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[[Category:New Reviews|Women's Fiction]]==Women's Fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kirsty Robinson1471180158|title=Grass StainsMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Being Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the editor subtlety of a style magazine has its perks: free ticketshalf brick. Jamie's son, free gigsBo, endless parties'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, alcohol and drugs. And the more you'll suspect that is what Louisahe's life consists of – one continuous bingeon the autistic spectrum. Louisa spends her life going from one party Sometimes Jamie needs to another, but ittake time off at short notice - she's not all ita frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's cracked not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up to from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and her life is starting put in the wrong. It was going to come to fall aparta head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954119X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pamela FudgeLauren Bravo|title=A Change For The BetterPreloved

|summary=Jo Farrell had spent all her life caring for other people. After she lost her alcoholic husband and Gwen is pressing her demanding, hypochondriac mother she had time for herself, but when she looked in the mirror she wasn't particularly impressed by what she saw. The middle-aged, slightly plump woman bosom on a big number that starts with grey curls reminded her of her mother a four and the clothes she was wearing did little to help eitherends with an oh-my-God-I'm-nearly-forty. It was something odd which helped her to change. The very scruffy man from downstairs (the sort you Having been made unexpectedly redundant - any HR officer worth their salt would cross argue the road to avoid) came to borrow toss - Gwen finds herself having a bit of a newspaper mid-life crisis. Catharsis is key and somehow they got talking about what needed Gwen has decided now is the time to be done to change take back her life.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090609</amazonuk>1398510629

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cath Staincliffe0008506337|title=The Kindest ThingGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45

|summary=Imagine that your partner of 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 or so years discovers -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 are dying from felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a terminal diseaseglittering career. Now imagine that In the event, they've asked you eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to help them Oxford and went on to die become a little soonerwell-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 their own termsthe Isle of Wight. What would you do? This is Even then the dilemma that faced Deborah and, after doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she went ahead and helped her husband Neil would never be able to die, she found herself charged and standing trial for murder with her own teenage daughter, Sophie, testifying against herleave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012083</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Nicola Cornick|title=Confessions of a Duchess|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Dowager Duchess Laura Cole has come to the village of Fortune’s Folly to live a quiet life as a widow with her young daughter. But when the village squire decides to invoke the Dames’ Tax, a law requiring every unmarried woman to give up half her wealth to him, the town becomes a hotbed of men searching for heiresses now desperate to marry. Joining the men is Dexter Anstruther, sent to secure a rich wife and carry out a murder inquiry on behalf of Lord Liverpool. The last thing Laura and Dexter expect is to see each other again after their steamy encounter four years ago. But their passion for each other is reawakened and looks set to ruin Then Richard left them both.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303802</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julia WilliamsHadeer Elsbai|title=The Bridesmaid Pact|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=I recently read [[Last Christmas by Julia Williams]] and enjoyed it so much that I was determined to read more by this fabulous author. The opportunity presented itself in the shape Daughters of 'The Bridesmaid Pact', a truly wonderful book that not only met but also exceeded all my expectations. In fact it was so good that I read the last 200 pages in just one day, totally ignoring my family whilst doing so. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560873</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Abby McDonald|title=The Liberation of Alice Love|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=You can just picture Alice Love standing before the panel on Britain's Got Talent. 'And what do you do?' they like to ask.<br>'I work in the film industry...'<br>'Oooh, really?'<br>'...as a lawyer.'<br>'Oh.' Like all those accountants they're always showing, you can imagine that Alice too would receive a rather luke-warm welcome on the show. And Alice would concur that her job isn't all that glam, even if her industry itself is a bit swish. But it's an appropriate job for her, since Alice is very sensible and by-the-book. She's certainly not the type of person to go overdrawn, or run into any kind of trouble financially, so when her card is declined one day she's pretty sure it's just a computer error.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099533928</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lulu Taylor|title=Midnight GirlsIzdihar

|genre=Women's FictionFantasy|summary=Best friends Allegra McCorquodaleDrawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the lives of two women who could not be more different, Imogen Heath yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and Romily de Lisleweavers – those with magical abilities - in a society pitted against them. Nehal, known as born into the Midnight Girlsupper class, spend 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 nights at reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the exclusive Westfield Boarding School Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for Girls up women's rights. Giorgina also happens to be in the attic rooms smoking and bitchinglove with Nico. But when the girls are witness to What follows is a tragic accidentstory of an unjust society, filled with hypocrisy and cruelty, they become bound together forever by what they have seen from which blossoms a group of admirable women fighting for their rights and vow never to tellovercoming their personal obstacles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099524929</amazonuk>0356520471

