Difference between revisions of "Newest Women's Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Women's Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Women's Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Women's Fiction]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Women's Fiction]]__NOTOC__
==Women's Fiction==
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{{Frontpage
__NOTOC__
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|isbn=1471180158
{{newreview
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|title=Maybe Tomorrow
|author=Julie Highmore
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|author=Penny Parkes
|title=The Message
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=General Fiction
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|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick.  Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'.  He's asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum.  Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a 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 time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong.  It was going to come to a head.
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Lauren Bravo
 +
|title=Preloved
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=''The Message'' is very much a twenty first century tale as it all hinges on a voicemail message made from a mobile phone. It is also based on the fact that it is very easy to send a message to one person when it is actually meant for someone else. This is what happens to Jen when she receives a message from her husband Robert. There is nothing particularly special about this message; that is until Jen realises that she is not the intended recipient and then it has a shattering effect on her marriage.
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|summary= Gwen is pressing her middle-aged bosom on a big number that starts with a four and ends with an oh-my-God-I'm-nearly-forty. Having been made unexpectedly redundant - any HR officer worth their salt would argue the 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'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343018</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398510629
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008506337
|author=Ann Pearlman
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|title=The Garnett Girls
|title=The Cookie Club
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|author=Georgina Moore
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=General 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.   
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|summary=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 glittering career. In the event,  they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of WightEven then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.
  
If you're even the slightest bit peckish after that, I guarantee you'll be starving by the time you finish this wonderful book full of festive flavour.
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Then Richard left them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376843</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Eloisa James
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|author=Hadeer Elsbai
|title=When the Duke Returns
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|title=The Daughters of Izdihar
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|genre=Fantasy
|summary=''When the Duke Returns'', the newest volume in the 'Desperate Duchesses' series, continues the regency celebrity romp saga where [[Duchess by Night by Eloisa James|Duchess by Night]] left off.
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|summary= 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 society pitted against them. Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to attend the Weaving Academy to learn to control her abilities and then join the military, but instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. Giorgina on the other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women's rights. Giorgina also happens to be in love with Nico. What follows is a story of an unjust society, filled with hypocrisy and cruelty, from which blossoms a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstacles.
 
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|isbn=0356520471
The focus, this time, is on Isidore, the Duchess of Conway: hot-headed, hot-blooded and Italian to boot, she was married by proxy at the age of sixteen and is still a virgin seven years later. Isidore's cunning plot to entice back the husband she has never seen from his travels in Asia and Africa works perfectly and Simeon, His Grace Duke of Conway is now back in England, ready to claim his estate and, as Isidore presumes, ready to claim his beautiful wife.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961104</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nia Pritchard
 
|title=More Than Just A Wedding
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=If you like novels in which little happens as the story strolls towards its happy ending, then Nia Pritchard's sequel to 'More Than Just a Hairdresser' may suit you.  If the Liverpudlian vernacular and setting pushes your buttons, then maybe you'll enjoy its light-hearted picture of Scouse life.  My mother-in-law will probably love it.  I'm sorry to say that it wasn't my cup of tea at all.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784124</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jessica Porter
 
