorial school. Mike was the most popular boy in the village square. There's pride school who was always so in love with her, everyone knew that, so why did he do what has been achieved, in the family who are gathered around he did? Some people believe her and there are memories too. Some are good some don't, but many are notone thing is for sure, this isn't going to blow over any time soon.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>0349003297

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Abby McDonaldKatie Fforde|title=The Popularity RulesA Springtime Affair|rating=4.5|genre=TeensWomen's Fiction|summary=This book is labelled as Abby McDonaldI's first adult novel, but ve wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a brief browse at the juvenile titlewarm, cover and formatted content bowls it straight down the teen cosy read alley. The Americanised languagefocused on romance, music scene setting family and media heroine are aspirational stuff when you're stuck in the pre-scene yearsfriendships. SoThis provided two romances for the price of one, despite its label, I've given but it four and a half stars based on its appeal was actually the family element as a girlie book. That said, opposed to the romance that I'm well over eighteen, read the story avidly, and really enjoyed the irony. So well done, Abby McDonald, for an entertaining story, cleverly told. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099533898</amazonuk>1780897561

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne BakerB07W4MNBSG|title=Through Rose-Coloured GlassesBe Careful Who You Marry|author=Lizzy Mumfrey

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Dinah Radcliffe lived It was coming up to Halloween in one of the poorer parts of Liverpool 1987 and whilst there might not have been a lot group of money to spare she was happy in her job as an apprentice milliner and spent her free time nursing her mother, Sarahsixth-form schoolgirls wondered what they would be doing when they were fifty. Her father had been killed in the Great WarWhen you're only seventeen that seems positively ancient, but it Liz was convinced that ''your entire life depends on who you marry''. The only eligible boys were the nineteen thirties Young Farmers and the Radcliffes idea of living in a farmhouse and having a couple of children called Will and Olly appealed to Charlotte, or perhaps William and Oliver if you were making Elizabeth who was determined to marry the best of thingsrather superior Patrick Shepley-Botham. The son of place to start their next door neighbour search was a jockey and it was his free tickets which took Dinah and her friend to a race meeting at Aintreeobviously the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekend. It There was just one problem - there that she met Richard Haldane, a widowed businessman who swept Dinah off her feet and introduced her to a life of wealth and privilege beyond her wildest dreams. Within weeks they were married - and within hours Dinah discovered that her husband was not too many Elizabeths in the man she thought he wasclass.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356640</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Carole Matthews |title=That Loving Feeling|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Have you ever wondered what successful authors write about? Since they no longer partake of the everyday world of work, how do they 'write about what they know' while still sounding fresh and up to the minute? And how do they think up all those unique plots? Well, Carole Matthews has solved the problem in 'That Loving Feeling' by setting the book in a Public Library, cleverly utilising the hours she must have spent promoting her previous romantic comedies at Libraries up and down the country. To be cruising towards twenty published novels suggests plenty of interest from library readers and it's a rather nice touch, isn't it, to set a book amongst your loyal fan base.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755354168</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sharon Griffiths |title=The Lost Guide Move on to Life and Love|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction[[Features|summary=Tilly Flint is a food journalist living in London and hankering for a more glamorous life than the one she has. She has a taste of this when her boyfriend Jake takes her to an upmarket nightclub frequented by top footballers and models. Little does she know at the time but some of the people she only glimpses that night are about to become very important to her. Just after, she agrees to go on a working holiday with Jake and they book an isolated cottage in the Pennines. However, an almighty row leads to Jake storming out and Tilly being left on her own. Surprisingly though, it is relief rather than fear that she experiences, particularly when she realises that where she is staying has very strong links with her family's history and that everyone knows of her Great Granny Allen who's sayings Tilly's mother is so fond of quoting.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560911</amazonuk>}}latest features]]