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Holly McQueenB0B575J99N|title=Confetti ConfidentialBeneath the Porticoes|author=Brooke Adams

|summary=Elizabeth Miller was thirty-four and a teacher at a prestigious girl's school in York. It was 'Confetti Confidential'comfortable' is the third book ' but she longed for something more in life. She'd ''still not found the Isabel series, but the first one I've read. Even without that grand claim on right vocation nor met the front, you couldnright man't help but draw comparisons between Kinsella's series and this one from now was the very first pagetime to make a change. She needed challenges. The writing style is virtually identical – to There was a little trepidation when she applied for the point where you do actually wonder if this is just professoressa job in Bologna. After a pseudonym – telephone interview, she was offered the position and while the chatty, chummy, conversational approach is not for everyone, if itwasn's t long before she was exploring the sort of thing you like then this is the sort of book you'll lovebeautiful city. There were some natural doubts before her first class but it went surprisingly well.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099545756</amazonuk>

SS{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sabrina Broadbent0241542405|title=You Don't Have To Be GoodMeredith Alone|author=Claire Alexander

|summary=Bea Kemp has reached 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 crisis point house price slump in her lifethat part of the town. She is in her forties, childless, enjoying a tedious job The school had an active Parent Teacher Association and the funds which they raised were a lacklustre marriage with Frankconsiderable benefit to the school. She seems to have spent her entire life There was one difficulty, though - they were ''devastatingly shockable'being good' and it really does not seem to have got her anywhere. Her only pleasure seems to come from the time she spends , with her niece and nephewtwo members, in particular, causing problems for the head. Laura Spence and Adrian, and as her successful sister Katharine has no qualms about using her as an unpaid childminder, thatKate Monroe objected to Jo's quite a lot! However, all that looks set to change when Katharine announces that she is moving away with restrictions on the toys children so she does not need Bea to look after themcould bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ education.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535556</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rekha WaheedGiovanna Fletcher|title=Saris and the CityWalking on Sunshine

|summary=Yasmin Yusuf Mike's wife, Pia, who he was with for seventeen years, has died. And whilst he is a likeable main character dealing with a group of Sex-his grief, so are their best friends, Vicky and-the-City-style friendsZaza. The story begins with Yasmin splitting up with the man But Pia left them all some 'rules' to follow, knowing that she was convinced was going dying and that they would need help to propose, rapidly followed by losing her jobcarry on living. We then follow Whilst some of the rules are around practicalities such as clearing out her as she determines wardrobe, another one that Mike discovers one day encourages him to become successful take one of their trips away, and Vicky and make her mark in her new jobZaza, whilst holding out for ''the package'' in her personal struggling with their grief and their own life. I particularly liked the way each chapter is a lesson and lets the reader know what Yasmin will be learning or proving through events played out troubles, decide to drop everything in that chapter. For exampletheir own lives, chapter one is ''Lesson One: If he's the bad boy and you're the good girl, you will get burnt'', hence the resulting ex-boyfriendgo along with him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755356136</amazonuk>140593560X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joan M MoulesB09FS89KX9|title=Fragile Memories|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Maura was surprised when she inherited the manor house at Picton near Salisbury. She hadn't been close to her Uncle Tom for many years and he had a stepson, Jim, whom she thought would have inherited in preference to her. It was five years since she's been back to Picton and when she returned to put the property on the market she was surprised by the extent of her longing to return there. Money was going to be a problem though. She worked as a model and couldn't really to this from the manor – and she didn't have the money for the property's upkeep. Her boyfriend, Nick, had an answer. He already had three successful restaurants and was looking to extend into the countryside – what better place could there be for his new restaurant?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090587</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFall On Me|author=Anne O'Brien|title=Virgin Widow|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The mighty Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, is famous throughout England as one of King Edward IV’s most trusted advisors. But as Edward is lured towards another influential family when he falls in love with Elizabeth Woodville, Warwick responds by backing the alliance between Margaret of Anjou and King Louis XI of France, aiming to put Margaret’s husband Henry VI back on the English throne. A helpless pawn, Anne is torn away from the man she loves, who will grow up to become Richard III, to be used as political capital by her father and his allies as they try to regain the kingdom of England.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303756</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sally Wragg|title=Playing for Keeps|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The Vernon family have been involved with Rislington Rovers Football Club – The Rogues - for generations. Presently there are three generations actively involved with the Club, although Eleanor Vernon, the matriarch of the family, wishes that husband Landon would spend a little more time with her. As the Rogues are facing relegation and a police investigation into their finances, stalwart Landon isn’t likely to be doing that any time soon and when the Club needs a new Chief Executive the appointment is one which divides the Vernon family and it seems that there’s not one of them whose personal life isn't in turmoil.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089880</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Debbie Macomber|title=Hannah's ListPenelope Potts