|title=Sicilian Sunset
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Sarah Livingstone'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 marriage.  Most people thought that her husband's death in a plane crash had been the cruel end to a good marriage. Only a few knew that he had been about to leave her to live with another woman.  It's left Sarah very reluctant to get involved with any man.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089430</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0B575J99N
|author=Margaret Thornton
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|title=Beneath the Porticoes
|title=Until We Meet Again
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|author=Brooke Adams
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's 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 relationships, unusual situations and slight distances between people for no apparent reason.  Tilly's an accomplished pianist and she longs to take her music studies further, but there's someone who's coming to mean more to her than her musicHer twin's best friend, Dominic Fraser is the apple of her eye and he feels the same way about her.  There are war clouds on the horizon though and when Britain declares war on Germany Tommy and Dominic are quick to enlist as were many of the men in and around the Moon family.
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|summary=Elizabeth Miller was thirty-four and a teacher at a prestigious girl's school in York.  It was ''comfortable'' but she longed for something more in lifeShe'd ''still not found the right vocation nor met the right man'' and now was the time to make a change.  She needed challenges.  There was a little trepidation when she applied for the professoressa job in Bologna.  After a telephone interview, she was offered the position and it wasn't long before she was exploring the beautiful city.  There were some natural doubts before her first class but it went surprisingly well.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007486</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241542405
|author=Liza Palmer
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|title=Meredith Alone
|title=A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents
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|author=Claire Alexander
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Grace is reluctantly participating in a 5k race when she receives the news: her estranged sister is calling to tell her their estranged father has had a stroke. That's two lots of estrangement in just two generations of family, but a summons is a summons, and Grace soon finds herself dragged back into the heart of the family she deserted, working with the others to discover the many hidden secrets of the father who deserted them all. It's a tough jump from her happy life of a good job, a new boyfriend and a home of her own to return to the family life she left behind a long time ago, and Grace has to decide whether she can ignore the pull of her biological siblings once more or whether the 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.
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|summary=When we first meet Meredith Maggs it's Wednesday 14 November 2018 and she's not left her home for 1,214 days. She'd ''like'' to: in fact, she so nearly does.  Her outdoor clothes are on 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 leave the safety of her home. She's fortunate that she has a good friend, Sadie, who visits regularly with her two children, James and Matilda.  Sadie's a cardiac nurse and full of sound common sense.  In fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, Fred.  Groceries are online deliveries and there's also an internet-based support group where you'll find Meredith as JIGSAWGIRL, so you can guess what she does in her spare time. Then Tom McDermott arrives.  He's from Holding Hands, a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340962151</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008441618
|author=Julia Williams
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|title=Other Parents
|title=Last Christmas
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|author=Sarah Stovell
|rating=4.5
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=With Christmas fast approaching, what better way of getting in the spirit of things than by reading this excellent book that captures the joys and stresses of the festive season so well? The reader follows four different people – Catherine Tinsall and her husband Noel, Marianne Moore and Gabriel North. Each of these characters have their own reasons for not really looking forward to Christmas (mainly because of the experience of last Christmas) and these reasons slowly become apparent to the reader as the story progresses.
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|summary=Jo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didn'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 considerable benefit to the school.  There was one difficulty, though - they were ''devastatingly shockable'', with two members, in particular, causing problems for the head.  Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ education.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560865</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Giovanna Fletcher
|author=Camilla Noli
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|title=Walking on Sunshine
|title=The Mother's Tale
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=''It is early evening. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna and child''.
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|summary=Mike's wife, Pia, who he was with for seventeen years, has died. And whilst he is dealing with his grief, so are their best friends, Vicky and Zaza. But Pia left them all some 'rules' to follow, 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 wardrobe, another one that Mike discovers one day encourages him to take one of their trips away, and Vicky and Zaza, struggling with their grief and their own life troubles, decide to drop everything in their own lives, and go along with him.
 
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|isbn=140593560X
No doubt about it: a new mother totally smitten with her son. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding.  A happy, generally relaxed, child. Gorgeous.
 
 
 
But Zach isn't her first-born.  First there was Cassie. A child who entered the world screaming and has since learned exactly what power she can wring with such lungs.  Not yet two years old, Cassie adores her father, but even him she manipulates.  Her mother she terrorises.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101584</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B09FS89KX9
|author=Sue Moorcroft
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|title=Fall On Me
|title=Starting Over
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|author=Penelope Potts
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=The story opens when Tess bumps her old reliable car into a breakdown truck. That's rather convenient, since she isn't hurt, and the guy driving it is able to tow her to his garage, and then give her a lift to her new home. Naturally, since this is the 'chick-lit' genre, Tess and the truck-driver, who goes by the unlikely name of Ratty (an abbreviation of his surname) feel mutual antipathy of the sort that's clearly going to lead, sooner or later, to strong attraction.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931224</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Stella Whitelaw
 
|title=Midsummer Madness
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=You'll like Sophie Gresham.  She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright 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 in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre company.  It's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrison, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep.  Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had to develop a protective shell.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer Bohnet
 
