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=Isabel Wolff
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|author=Penny Parkes
|title=The Very Picture Of You
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
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|genre=General Fiction
|genre=Women's 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.
|summary=Ella is a portrait painter, living in London, single but ok with it. She’s 35 years old – a fact wedged rather unsubtly into the first page of chapter one – and her younger sister is getting married. It could be the start of something a bit samey, or it could be the start of something a bit special. Lucky for us, it’s the second one, and the story develops in an intriguing and quite unusual direction.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000724584X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lauren Bravo
|author=Christina Courtenay
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|title=Preloved
|title=Highland Storms
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=The publisher, Choc Lit Limited, gives a fair idea of what kind of read this book is.  Romance with a capital RCourtenay decides to go back in time to a Scotland rather weary of battles but strong in image especially in terms of the countrysideIs the book's purple hue suggestive of the purple heather to be found all over this area of Scotland, I wonder.  It all conjures up a deeply romantic setting for many, myself included.  Add in the odd fairy-tale castle or two and it's even better.
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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-fortyHaving been made unexpectedly redundant - any HR officer worth their salt would argue the toss - Gwen finds herself having a bit of a mid-life crisisCatharsis is key and Gwen has decided now is the time to take back her life'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931712</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398510629
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008506337
|author=Jean Marsh
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|title=The Garnett Girls
|title=Fiennders Abbey
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|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=In was the end of the nineteenth century and the family at Fiennders Abbey might lead much more leisurely lives than the staff who kept the house running as it should, but their fortunes were inextricably linked.  Mary Bowden was the tweenie when we first met her – she did all the dirty jobs which were beneath those higher up the ladder – as well as being the daughter of the gamekeeper.  She was also intelligent, ambitious and very attractive with her straight, milk-blonde hair.  As a child she'd always been very friendly with Richard, the son of the house, but it's not a friendship which either of their mothers wishes to foster.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447200071</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Margaret Henderson Smith
 
|title=San Marco: The End of the Road
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=When we [[Ne Obliviscaris: Do Not Forget by Margaret Henderson Smith|last saw ]] Harriet Glover she had just been stood up at the altar by her long-term partner, Mark but rescued and proposed to by the man she has lusted after for quite a while – Joris Sanderson.  Harriet knows something else too.  She knows that she's pregnant and that the father of the child is not the man she was going to marry, but the man who has now proposed.  Complicated?  Of course it is.  This is the woman who could make Frank Spencer look like a miracle of organisation.  She's going to have to do something quite spectacular this time around.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845494687</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sophie Duffy
 
|title=The Generation Game
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Do you remember ''The Generation Game'' TV show, with old Brucie and then Larry Grayson managing the mayhem? Where were you when Charles and Di got married? What about when Diana died?  There's plenty of reminiscing to be done in this book as Sophie Duffy takes us from the 1960's to 2006 through the life of her character, Philippa, in a book that fleets from funny, heartwarming moments to real sadness.
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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 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''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248017</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Then Richard left them.
|author=Jane Fallon
 