|summary=It Life should have been good for Hollie: She was a just going into the final year since Dr Michael Everett's wife Hannah died from ovarian cancer of her veterinary degree and his grief - three years later - was still as painful as ever. He certainly wasn't ready for what his brother-in-law, Hannahworking at BB's brother, handed himdiner. It Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was a letter which Hannah good boss. Hollie had written some time before 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 death and not only did she suggest that most of all he should remarry, she went on wanted her to name three women she thought would make a good wife for himleave her job at the diner. Winter Adams Then there was the chef who owned the café on blossom Streetfact that he would be violent, Leanne Lancaster had been Hannah's nurse, but who was Macy Roth?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303799</amazonuk>both to her and to other people.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hester Browne0008421714|title=The Finishing TouchesMrs March|author=Virginia Feito

|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=As The problem began just after the daughter publication of its owner, and a highly experience management consultant George March's most successful novel to boot, Betsy is date. Everyone but Mrs March (we know her first name only on the obvious choice last page) seemed to call for help in turning around a finishing school failing either be reading it or had already done so. Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to make buy olive bread but on that particular morning, Patricia asked, as she was wrapping the grade in 21st century London. Except... Betsy never attended bread, ''but isn't this the school as first time he's based a studentcharacter on you?'' She mentioned that Johanna, and shethe principal character had 's not so much her mannerisms'management consultant' as she . Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the fact that Johanna is the whore of Nantes - 'shop assistant' – a distinction many a proud parent could be forgiven for missing. With the Tallimore Academy facing financial ruinweak, plain, detestable, pathetic, howeverunloved, Betsy isnunloveable wretch.''t so much their best hope as she is their only hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340937807</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Allie Spencer1473685745|title=The Not-So Secret Diary of a City GirlUnbreak Your Heart|author=Katie Marsh|rating=3.54

|summary=Banking analystWhen Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, Laura McGregor has Simon was angry and Beth was doing her secret diary accidentally uploaded 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 Internetleft side of his heart hadn't developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days old. The diary contains her thoughts about her lacklustre relationship So, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving.}} {{Frontpage|author=C J Carey|title=Widowland|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|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 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 atraderdifferent Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, her attraction towards has put all of that gender into a “dirtcaste system, ranging from high-digging journalist” brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and massive discrepancies 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 accounts 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 new managerjob, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755352947</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katie FfordeRuth Hogan|title=A Perfect ProposalMadame Burova

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=I This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connected. So we have read most of Katie Fforde's books and each and every one has proved a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a girl in a humdrum job wanting to be enjoyable become a singer, and entertaining. A Perfect Proposal comes up to chiefly, Imelda, the same high standard andthird generation of Madame Burova, having just finished reading it''Tarot-Reader, it has left me wanting more! Her style is very relaxed Palmist and easy going and she always creates believable characters that you canClairvoyant't help caring about.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846054494</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sandra Wilson|title=A Change of Fortune|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Leonie Conyngham seemed , to have everything going for use herfamily's sea-front booth. She was beautiful and set to be the belle of the forthcoming seasonThe singer, but a family disaster stripped her of her position as the most important pupil in her school scryer and placed her there as the lowliest teachersufferer's mother will all become staff at a revamped holiday camp, there to do but just before then we see Imelda fly solo for the bidding of those above her. Her possessions stolen and in debt she had little choice first time in the matterfamily stall. Her physical attractions have not left We also see her on her thoughlast day, fifty years later, but now the young rakes in possession of London are not looking at her as a possible wife, but to see who can be the first to deprive her pair of her virtue.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089996</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gillian Morgan|title=Salt Blue|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=I always judge letters that will change everything for a book by its coverwoman called Billie. The eyes in Just who is she, and who delivered the pretty face on the cover of ''Salt Blue'' are arrestingsecrets about her to Imelda, but difficult to assign and why did it have to remain a period, though it’s clearly women’s or teen fiction. I imagine that the cover might attract fiction readers of mainstream women’s magazines such as Women’s Weekly or Woman’s Own, so it’s spot on for the story inside.secret all this time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906784159</amazonuk>152937331X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kate LawsonJennifer Saint |title=Mother of the BrideAriadne |rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=This is re-telling of the story myth of Jess Foster who Ariadne and the Minotaur is busily preparing for her forthcoming marriage to Max Porter, willingly aided by her mum, Molly, interesting and her stepmother, Marnieunusual. It soon becomes apparent though that Jennifer Saint presents the women have different ideas, particularly opinionated Marnie who seems set on Jess having the society wedding of the year and even goes as far as hiring story in a wedding planner. Molly, on the other hand, agrees with Jess way that things should really be kept simpleis sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Thus the scene Saint's narrative is well set for all told predominantly through the moods and mayhem which occurs when arranging a wedding. Will Jess be able viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to stick her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her guns and arrange own right rather than just a prop in the type heroics of wedding that she wants or will it just be easier to give in to other suggestions?Theseus. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561179</amazonuk>1472273869