|title=Follow Your Star
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left MonacoShe'd been engaged to a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life of the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all thatThe accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of the alcohol she'd consumedHer slow recovery was hindered by the end of her engagement but she's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young children.  When her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back to Monaco where their father lives.
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|summary=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's dinerBob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was a good boss.  Hollie had moved in with her boyfriend, Marcus: her mother thought he was great and he was doing well in his careerHollie wasn't quite so certain though: Marcus wanted to control her and most of all he wanted her to leave her job at the dinerThen there was the fact that he would be violent, both to her and to other people.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008421714
|author=Miss Read
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|title=Mrs March
|title=Christmas at Thrush Green
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|author=Virginia Feito
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush Green, this book is the latest in a series surrounding familiar characters. There is the feisty Ella Bembridge, who is finally having to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight fails. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about her, 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 can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backs. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?
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|summary=The problem began just after the publication of George March's most successful novel to date.  Everyone but Mrs March (we know her first name only on the last page) seemed to either be reading it or had already done so. Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, as she was wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this the first time he's based a character on you?''  She mentioned that Johanna, the principal character had 'her mannerisms''.  Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is the whore of Nantes - ''a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1473685745
|author=Maxine Barry
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|title=Unbreak Your Heart
|title=River Deep
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|author=Katie Marsh
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames.  Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bank.  It's here that guests come who want to 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's not pampering he's looking for.  He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Leah Fleming
 
|title=Remembrance Day
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady in a wheelchair watches the unveiling of the new war memorial in the village square.  There's pride in what has been achieved, in the family who are gathered around her and there are memories tooSome are good but many are not.
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|summary=When Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, Simon was angry and Beth was doing her best to apologise for having knocked Simon's son, Jake, off his bikeHe wasn't hurt but Jake has history. He has HLHS - that's Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of you who are not ''au fait'' with your medical acronymsWhen he was born, the left side of his heart hadn't developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days oldSo, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>
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}}  
}}
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{{Frontpage
 
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|author=C J Carey
{{newreview
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|title=Widowland
|author=Abby McDonald
 
|title=The Popularity Rules
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=This book is labelled as Abby McDonald's first adult novel, but a brief browse at the juvenile title, cover and formatted content bowls it straight down the teen read alley.  The Americanised language, music scene setting and media heroine are aspirational stuff when you're stuck in the pre-scene yearsSo, despite its label, I've given it four and a half stars based on its appeal as a girlie bookThat said, I'm well over eighteen, read the story avidly, and enjoyed the irony.  So well done, Abby McDonald, for an entertaining story, cleverly told.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099533898</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anne Baker
 
|title=Through Rose-Coloured Glasses
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dinah Radcliffe lived in one of the poorer parts of Liverpool and whilst there might not have been a lot of money to spare she was happy in her job as an apprentice milliner and spent her free time nursing her mother, SarahHer father had been killed in the Great War, but it was the nineteen thirties and the Radcliffes were making the best of thingsThe son of their next door neighbour was a jockey and it was his free tickets which took Dinah and her friend to a race meeting at Aintree.  It was 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 the man she thought he was.
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|summary=It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen WallisFor yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''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 drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouragedAnd in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to 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 party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356640</amazonuk>
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|isbn=152941198X
}}
 
 
 