|title=The Ugly Sister
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Abi hasn't really had much of a relationship with her sister Cleo since Cleo was discovered on the street and morphed into a successful and well known model. It's now more than 20 years later, and the sisters are hardly what you'd call close. But, with a summer to kill and nowhere really to kill it in, Abi takes up her sister's offer to move into her plush Primrose Hill pad and spend some 'quality time' with the family. Except...Cleo's idea of quality family time is to go to the gym. Or the spa. Or a comeback casting. Anywhere really, as long as it's away from them all. And with brother in law Jon at work during the day, Abi quickly starts feeling like the hired help, shuttling her nieces around town and seeing to their every need.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141047259</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alan Titchmarsh
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|author=Hadeer Elsbai
|title=The Haunting
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|title=The Daughters of Izdihar
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Fantasy
|summary=We don't know whether or not Harry Flint was a good history teacher but we do know that he's disenchanted with the job and determined to make a change. His marriage to a lawyer only lasted a few months and Harry feels – rightly or wrongly – that he needs a complete change.  He buys a ramshackle cottage, determined to spend some time restoring it as well as investigating his family history and the lives of the saints. Honestly I know what you're thinking – he is rather more fun than all that sounds.  Well, he is - some of the time.
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340936886</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356520471
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0B575J99N
|author=Juliet Archer
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|title=Beneath the Porticoes
|title=Persuade Me
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|author=Brooke Adams
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=A decade before we meet Anna Elliott she had fallen in love with Rick Wentworth when they were both working in France.  Her father, Sir Walter Elliott of Kellynch and Minty, a family friend persuaded her to give up the relationship and take up her place at Oxford.  She now lectures about Russian literature, but it still unmarried and largely at the bidding of her father and her two elder sisters.  Rick Wentworth, meanwhile, has been in Australia, but he's now returned to the UK on a tour to promote his best-selling book.  It's an academic work about sea life, but the picture of a half-naked Rick on the cover and the title ''Sex in the Sea'' means that Rick – and his book- are in demand.
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931216</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kristin Hannah
 
|title=Night Road
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Lexi and Mia are best friends, and Mia and Zach are twins, and Lexi and Zach hardly hate each other either. They're not so much a couple of friends or brother and sister as they are a circle that goes round and round and never ends, and despite mother Jude's initial reservations, their unconventional arrangement seems to work. It's not like she's not got enough on her plate anyway. It's senior year of high school and the pressure of college applications and future plans is driving them all crazy, but when an event on the eve of graduation changes all their lives forever, there's nothing they wouldn't give to return to those stress-filled days of the ''before'' to escape the ''after'' that now torments them.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330534971</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241542405
|author=Linda Gillard
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|title=Meredith Alone
|title=Untying the Knot
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|author=Claire Alexander
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've often wondered why it's not axiomatic that a man should stand by his woman – although perhaps it couldn't be set to music quite so easily – but Fay had failed to stand by her manTo make it worse, she was an army wife and they just don't desert – and Magnus was a heroHe'd been in bomb disposal and despite being blown up had briefed his number two about the bomb before he was taken off to hospital.  He was good-looking, charismatic – and divorced.  Fay knew that marrying Magnus had been a mistake – but she also admitted that the biggest mistake of all was divorcing him.
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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 trainThen, 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 MatildaSadie's a cardiac nurse and full of sound common senseIn fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her cat, FredGroceries 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 timeThen Tom McDermott arrivesHe's from Holding Hands, a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005JTAMQO</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ulrika Jonsson
 
