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=Giselle Green
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|author=Penny Parkes
|title=Falling for You
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Rose is full of worries and insecurities. Her father is frail, her mother died some years previously. Rose is desperately hoping for a letter offering her a place at the university of her dreams... but has no idea how her father will survive without her there to look after him.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B006KHWSJ8</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer E Smith
 
|title=The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=The story takes place over the course of only twenty four hours but so much happens during that small amount of time. It starts when the reader meets Hadley having missed her flight to London by a mere four minutes. As it turns out, those four minutes are some of the most significant of her life, as they result in her booking a later flight and consequently meeting Oliver with whom she is seated throughout the journey across the Atlantic.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755392175</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Courtney Sullivan
 
|title=Maine
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Kellehers' beach-front holiday home in Maine was built on a plot of land won in a bar-room bet at the end of World War IIIt's not in the same league as the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port but there are a couple of substantial properties on the plot and there's still room to spareIt's a place of indulgence, secrets and the sort of burning cruelty which you only get in families who care for each other - some of the time''Maine'' is essentially the story of a summer at the property - but the seeds of what happens were, of course, planted long ago.
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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 brickJamie'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 schoolMissed 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 wrongIt was going to come to a head.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085789496X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lauren Bravo
|author=Monica Carly
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|title=Preloved
|title=The Golden Thread
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|rating=4
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=It was a sad day when Claudia Hansom retired as headmistress of Kingdown School.  The staff respected her, despite the fact that she was always somewhat distant and the children did well under her charge.  She was a stickler for discipline and the pupils accepted this – but once again there was no ''love''.  No, the sadness was all Claudia's, for what was she to do with the rest of her life as the ex-head teacher living alone with her cat? Her mother had died when she and her sister were teenagers and her father not long before she retired.  There hadn't been any contact with her sister was forty years.  She might imagine doing some writing, but the reality was that the life ahead of her was empty.
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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 crisis. Catharsis is key and Gwen has decided now is the time to take back her life'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780880162</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398510629
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0008506337
 +
|title=The Garnett Girls
 +
|author=Georgina Moore
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=General Fiction
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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''.
  
{{newreview
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Then Richard left them.
|author=Jean Marsh
 
|title=The House of Eliott
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=When Evangeline and Beatrice's father dies, the two sisters discover that he has left them with very little money and without any qualifications with which to support themselves.  They struggle to find suitable employment before accidentally discovering their talents as seamstresses and fashion designers.  The book follows their journey of independence after their father's death, and the new relationships they begin to build without him dominating their lives.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144720008X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Stella Newman
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|author=Hadeer Elsbai
|title=Pear Shaped
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|title=The Daughters of Izdihar
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Fantasy
|summary=One night Sophie was out with her friend Laura. They met a couple of men and there was an immediate chemistry between Sophie and James Stephens. He was good looking, charismatic, great fun and obviously attracted to Sophie.  The fact that he was rich (complete with Maserati) didn't matter to her - but it didn't do any harm either. What's not to like?  Well, there's nothing 'not to like' but just the odd thing that might give some pause for thought. He's forty five and never been married - and has a history of dating super-slim models.  But - he is obviously very taken with Sophie and she falls head-over-heels for him.
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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>1847562701</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356520471
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0B575J99N
|author=Beryl Kingston
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|title=Beneath the Porticoes
|title=Off the Rails
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|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=A young girl from a Yorkshire village was weeping, begging her mother to be allowed just one more night at home, but the carter was waiting for her.  The girl was fifteen, unmarried and pregnant.  She was to go any stay with her aunt until the baby was born and she would be Mrs Smith whose husband had died at sea.  The father of the baby was actually a village boy, George Hudson, who would prefer to pay a fine for bastardy than make an honest woman of the girl.  He too ended up leaving home over the matter.  In the years to come the paths of Jane, along with her daughter Milly, would cross and recross with Jane swearing that she would have vengeance.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090951</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Helen Gordon
 
|title=Landfall
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary='Most people at one time or another of their lives get a feeling that they must kill themselves; as a rule they get over it in a day or two' ('How Girls Can Build Up The Empire: the handbook for Girl Guides' 1912)
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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.
 