{{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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ruth Hogan
|author=Sharon Griffiths
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|title=Madame Burova
|title=The Lost Guide to Life and Love
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|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.
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|summary=This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connected. So we have a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a girl in a humdrum job wanting to become a singer, and chiefly, Imelda, the third generation of Madame Burova, ''Tarot-Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant'', to use her family's sea-front booth. The singer, the scryer and the sufferer's mother will all become staff at a 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 last day, fifty years later, in possession of a pair of letters that will change everything for a woman called Billie. Just who is she, and who delivered the secrets about her to Imelda, and why did it have to remain a secret all this time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560911</amazonuk>
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|isbn=152937331X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Jennifer Saint
|author=Freda Lightfoot
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|title= Ariadne
|title=House of Angels
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|rating= 4.5  
|rating=4.5
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|genre= Women's Fiction  
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of 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 heroics of Theseus.  
|summary=The novel focuses on the Angel family who live in the Lake District in the late 1900s. Josiah Angel is the head of the family and appears to be a respectable business man, bringing up his three daughters after the death of his wife. The family live in a beautiful house and – to outsiders – the daughters seem to have everything – comfort, money, beauty and an easy life, in great contrast to the poverty around them. Not far from Josiah's department store are the workhouse with its brutality and the blocks of slum flats infested with rats.
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|isbn=1472273869
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007125</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lucy Holland
|author=Amy Silver
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|title=Sistersong
|title=Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista
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|rating=5
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|summary=Sistersong is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.
|summary=Cassie may be 'just' a PA and living and working in one of the most expensive cities on the planet, but thanks to a flair for fashion, and a generous banker boyfriend you'd never know it from looking at her. But, in the fickle world of fashion, friendships and fat-cat bonuses, things can change in an instant. Let go from her job, and from her relationship by her rhymes-with-banker now ex, she is forced to fend for herself and make some cut backs (*shudder*). Forget the Louboutins and the fancy, on-fashion belts, the only buckling she'll be doing any time soon is the buckling down to get a new job, reduce her outgoings, and maintain the smidge of self-respect she has left.
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|isbn=1529039037
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099543559</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08NF79QXT
|author=Emily Barr
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|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique
|title=The Life You Want
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|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=4.5
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|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Many good writers have a signature style and for me, Emily Barr's has always been the utterly authentic travel details all her books have been peppered with, whether it be the lazy life in a lush French farmhouse, or the excitement of backpacking across Asia. Her new title is no exception, and this time the destination is India.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755335600</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tatiana Boncompagni
 
|title=Hedge Fund Wives
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Chick lit is about finding a man in order to live happily ever after: not just any man, of course, but Mr Right himself.  ''Hedge Fund Wives'' is as pink cotton-wooly as any self-respecting chick lit novel in search of a hero.  But... it also flies in the face of this convention.  In the story, marrying money does not secure the fairy tale ending.  It's really amazing that Tatiana Boncompagni has managed to deliver a rags-to-riches happy ending for her heroine while roundly denouncing the riches along the way.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184756187X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Janette Jenkins
 
|title=Angel of Brooklyn
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=On the eve of the Great War, Jonathan Crane arrives home to the unyielding grey of his home town of Anglezarke, Lancashire with a beautiful new bride on his armBeatrice is not immediately warmly received into the embrace of the women of this alien place - her beauty is captivating and the stories about where she grew up, enchanting; Jonathan Crane's new foreign wife is not ordinary among these folk and they are suspicious of her and as sometimes only gritty, British women know how, they are openly and unashamedly hostile toward her. Who is this stunning creature that is trying to infiltrate their lives?
+
|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer AwardShe's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased.  Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava.  Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516551</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ
|author=Santa Montefiore
+
|title=The Karma Trap
|title=The Italian Matchmaker
+
|author=Lisette Boyd
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Luca, a half-Italian, rich banker has been through a painful divorce and has decided to take stock of his life. He decides to leave the City behind and, at the suggestion of a friend (and, inevitably, ex-lover) he decides to take off for the summer to visit his parents who have, fortuitously, recently renovated an old palazzo in (the sadly fictitious) Incantellaria on the Amalfi coast. Here, his parents live with a rich assortment of eccentric friends in residence, including a pet pig.
+
|summary=George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single.  She's not had sex for eight months and she's stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is being visited on her and she has a real talent for attracting drama.  Her life's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman.  She only has to take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340840544</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08CHJLNBS
|author=Kate Harrison
+
|title=Capturing Emilia
|title=The Secret Shopper Unwrapped
+
|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Glamourous Grazia, sassy Sandie and enthusiastic Emily first got together in Harrison's earlier title, 'The Secret Shopper's Revenge'. Now they're back but this time there are many more hassles to deal with than just a bit of simple, secret shopping. Think toy boys and sugar daddies and the odd A-lister, a choice between aging gracefully or disgracefully, reformed criminals and criminal exes, long lost mothers and potential new mothers in law (in the same room! At the same time!) and the delight or dread that comes from finding yourself unexpectedly in the family way. Combine all these factors with the run up to Christmas and you have three good friends run off their feet in every direction but, because friendship is really all that matters, resolutely there for each other in a pinch.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409107302</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarra Manning
 