|title=The Importance of Being Myrtle
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=The front cover is lovely; it's good enough to frame and along with the intriguing title will help to draw readers in, I thinkThe blurb on the back cover suggests a cosy, domestic readI was looking forward to itWe initially get all the sorry details leading up to Austin's untimely death.  On the local bus, of all places, as he made his way to workA kindly Italian/Australian man called Gianni sees it all happening (in fact Austin dies in his arms)We also get a lot of background info on Gianni, right at the very beginning, which I thought slowed up the story somewhat.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043202</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008441618
|author=Ann Hood
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|title=Other Parents
|title=The Red Thread
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|author=Sarah Stovell
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=The Red Thread Adoption Agency has been successfully placing abandoned Chinese girls with loving American families, desperate for children, for many years when we join them. Named for the mythical Chinese belief that people who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread, an immense amount of work goes in from both countries to make the process as smooth and straightforward as possible, and to ensure the matches are, if not magical, then at least perfect. Maya, the agency’s owner, knows all the children she has placed and spends a great deal of time with the prospective parents before they come anywhere near their potential daughters.
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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>0393339769</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Giovanna Fletcher
|author=Alice Peterson
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|title=Walking on Sunshine
|title=Monday to Friday Man
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Gilly (that's with a 'G', you notice) was engaged to Ed, but a fortnight before their wedding and with the gifts piling up, he changed his mind. So Gilly was left on her own at the age of thirty four with a mortgage to pay on her house in Hammersmith and only a shop job to support herself. She really didn't know what she wanted to do with her life but as a stop-gap she decided to take in a Monday-to-Friday lodger.  This would give her some income, company during the week and the house to herself at weekends.  It seemed like an added bonus when the man she finally settled on was, well, rather tasty.  Jack Baker seemed to have a lot going for him – and a job in reality television.
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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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857383248</amazonuk>
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|isbn=140593560X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B09FS89KX9
|author=Tara Hyland
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|title=Fall On Me
|title=Fallen Angels
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|author=Penelope Potts
|rating=4
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=The front cover suggests romance with a capital 'R' along with the rather sugary title. The blurb on the back tells us we'll be travelling back and forth between various parts of the globeThe story opens with the PrologueSan Francisco in 1958 and there's a new-born baby girl taken to a local orphanageIt's a common occurrence sadly but this one stands outWe're told why towards the end when all the pieces of the jig-saw come together.
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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>1847377017</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008421714
|author=Susan Lewis
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|title=Mrs March
|title=Stolen
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|author=Virginia Feito
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='Stolen' starts over thirty years ago with a harassed young mother and her three small children travelling on the tube. The children are messing about and it's no wonder that, when it is time for them all to get off, things become difficult. This results in the eldest child, Alexandra, being left in the carriage while the mother frantically attempts to stop the train. A kindly looking man gestures that he will get off with the little girl at the next stop and will wait for the mother. That is how it is left so the reader cannot be sure exactly what has happened although I definitely had my suspicions.
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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>0099550679</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1473685745
|author=Fiona Neill
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|title=Unbreak Your Heart
|title=What the Nanny Saw
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|author=Katie Marsh
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Ali Sparrow is twenty-one and has just dropped out of university (albeit hopefully temporarily) as she needs to earn some money, so becoming a nanny to a rich family seems ideal when she sees Bryony Skinner's advertSoon Ali finds herself central to the Skinner's vast home and life on the rather exclusive Holland Park Crescent in a house that extends way beyond the usual two floors.  
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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 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 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 old.  So, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241952557</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=Jane Lovering
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|rating=4
|title=Star Struck
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|genre=General Fiction
|rating=3.5
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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 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.
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|isbn=152941198X
|summary=Skye Threppel had a year of memories wiped out in a car accident which cost the lives of her best friend and fiancé.  The physical scars were healing – although they were still very visible – but, eighteen months on, she struggled with meeting people and being anywhere but the cosy womb of her little terrace house in YorkShe used to be an actress but the accident has ruined her career and her confidence.  It was a massive step when her friend Fe (that's short for Felix, by the way) persuaded her to go with him to the 'Fallen Skies' TV convention in Nevada - giving her a chance to meet Gethryn Tudor-Morgan, the actor she idolises.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931690</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eleanor Moran
 
|title=Breakfast in Bed
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Amber is a chef in the throes of a sticky divorce who has quite enough on her plate (and the plates of her customers) without the terror of working for a wunderkind-slash-horrendous-dictator celebrity chef. So, because this is chick lit and the inevitable is, well, inevitable, that's just where she finds herself, landing a new job in the kitchen of Oscar Retford.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075154549X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anne Marsella
 
|title=The Baby of Belleville
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Jane de Rochefoucault, an expat living in Paris with her aristocratic husband, is just an ordinary mother fighting her way through the challenges of early parenthood from nursing to itsy-bitsy-spidering.  However, Jane's life certainly isn't all about diaper-changing and Tupperware. Far from it. When three of her Muslim friends decide to organise a highly dangerous slave emancipation Jane is forced to rely on her family's history of law-breaking and dodgy contacts to make sure the plan succeeds. And on top of all her maternal and culinary responsibilities Jane becomes the interpreter/secretary/personal shopper for a celebrity intellectual employer which isn't all it's cracked up to be.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846272246</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ruth Hogan
|author=Elizabeth Noble
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|title=Madame Burova
|title=The Way We Were
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Susannah comes across her old flame Rob at her brother's wedding, she instantly remembers all of the things that she loved about him. She cannot stop thinking about him and by doing so it makes her see her partner Doug in not such an attractive light. Doug pays her very little attention and often does not include her in his plans with his children. They seem to merely co-exist rather than share a life together which causes Susannah to become more and more dissatisfied, especially when she compares him with Rob. Although Rob has recently married, he starts meeting with Susannah in London on a regular basis and the flame is soon rekindled. However, they know that if they take things further, other are bound to get hurt.
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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 boothThe 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 stallWe 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>0141043113</amazonuk>
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|isbn=152937331X
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Pamela Fudge
 