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Liane MoriartyLucy Holland|title=What Alice ForgotSistersong

|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary='This wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to her…it was just the most ridiculous' laments thirty nine year old mother Sistersong is part of threea genre I particularly enjoy, Alice, who has had the last ten years modern retelling of her life struck from her memory by a blow to the head in her step aerobics classfolk and fairy tales. Alice now thinks she's twenty nineThese stories, newly pregnant with her first child and happily married to Nick and furthermore she hasn't a clue what she's doing at an aerobics class in the first place. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043768</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Elin Hilderbrand|title=The Castaways|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=On the island for most of Nantucketus, four couples have forged strong bonds are a cornerstone of friendship. Together they live childhood and love, raise their children, share their dreams. It's an idyllic existence I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and at the same time a very purposeful onefresh perspective. The couples have worked hard to create the quality of If handled well these retellings give new life they now enjoy and nothing can take it away from them. Until new meaning to stories that are now. Greg becoming increasingly narrow and Tess are deadoutdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the result role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of what appears to be a sailing accident. They leave behind two young childrenmodern retelling done well, and six devastated friendsthe plot is handled with care, all of whom have keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to terms with what has happened. For some there is guilt over final words said or final warnings left unsaid. For otherslife, there is the knowledge that secret relationships will now have to stay that way evermore. 'The Castaways' is the book of that fateful summer, the accident feel real and its aftermathhuman, but it's more than just that. It's most importantly they feel relatable in a look at modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the precious role friends and family play pre-Saxon age they live in our lives, . This is a masterpiece of storytelling and how innocent actions or words can change the course of history foreverI was captivated from beginning to end.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340919825</amazonuk>1529039037

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karen AbbottB08NF79QXT|title=A Most Rebellious DebutanteCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams

|summary=Lucy TempletonThirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, daughter of Lord Templetonthe Cherry Blossom Boutique, fell in love with her dancing master. It wasn't entirely unusual for a seventeen year old girl to feel this way, but it was better that it was unheard of just six months when she was caught in his arms's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. A substantial sum of money for She's delighted and the dancing master ensured that he would disappear and Lucy was sent to stay two people she's brought with her married sister as punishmentto the event couldn't be more pleased. She was not to attend parties or social functions Sonja, her mother, is an ex-model and must spend Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her time looking after her sisterlooks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's young children best friend: they've known each other since university and doing good worksLiberty adores Jessica's husband, until such time as the Templetons could get her married offCharles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava. All might have gone according to their plan had Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she not had misses having a chance encounter with the notorious Lord Rockhaven and a stolen kiss catches man in her heartlife.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090315</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jojo MoyesB08GFSK2WZ|title=The Horse DancerKarma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd

|summary=Only two things in life matter George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to fourteenlook at -year-old Sarahand 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 horse Boo and her grandfather Henri Lachapelleshe has a real talent for attracting drama. Henri sees SarahHer life's skill chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at horsemanship as the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her way , stark naked, staring at the pervy postman. She only has to take her mother's dog out of their inner city London life and wants for a walk for her to follow in his footsteps end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and become a member of France's elite equestrian academy Le Cadre Noirphoto being taken by someone who shares it around the office.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961600</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mavis CheekB08CHJLNBS|title=Truth to Tell|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Robert Porter was angry. The politician filling the television screen was lying. He knew it. He railed against it and said politician would have thought himself lucky not to be there in person. Nina only managed to calm her husband by enquiring whether he would like red or white wine with the meal and had that been the end of the matter then that would have been the end of the matter – if you see what I mean. But the telephone rang and it was Robert's boss with details of the team-bonding office trip to Florida. Robert assured him that he was really keen to go (he wasn't) and Nina was looking forward to it too (she wasn't). And then Nina started wondering about the difference between the politician's lies and Robert's, er, evasions. Surely it must be possible to tell the truth?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091931673</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewCapturing Emilia|author=Jojo Moyes|title=The Last Letter From Your Lover|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=I do love a story that wraps me up completely within its little world, making me want to ignore my long list of things to do and just curl up reading all day. Jojo Moyes' new novel certainly managed it. I felt transported back to the 1960's, entirely caught up in the characters' lives, riding their highs and lows alongside of them, and I ended up desperately foisting my just-woken-up toddler onto my husband so that I could just read the last four pages without her hanging off my arm!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961627</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Cathy Woodman|title=Trust Me, I'm a Vet|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Though I'm not a pet owner and as such had never thought too much about it, I believed this book when it told me there are two types of vets (three if you count the Vietnam kind, though for these purposes let's not). No, I mean the city type who look after poodles and hamsters and maybe the odd depressed gold fish, and the country kind who stick their hands up cows' bottoms for fun, and think horses are man's second best friend, as well as essential equipment for extracurricular activities. Maz definitely falls into the first category, but when her love life gets as sticky as a cancerous canine tumour, she realises that London is not the place to be any more. An opportunity arises at the rather tweely named ''Otter'' ''House'' ''Veterinary'' ''Clinic'', and she seizes it, pleased to have a reason to flee the capital, at least temporarily.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099543567</amazonuk>}}  {{newreview|author=Jeannie Machin|title=My Lady DominoBrooke Adams

|summary=Adele Russell serves behind He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the counter Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in a haberdashers and lives over the shopheritage library next door. It wasnEmilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she't always s moved on from new age books like that though as it, which leave you dependent on someone else's only philosophies, to something a few years since she was little deeper. Charles is more of a wealthy heiress engaged to marry an earl[[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but after her father, 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 financial ruin and not his death in a fire her fiancé broke off the relationship and Adele was lucky usual type at all: it's obvious to be taken in by her old nursehis friends. ItAnd given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's taken some time to come to terms with what happened and Adele has reconciled herself to her lowly position until superficiality, why does she finds an invitation feel drawn to a masked ball. him? What harm would there be in her wearing her motherThe relationship's ball gown and dominoobviously a non-starter, just for a taste of how things used to beisn't it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089988</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Val HarrisHelly Acton|title=Sea CreaturesThe Shelf|rating=3.54|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Rowena Moon and her husband Brendan lived on the Cornish coast with their three childrenWhen we meet Amy, Jenna, Charlie and Olivia. Brendan was an artist – and she's in a reasonably successful onerelationship with Jamie. Rowena ran You can't really call it a local café and the children had the freedom of the local beachpartnership, because things tend to get done on his terms, but she's sticking around because she hopes she can change him. It sounds like, and probably wasAh, an idyllic childhood until one day Rowena disappeared without warning and without explanationyes. It was devastating and affected each of the children in different ways as they grew Haven't we all been there? Things are looking upwhen he tells her to pack for a surprise trip. Twenty two years later Could this be it? Is he ''finally'' going to get down on one knee? Was the five are reunited work (and the mystery of their past unravels.wait) worth it?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955599741</amazonuk>1838770879

{{newreview|author=Sandra Heath|title=A Commercial Enterprise|rating=3.5|genre=WomenWhen Mike Parker's Fiction|summary=Caroline is girlfriend comes into school with a Lexhamblack eye, but claiming he gave it to her, her whole world is tipped upside down. Her relationship has just ended and now she's not one the talk of ''the'' Lexhams as her father made a rather unfortunate marriageschool. In consequence she's rather surprised to be invited to Mike was the reading of most popular boy in school who was always so in love with her uncle's will. She didn't know him, had no expectations everyone knew that, so why did he do what he did? Some people believe her and probably wouldnsome don't have gone to London if she hadn't been trying to escape the attentions of a pressing suitor. The journey there , but one thing is tryingfor sure, but shethis isn's rescued by Sir Hal Seymour who gives her a lift in his carriage. It might have got Caro t going to the reading on blow over any time, but she made an enemy of his mistress who had hopes of becoming his wifesoon.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>070908997X</amazonuk>0349003297