|title=Unsticky
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Low paid but with big dreams, talented fashionista Grace is in the process of being dumped by a boy whom she was too good for anyway. If that's not bad enough, he's doing it on her birthday, and if even ''that's'' not bad enough, he's doing it in Liberty's. Right by the new season Marc Jacobs bags. It's just wrong. And yet, as one door closes, another opens right next to it. And this one is bigger, older and a lot more expensive. The mysterious Vaughn rescues Grace as the tears begin to fall, whisking her off to dry her eyes over four types of chocolate cake. There are worse things I can think of, that's for sure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347374</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sheila O'Flanagan
 
|title=The Perfect Man
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=I've read many of Sheila O'Flanagan's books and have always found them light enjoyable reads with interesting storylines and likeable characters. This is what I was expecting from ''The Perfect Man'', and I wasn't at all disappointed.
 
 
 
Unlike most of O'Flanagan's books, this one is not set in Dublin but mainly takes place on a romantic cruise ship in the Caribbean.  Britt McDonagh, the successful author of a novel also entitled ''The Perfect Man'', has been invited on board to present a series of talks and workshops about successful romantic writing.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343794</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Meg Wolitzer
 
|title=The Position
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Paul Mellow loves his wife, Roz, seemingly like no other man has ever loved a woman – his idolatry is boundless, bordering on theatrical and yet out of this worship, Paul has the germ of an idea.  Who would not want to know the ways in which it is possible to pleasure a wife as beautiful and perfect as his?  How could everyone not want to see, to ''share'' the artistic renderings of this act of love?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099485052</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Monica Carly
 
|title=Fraser's Line
 
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=When Edie died Fraser was devastated.  They'd been married for thirty one years and he'd been devoted to herNothing had been too much trouble and he'd been quite prepared to watch her flirt with other men, to shine in any companyHe was, after all, the man she went home withHer death had come suddenly and weeks later he was still in a state of shock, but he knew that he would have to sort out her affairs and he enlisted the help of a casual acquaintance to support him. He was in for some painful shocks.
+
|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agentsShe's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next doorEmilia 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 little deeperCharles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''.  They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind?  She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends.  And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1438960069</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Helly Acton
|author=Lucy Dillon
+
|title= The Shelf
|title=Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts
+
|rating= 4
|rating=4.5
+
|genre= Women's Fiction
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|summary= When we meet Amy, she's in a relationship with Jamie. You can't really call it a partnership, because things tend to get done on his terms, but she's sticking around because she hopes she can change him. Ah, yes. Haven't we all been there? Things are looking up when he tells her to pack for a surprise trip. Could this be it? Is he ''finally'' going to get down on one knee? Was the work (and the wait) worth it?
|summary=Lucy Dillon's previous novel, [[The Ballroom Class by Lucy Dillon|The Ballroom Class]], featured three couples whose individual stories end up muddled when they start the same dancing lessons. In ''Lost dogs and Lonely Hearts'' we have three very different families whose lives end up intertwined when they suddenly become involved with the local rescue kennels. Sound familiar? While the premise for the two is similar, the stories share only one common theme: they're both great reads.
+
|isbn=1838770879
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340919205</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author= Alyssa Sheinmel
 +
|title= What Kind of Girl
 +
|rating= 4
 +
|genre= Women's Fiction
 +
|summary= '' Doing something when you're scared is braver than doing something when you're not''
  