|title=Never be Lonely
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=There was a moment when Francesca Dudley wondered quite what she was doing in a church in CanadaShe'd barely recovered from the lengthy flight and here she was listening to people extol the virtues of Mitchell Browning, now deceasedFrancesca hadn't seen him since he left the family home when she was four and now, four decades later, she was coming to terms with the fact that her father  had still been  alive, only to find that he was dead – if you see what I mean.  Mitchell has not just left her fatherless though – there seems to be a whole tribe of people bereaved by his death and at least one of them doesn't seem all that keen that she should be there.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709092539</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Jennifer Saint
|author=Fiona Mountain
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|title= Ariadne
|title=Isabella
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|rating= 4.5
|rating=4
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|genre= Women's Fiction  
|genre=Women's 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 fate of mutineer, Fletcher Christian in the 18th century remains a mystery even today but Fiona Mountain has pieced together a dramatic and powerful story based on rumours and clues that Fletcher returned to England to be with his long-lost love, Isabella Curwen. Fletcher, the son of a bankrupt family and Isabella, the sole heiress of a huge fortune are prevented from marrying. Their relationship is manipulated by those around them and a young, naïve Isabella is forced to marry her cousin, John.  
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|isbn=1472273869
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099562251</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Lucy Holland
|author=Rowan Coleman
+
|title=Sistersong
|title=Lessons in Laughing Out Loud
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Willow Briars is in her thirties and cannot exactly claim that her life is successful. Acrimoniously divorced, having no contact with her stepdaughter and working too many hours for a tyrannical boss, she cannot help but compare her life with her twin sister Holly's. But Holly has not had to live with the trauma that Willow endured as a child even though she has always been there to support and help her. However, one day she stumbles upon and old and tucked away second hand shop with a wonderful pair of shoes in the window that seem to be calling out to her. The shoes seem to transform Willow; not only her stature and looks but also her confidence and the way she sees herself. Also, the people who know her appear to be looking at her differently too. Transformed, she feels ready to tackle anything life has to throw at her which is probably a good thing when her fifteen year old stepdaughter turns up on her doorstep, pregnant and having run away from home.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551268</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529039037
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08NF79QXT
|author=Rosie Thomas
+
|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique
|title=The Kashmir Shawl
+
|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Mair Ellis and her two siblings are busy clearing out their parents' house shortly after their father's death, when Mair comes across an old package in a chest of drawers.  Unwrapping the parcel from its tissue paper, Mair discovers an exquisite and expensive, hand woven Indian shawl from Kashmir, intricately woven and full of wonderful colours.  Falling out of the shawl is an envelope containing a lock of hair, adding to its already mysterious nature.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007285965</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elisabeth McNeill
 
|title=East of Aden
 
 
|rating=3
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=It was said that something strange happened to women when they went east of Aden.  The normal rules of behaviour seemed to have been left at home and anything – well just about anything – seemed to go.  Back in the early nineteen sixties three women met in BombayHow would they fare in the hot climate?  It wasn't just the women who changed when they went out to India, either.  How would the husbands of Jess, Joan and Jackie cope when sex seemed to be freely available wherever they looked?
+
|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 pleasedSonja, 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, AvaLife would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709092458</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Karen Abbott
 