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa JewellKatie Fforde|title=After the PartyA Springtime Affair|rating=54|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=ItI's been eleven years since Ralph ve wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages and Jem finally became an item at the end of Lisa Jewell's first novel Ralph's Party. After buying this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a house in South London and having two children their once excitingwarm, cosy read focused on romance, romantic family and crazy relationship has gradually become consumed by responsibility and domesticityfriendships. Jem has become bogged down with motherhood and running a home and just wishes Ralph would help out a bit as she struggles to start working again. RalphThis provided two romances for the price of one, unsure of his role in but it was actually the family, has gradually drifted away both physically and emotionally from Jem and his children, preferring element as opposed to spend as much time as possible painting in his studiothe romance that I really enjoyed.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846055733</amazonuk>1780897561

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue EcksteinB07W4MNBSG|title=The Cloths of Heaven|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=We're in West Africa in the early nineteen nineties. There's the usual mix of expatriates and diplomatic staff doing their best to do their best whilst still making the most of the freedoms such a life gives. Isabel is married to iconoclastic photographer Patrick Redmond and copes better than most wives would with her husband's fixation with pendulous black breasts. There is gossip though. The High Commissioner and his wife Fenella are both involved in illicit affairs, with more or less discretion. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954930983</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBe Careful Who You Marry|author=Trisha Ashley|title=Chocolate WishesLizzy Mumfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=I know one should never judge a book by its cover, but somehow I always do. So I was expecting some light-hearted chick-lit when I began this book. I It was a little startled coming up to find several mentions of tarot cards, Mayan charms, Halloween in 1987 and guardian angels - a somewhat bizarre spiritual mixture group of sixth- within the first pages. What, I form schoolgirls wondered, had I got myself into?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561144</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Margaret Leroy|title=The Perfect Mother|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Perfection pervades every corner of Catriona's life She has a beautiful home, a charming husband, a well-behaved stepdaughter, and a cherished daughter of her own, 8-year-old Daisywhat they would be doing when they were fifty. When Daisy is taken ill, Catriona does all a good mother would do to help her get better. But as Daisyyou's condition deteriorates with no sign of improvementre only seventeen that seems positively ancient, Catriona seeks more and more medical intervention, until eventually she is accused of being responsible for her daughterbut Liz was convinced that 's illness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303527</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Susannah Bates |title=Under a Sapphire Sky|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Marianne Cooper is happy. She has a thriving jewellery business with her best friend Gabby and is six months pregnant with Gabbyyour entire life depends on who you marry's brother Jay's baby. Marianne enjoys her passion for stones, her unconventional attitude to life The only eligible boys were the Young Farmers and her pregnancy, the idea of living in a farmhouse and her unique relationship with Jay, but when her ex boyfriend, having a couple of children called Will and reformed manOlly appealed to Charlotte, Paul comes back into her life with his fiancée Sophie or perhaps William and a rare padparascha stone he wants Marianne Oliver if you were Elizabeth who was determined to turn into an engagement ring, she soon finds herself questioning her decision to reject Paul and indeed her way of life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099445441</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louise Harwood|title=Kiss Like You Mean It|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=This book is a modernmarry the rather superior Patrick Shepley-day love story. It's all about trendy characters with trendy names living rather trendy lives in glossy location setsBotham. The title gives a very clear message as place to its contentsstart their search was obviously the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekend. Romantic fiction which will appeal generally to women. But There was just one problem - there's also a story within a story (and for me the more interesting one) which is the Hollywood movie being filmed were too many Elizabeths in Europe. It takes us back to the first World War and the heroic actions of one young man, in particularclass.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330442090</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Laurie Graham|title=Life According Move on to Lubka[[Features|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Buzz Wexler is at the top of her game, working in music PR with all the latest up and coming Urban music bands like Grime Beat and Evil Marsupial. She's forty-two years old but is still out every night, drinking, eating very little and seemingly surviving on a diet of chemical mood enhancers. One day, however, she is called into her manager's office and assigned a tour with a 'World Music' group, the Gorni Grannies, a group of elderly women from Bulgaria who sing together. Buzz finds her life in the fast lane is brought to a sudden halt, as she tries to control a group of elderly ladies touring England who think that lifts are powered by black magic and that Poundland is the best shop ever invented. Yet this is just the beginning of a whole new life for Buzz.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161828</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Janet Mullany|title=Improper Relations|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Unlucky in love Charlotte Hayden has just lost her best friend and confidante Ann in marriage to the Earl of Beresford. At the wedding she encounters Lord Shadderly, Beresford's best friend, a broodingly handsome man whom she takes an immediate dislike to. Before she knows it Charlotte is caught in a compromising situation with Shadderly and he is forced to propose to her or risk both their reputations.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347803</amazonuk>}}features]]