{{newreview
+
When Mike Parker's girlfriend comes into school with a 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 talk of the school. Mike was the most popular boy in school who was always so in love with her, everyone knew that, so why did he do what he did? Some people believe her and some don't, but one thing is for sure, this isn't going to blow over any time soon.
|author=Louise Candlish
+
|isbn=0349003297
|title=Before We Say Goodbye
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Olivia suffered a great deal in her childhood and teenage years. Her mother Maggie would disappear, often for months at a time, leaving Olivia and her brother disorientated, upset and - eventually - very angry. But when her mother lies dying, there's a big question Olivia wants to ask. Did her mother deliberately keep her away from Richie, the young man she fell in love with when she was sixteen?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751540382</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Katie Fforde
|author=Lorraine Jenkin
+
|title= A Springtime Affair
|title=Eating Blackbirds
+
|rating= 4
|rating=4.5
+
|genre= Women's Fiction
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|summary= I've wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a warm, cosy read focused on romance, family and friendshipsThis provided two romances for the price of one, but it was actually the family element as opposed to the romance that I really enjoyed.  
|summary='Delightful', 'unsophisticated' and 'funny' tags jump to mind for ''Eating Blackbirds'', one of several books published this year, aimed at the women's mainstream market from Welsh  publishers HonnoI read it in a couple of sittings, not wanting to put it down.
+
|isbn=1780897561
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190678406X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B07W4MNBSG
|author=Laura Elliott
+
|title=Be Careful Who You Marry
|title=The Prodigal Sister
+
|author=Lizzy Mumfrey
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Sisters Rebecca, Julie and Lauren are travelling from Ireland to attend their younger sister's wedding in New Zealand. This is unlikely to be just any family reunion though as no one had heard from Cathy since she fled from their home fifteen years ago. There are many unresolved issues but Cathy has invited them all with the hope that they can achieve some closure and hopefully move on with their lives.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561470</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ellie Campbell
 
|title=When Good Friends Go Bad
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A famous designer, a cleanliness-obsessed stay at home mum and a slightly kooky Yank who talks to angels might not be three people you'd pick to be friends in a normal story, but these women haven't met now, as pushing-40 year olds. No, they were good friends, great friends even, all through high school, and though life has evidently taken then in different directions, you can understand how something like surviving their teen years together would form an everlasting bond. Except it didn't, really. They've barely talked in years, and even the reunion organised ten years ago went wrong. So how is it that they've ended up back in each others' lives? What's happened? Why now?
+
|summary=It was coming up to Halloween in 1987 and a group of sixth-form schoolgirls wondered what they would be doing when they were fifty.  When you're only seventeen that seems positively ancient, but Liz was convinced that ''your entire life depends on who you marry''. The only eligible boys were the Young Farmers and the 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 Elizabeth who was determined to marry the rather superior Patrick Shepley-Botham. The place to start their search was obviously the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekendThere was just one problem - there were too many Elizabeths in the class.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099519992</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Melissa Hill
 
|title=Before I Forget
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=At the start of the book, Abby's partner of four years has just left her and, in dealing with her misery, she is becoming a bit of a workaholic and a social recluse. One morning, on her way to work she becomes the victim of a freak accident and suffers a brain injury that is going to affect her long term memory. Faced with the prospect of forgetting all that she holds dear, Abby re-evaluates the way she has been living and makes a list of all the memorable experiences she hopes to create. She also sets about capturing all the memories in a 'memory chest' on her computer so that she will be able to remember all the wonderful experiences. Suddenly she is enjoying life a lot more especially when she meets the handsome and thoughtful Finn. Unexpectedly, Abby's life has never looked better except, of course, for the fact that she keeps forgetting things.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340952997</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lindsey Kelk
 
|title=I Heart New York
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Holed up in a New York hotel room, Angela is getting a New York make over from her NY NBF, JennyAnd how, we ask ourselves, did our heroine end up in The City That Never Sleeps?  Well, if you had caught your boyfriend of ten years having sex with a skinny (grrr!) blonde on the back seat of your car (where the car seats of your future children were supposed to go), during the wedding reception of your best friends, and that everyone – including your best friends - apart from you had known what he had been up to for some considerable time, you may very well have kicked off your Louboutins, hitched up your bridesmaids dress and headed for the nearest airport too!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007288387</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Features|the latest features]]
|author=Jaishree Misra
 