|title=A Father For Daisy
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Beatrice Rossall found herself in a difficult positionHer widowed father was an elderly vicar who took in a young unmarried girl who was expecting a baby. Soon after the baby's birth the mother died and Bea's father died not long after, leaving Bea in charge of Daisy who was only a few weeks old and with the prospect that she would have no home within a matter of days.  She couldn't get work because of Daisy – with a lot of people believing that she was Daisy's mother – but she wasn't going to let Daisy go to the workhouseAt the end of the nineteenth century this wasn't a good position to be in.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709092415</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ
|author=Chima Njoku-Latty
+
|title=The Karma Trap
|title=Thoroughly Modern People: The Long Way Home
+
|author=Lisette Boyd
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=The front cover graphics are good:  interesting and refreshingly modern and when I opened the book I liked the easy-on-the-eye print format.  And I think that's where my positive comments end.  The back cover blurb says that this book is  ''A beautifully moving story.''  I found it neither beautiful nor moving, I'm afraid.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956600107</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Adele Parks
 
|title=About Last Night
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=I've noticed a trend in recent women's commercial fiction titles of rather dark subject mattersIt seems that the light-hearted romps involving shopping and shoes are out and the subjects have grown up and become much more serious.  This latest from Adele Parks certainly deals with some weighty issues.  Steph and Pip have been best friends since they were at school togetherThey've supported each other through everything, and although they both find themselves living very different lifestyles they are still best friends.  Or at least, that's what they think until Steph desperately needs Pip's help after one eventful night and Pip suddenly isn't sure if she can help her best friend.
+
|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 dramaHer 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 postmanShe 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>0755371291</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08CHJLNBS
|author=Gabrielle Donnelly
+
|title=Capturing Emilia
|title=The Little Women Letters
+
|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=4
+
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=I read the back cover blurb with delight and couldn't help but applaud Donnelly for her ingenuity.  I loved the book ''Little Women'' when I read it many years ago and television adaptations keep it fresh for new generations.  So, before I'd even turned to chapter one, I was loving this book.  But will it live up to my lofty expectations?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156587</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer Weiner
 
|title=Fly Away Home
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Sylvie Serfer married Richard Woodruff and from that day on made herself the perfect politician's wife.  The senator came first in everything, even before their children.  That's not to say that the girls were neglected – it's just that they never came first.  The senator's image, his convenience, his schedule and his clothing were of paramount importance to Sylvie.  There's a problem though – the senator has been having an affair and as with all such matrimonial earthquakes in political circles it broke on the national news rather than in the privacy of the matrimonial home.  What's Sylvie to do?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847390250</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sue Moorcroft
 
|title=Love and Freedom
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Honor Sontag left her home in the States and came to the UK.  Her career had hit a sticky patch but she was determined to take a four-month break in Brighton to think things over and get herself back together again.  She needed a job that would help to supplement the money she had - and she definitely didn't want anything 'heavy'.  The other thing that she didn't want was any sort of romantic entanglement.  She's not even that tempted by the brother of her landlady, who's good looking, but his sister can't stop commenting about how irregularly he works although someone else mentions that he's on the buses.  Not much of a starter there then.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931666</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Julia Stagg
 
|title=L'Auberge
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=L'Auberge des Deux Vallees was sadly neglected but it had been bought, not as everyone expected, by a relative of the mayor, but by an English couple who, by all accounts, had little French and not a lot of experience in running a restaurant. Obviously, such a travesty cannot be allowed to continue, and within hours of hearing the news, mayor Serge Papon has called an emergency council meeting to ensure that the newcomers are forced out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately he hadn't reckoned on Christian Dupuy, whose politics are guided by his conscience rather than his wallet. When it comes down to it are quite a few other people in Fogas who don't see what's happening in quite the same way as the mayor.
+
|summary=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 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 deeper.  Charles 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>1444708236</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Helly Acton
|author=Kate Johnson
+
|title= The Shelf
|title=The Untied Kingdom
+
|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=Eve Carpenter is having a very bad day, and it is about to get worse. She comes round from a paragliding accident but everything is rather strange. Although she’s still in London, this is a city and a world she hardly recognises. There is just enough that is familiar to be totally confusing. In this world, England is a backward country with a population kept too busy fighting in a civil war to do much else. She is taken captive by a small group of soldiers who take her marching across the country with them. The leader, Major Harker, is obnoxious and scruffy, and is convinced Eve is a spy, or perhaps she is just mad. While they apparently speak the same language, they struggle to understand each other – their worlds are so different.
+
|isbn=1838770879
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931682</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Clare Jacob
 
|title=Ophelia in Pieces
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=Barrister Ophelia Dormandy had been working hard – well, overworking – for the last six months and on the eve of her thirty-ninth birthday she decided that she would go home early and cook a decent meal for her husband and herself.  She even decided that she would wear the red dress which Patrick liked. But when she got home Patrick and their son, Alex, were eating ice creams. He didn't seem in the least interested in dinner and then admitted that he was having an affair. Ophelia threw him out – and then began the long haul of trying to be a decent single parent in a job where the hours were long and the money uncertain.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595147</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=Emily Giffin
+
|isbn=0349003297
|title=Something Borrowed
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Rachel Miller and Darcy Rhone had been friends forever. Rachel was the older by just four months, but it was Darcy who sailed through life getting everything that she wanted.  Rachel might have reached her teens first, got her driving licence first and then gone on to become an attorney, but on the eve on Rachel's thirtieth birthday Darcy is the one who is having a whale of a time, with her glamorous PR job and ''very'' presentable fiancé.  Rachel is very obviously still single – and then an ill-considered birthday fling puts everything in jeopardy and – to cap it all - she begins to realise that her friendship with Darcy might not have been all she thought.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557746</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Katie Fforde
|author=Farahad Zama
+
|title= A Springtime Affair
|title=The Wedding Wallah
+
|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 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.  
|summary=Finishing 'The Wedding Wallah' is like leaving India at the end of a short holiday with myriad impressions of foreignness. I'll remember the crowds of Mumbai, the smells of cooking in small rooms, the colours and textures of saris, the dangerous forest. This may not be the greatest literature published this year – not even the finest romantic fiction – but the sheer novelty of the Indian world portrayed makes it five stars for enjoyment in my book. I imagined Farahad Zama as a female writer beavering away in rural India. Turns out I was wrong: the author is a male investment banker in London with two books previously published in this series. Oops.
+
|isbn=1780897561
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349122687</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B07W4MNBSG
|author=Cathy Glass
+
|title=Be Careful Who You Marry
|title=Run, Mummy, Run
+
|author=Lizzy Mumfrey
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Aisha is a young, beautiful and successful woman who has worked hard to get where she is. But there is one thing missing in her life: a man. Still living with her parents at the age of thirty and inexperienced when it comes to men, Aisha wonders if she will ever find a husband. But then she spots an ad in the paper and plucking up all her courage and determination, she decides to reply. This could be her only chance at love and she doesn't want to waste it.
+
|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-BothamThe 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>0007299281</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sam Baker
 
|title=To My Best Friends
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Nicci Morrison had always been the first of the four friends to do everything: fall in love, marry, have children (and twins at that) and develop a successful business.  Then, at thirty six, she was the first to die – of cancerNicci was an organiser and she couldn't let the opportunity pass to dress her friends for her funeral and to bequeath into their care her most treasured possessionsYou're probably thinking in terms of jewellery, or something similar, but Nicci left her friends her garden, her three-year-old daughters and her husband. I mean – just how much more difficult than that can you get?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007305540</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Features|the latest features]]
|author=Susan Wiggs
 
|title=Summer at Willow Lake
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Olivia Bellamy does not seem to have a lot of luck with men.  When we meet her she's just about to put her third broken engagement under her belt and head of into the wilderness of the Catskills with Freddy.  Don't get excited – he really is just a friend.  They're going to revamp the family's old summer camp in readiness for her grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary celebrations and right now it seems like the best way to forget about her love life.  Things turn from bad to worse though when she finds herself not only stuck up a flagpole but having to be rescued by the man who was her first boyfriend some nine years before.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304760</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

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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

0241542405.jpg

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

B08NF79QXT.jpg

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

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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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