|title=Secrets and Lies
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Four girls became friendly at school in Delhi.  Fifteen years later three of them are in London, but Zeba is still in India.  She was a promising actress (on and off the stage) at school but in 2008 she's the reigning queen of Bollywood.  Let no one say that she hasn't earned her position; some of those producers can be quite demanding – on and off the stage.  Back in London Bubbles is the wife of a millionaire Indian businessman.  It was an arranged marriage and although it's never been close Bubbles isn't too unhappy.  Sam is the trophy wife and her marriage seems to have ground to a halt, whilst Anita, always the brainiest of the group, seems to have difficulty in keeping a relationship going.  There was another girl who had an influence on the girls, but they hated Lily D'Souza – and then she died.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561683</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Margot Berwin
 
|title=Hot House Flower
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Themed fiction, where there is a clear obsession with a specific topic can be a bit hit or miss, but in the past I have enjoyed ones that focus on [[Book Lover by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack|books]] and [[Clicking Her Heels by Lucy Hepburn|shoes]] and especially [[The Food of Love by Anthony Capella|food]]. The key in my mind has always been to write about something other people obsess over, establishing an immediate bond between reader and writer. This title falls into this category but with a rather unusual and specific fixation: tropical plants. I know little about these, and have never really wanted to change that fact, but though I didn't share the author's fascination initially, by the end of the book I was hooked.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091926122</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 11:49, 13 November 2023

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Review of

Maybe Tomorrow by Penny Parkes

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a 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 time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head. Full Review

1398510629.jpg

Review of

Preloved by Lauren Bravo

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

Gwen is pressing her middle-aged bosom on a big number that starts with a four and ends with an oh-my-God-I'm-nearly-forty. Having been made unexpectedly redundant - any HR officer worth their salt would argue the 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' Full Review

0008506337.jpg

Review of

The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore

5star.jpg General Fiction

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 glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: she would never be able to leave him in charge.

Then Richard left them. Full Review

0356520471.jpg

Review of

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

4star.jpg Fantasy

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 society pitted against them. Nehal, born into the upper class, wishes to attend the Weaving Academy to learn to control her abilities and then join the military, but instead she is forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. Giorgina on the other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and feels great pressure to provide for her family and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women's rights. Giorgina also happens to be in love with Nico. What follows is a story of an unjust society, filled with hypocrisy and cruelty, from which blossoms a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstacles. Full Review

B0B575J99N.jpg

Review of

Beneath the Porticoes by Brooke Adams

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

Elizabeth Miller was thirty-four and a teacher at a prestigious girl's school in York. It was comfortable but she longed for something more in life. She'd still not found the right vocation nor met the right man and now was the time to make a change. She needed challenges. There was a little trepidation when she applied for the professoressa job in Bologna. After a telephone interview, she was offered the position and it wasn't long before she was exploring the beautiful city. There were some natural doubts before her first class but it went surprisingly well. Full Review

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Review of

Meredith Alone by Claire Alexander

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

When we first meet Meredith Maggs it's Wednesday 14 November 2018 and she's not left her home for 1,214 days. She'd like to: in fact, she so nearly does. Her outdoor clothes are on 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 leave the safety of her home. She's fortunate that she has a good friend, Sadie, who visits regularly with her two children, James and Matilda. Sadie's a cardiac nurse and full of sound common sense. In fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, Fred. Groceries are online deliveries and there's also an internet-based support group where you'll find Meredith as JIGSAWGIRL, so you can guess what she does in her spare time. Then Tom McDermott arrives. He's from Holding Hands, a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's. Full Review

0008441618.jpg

Review of

Other Parents by Sarah Stovell

5star.jpg Women's Fiction

Jo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didn'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 considerable benefit to the school. There was one difficulty, though - they were devastatingly shockable, with two members, in particular, causing problems for the head. Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ education. Full Review

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Review of

Walking on Sunshine by Giovanna Fletcher

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

Mike's wife, Pia, who he was with for seventeen years, has died. And whilst he is dealing with his grief, so are their best friends, Vicky and Zaza. But Pia left them all some 'rules' to follow, 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 wardrobe, another one that Mike discovers one day encourages him to take one of their trips away, and Vicky and Zaza, struggling with their grief and their own life troubles, decide to drop everything in their own lives, and go along with him. Full Review

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Review of

Fall On Me by Penelope Potts

3.5star.jpg Women's Fiction

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's diner. Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was a good boss. Hollie had moved in with her boyfriend, Marcus: her mother thought he was great and he was doing well in his career. Hollie wasn't quite so certain though: Marcus wanted to control her and most of all he wanted her to leave her job at the diner. Then there was the fact that he would be violent, both to her and to other people. Full Review

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Review of

Mrs March by Virginia Feito

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

The problem began just after the publication of George March's most successful novel to date. Everyone but Mrs March (we know her first name only on the last page) seemed to either be reading it or had already done so. Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, as she was wrapping the bread, but isn't this the first time he's based a character on you? She mentioned that Johanna, the principal character had 'her mannerisms. Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is the whore of Nantes - a weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, unloved, unloveable wretch. Full Review

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Review of

Unbreak Your Heart by Katie Marsh

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

When Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, Simon was angry and Beth was doing her best to apologise for having knocked Simon's son, Jake, off his bike. He wasn't hurt but Jake has history. He has HLHS - that's Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of you who are not au fait with your medical acronyms. When he was born, the left side of his heart hadn't developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days old. So, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving. Full Review

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Review of

Widowland by C J Carey

4star.jpg General Fiction

It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on the mainland. 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 drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and 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 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 party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit. Full Review

152937331X.jpg

Review of

Madame Burova by Ruth Hogan

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connected. So we have a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a girl in a humdrum job wanting to become a singer, and chiefly, Imelda, the third generation of Madame Burova, Tarot-Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant, to use her family's sea-front booth. The singer, the scryer and the sufferer's mother will all become staff at a 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 last day, fifty years later, in possession of a pair of letters that will change everything for a woman called Billie. Just who is she, and who delivered the secrets about her to Imelda, and why did it have to remain a secret all this time? Full Review

1472273869.jpg

Review of

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

4.5star.jpg Women's Fiction

This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of 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 heroics of Theseus. Full Review

1529039037.jpg

Review of

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Sistersong is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end. Full Review

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Review of

Cherry Blossom Boutique by Brooke Adams

3star.jpg Women's Fiction

Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. She's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life. Full Review

B08GFSK2WZ.jpg

Review of

The Karma Trap by Lisette Boyd

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single. She's not had sex for eight months and she's stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is being visited on her and she has a real talent for attracting drama. Her life's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman. She only has to take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office. Full Review

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Review of

Capturing Emilia by Brooke Adams

3star.jpg Women's Fiction

He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read 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 little deeper. Charles is more of a Jack Reacher man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads The Guardian. They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it? Full Review

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Review of

The Shelf by Helly Acton

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

When we meet Amy, she's in a relationship with Jamie. You can't really call it a partnership, because things tend to get done on his terms, but she's sticking around because she hopes she can change him. Ah, yes. Haven't we all been there? Things are looking up when he tells her to pack for a surprise trip. Could this be it? Is he finally going to get down on one knee? Was the work (and the wait) worth it? Full Review

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Review of

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

Doing something when you're scared is braver than doing something when you're not

When Mike Parker's girlfriend comes into school with a 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 talk of the school. Mike was the most popular boy in school who was always so in love with her, everyone knew that, so why did he do what he did? Some people believe her and some don't, but one thing is for sure, this isn't going to blow over any time soon. Full Review

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Review of

A Springtime Affair by Katie Fforde

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

I've wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a warm, cosy read focused on romance, family and friendships. This provided two romances for the price of one, but it was actually the family element as opposed to the romance that I really enjoyed. Full Review

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Review of

Be Careful Who You Marry by Lizzy Mumfrey

4star.jpg General Fiction

It was coming up to Halloween in 1987 and a group of sixth-form schoolgirls wondered what they would be doing when they were fifty. When you're only seventeen that seems positively ancient, but Liz was convinced that your entire life depends on who you marry. The only eligible boys were the Young Farmers and the 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 Elizabeth who was determined to marry the rather superior Patrick Shepley-Botham. The place to start their search was obviously the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekend. There was just one problem - there were too many Elizabeths in the class. Full Review

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