 
Excerpts from the handbook precede each section of ''Landfall'' and it is hard to know what to make of them – other than to take on board that women are not, by any stretch, the weaker sex, just the more emotional one 'They can even…shoot tigers, if they can keep cool'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905490828</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241542405
|author=Kerry Jamieson
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|title=Meredith Alone
|title=The Forgotten Lies
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|author=Claire Alexander
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the mid-thirties, the golden age of Hollywood, three aspiring starlets shared a studio house on Lantana Drive as they waited to hear if they were going to have a career in the movies – or notCharlotte (soon to be Carlie for acting purposes), Verbena, known to her friends (and ''only'' her friends) as Bee and Ivy were desperate for the role of a lifetime, which would put their name in lightsThere was an added appealWhoever won would star opposite Liam Malone – good looking, charismatic and ''very'' married with six childrenIt wasn't just a case of being able to act.  Their lives would be under intense scrutiny.
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|summary=When we first meet Meredith Maggs it's Wednesday 14 November 2018 and she's not left her home for 1,214 days.  She'd ''like'' to: in fact, she so nearly does.  Her outdoor clothes are on and she's even considered which shoes to wear if she's going to catch her train.  Then, she can't.  She simply can't force herself to leave the safety of her homeShe'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 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 time.  Then Tom McDermott arrivesHe's from Holding Hands, a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141026049</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008441618
|author=Daniela Sacerdoti
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|title=Other Parents
|title=Watch Over Me
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|author=Sarah Stovell
|rating=4
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Eilidh Lawson thought that life was finally looking up.  She'd struggled through years of failed fertility treatments despite knowing that her husband was seeing someone else.  Their marriage had crumbled around their feet – but then Eilidh found that she was pregnant.  Despite being only ten weeks into the pregnancy she wore a maternity smock – and that was the day she lost the babyMonths of heartbreak, depression and hospitalisation followed until one day she decided that enough was enoughShe was leaving her home, her marriage and most of her possessions and she was returning to her childhood home in the Highlands of ScotlandShe was never going to risk that sort of hurt again.
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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 townThe school had an active Parent Teacher Association and the funds which they raised were a considerable benefit to the schoolThere was one difficulty, though - they were ''devastatingly shockable'', with two members, in particular, causing problems for the headLaura 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>1845023668</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Giovanna Fletcher
|author=Isabel Wolff
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|title=Walking on Sunshine
|title=The Very Picture Of You
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|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.
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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>000724584X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=140593560X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B09FS89KX9
|author=Christina Courtenay
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|title=Fall On Me
|title=Highland Storms
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|author=Penelope Potts
|rating=4
 
|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 R.  Courtenay decides to go back in time to a Scotland rather weary of battles but strong in image especially in terms of the countryside.  Is 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931712</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jean Marsh
 
|title=Fiennders Abbey
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|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
 
|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 SandersonHarriet knows something else tooShe 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 proposedComplicated?  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.
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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 diner.  Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was a good bossHollie 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>1845494687</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008421714
|author=Sophie Duffy
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|title=Mrs March
|title=The Generation Game
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|author=Virginia Feito
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=Literary 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 marriedWhat 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 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>1908248017</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1473685745
|author=Jane Fallon
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|title=Unbreak Your Heart
|title=The Ugly Sister
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|author=Katie Marsh
|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
 
|author=Alan Titchmarsh
 
|title=The Haunting
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|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 soundsWell, he is - some of the time.
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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 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 oldSo, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340936886</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=Juliet Archer
 
|title=Persuade Me
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=General 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 OxfordShe now lectures about Russian literature, but it still unmarried and largely at the bidding of her father and her two elder sistersRick Wentworth, meanwhile, has been in Australia, but he's now returned to the UK on a tour to promote his best-selling bookIt'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=It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen WallisFor yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows.  Female literacy is actively discouragedAnd in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint.  That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906931216</amazonuk>
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|isbn=152941198X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ruth Hogan
|author=Kristin Hannah
+
|title=Madame Burova
|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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Linda Gillard
 
|title=Untying the Knot
 
 
|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 man.  To make it worse, she was an army wife and they just don't desert – and Magnus was a hero.  He'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=This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connectedSo 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 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 BillieJust 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>B005JTAMQO</amazonuk>
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|isbn=152937331X
}}
 
 
 
{{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 think.  The blurb on the back cover suggests a cosy, domestic read.  I was looking forward to it.  We initially get all the sorry details leading up to Austin's untimely deathOn the local bus, of all places, as he made his way to work.  A 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ann Hood
 
|title=The Red Thread
 
|rating=5
 
|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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393339769</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alice Peterson
 
|title=Monday to Friday Man
 
|rating=4
 
|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 mindSo 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 herselfShe 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857383248</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Jennifer Saint
|author=Tara Hyland
+
|title= Ariadne
|title=Fallen Angels
+
|rating= 4.5
|rating=4
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|genre= Women's Fiction  
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|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 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 globe.  The story opens with the Prologue:  San Francisco in 1958 and there's a new-born baby girl taken to a local orphanage. It's a common occurrence sadly but this one stands out.  We're told why towards the end when all the pieces of the jig-saw come together.
+
|isbn=1472273869
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377017</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Lucy Holland
|author=Susan Lewis
+
|title=Sistersong
|title=Stolen
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|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.
+
|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>0099550679</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529039037
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08NF79QXT
|author=Fiona Neill
+
|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique
|title=What the Nanny Saw
+
|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=4
+
|rating=3
|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 advert.  Soon 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241952557</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jane Lovering
 
|title=Star Struck
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|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 York.  She 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
 
|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.
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075154549X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ
|author=Anne Marsella
+
|title=The Karma Trap
|title=The Baby of Belleville
+
|author=Lisette Boyd
|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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth Noble
 
|title=The Way We Were
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043113</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{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 Canada.  She'd barely recovered from the lengthy flight and here she was listening to people extol the virtues of Mitchell Browning, now deceased.  Francesca 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Fiona Mountain
 
|title=Isabella
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|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.  
+
|summary=George Jackson is thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to look at - and single.  She's not had sex for eight months and she's stuck in the karma trap: an awful lot of bad luck is being visited on her and she has a real talent for attracting drama.  Her life's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the shower by putting something down at the bottom of the stairs to absorb the water - then the shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it and left her, stark naked, staring at the pervy postman.  She only has to take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099562251</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B08CHJLNBS
|author=Rowan Coleman
+
|title=Capturing Emilia
|title=Lessons in Laughing Out Loud
+
|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551268</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rosie Thomas
 
|title=The Kashmir Shawl
 
|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 goBack in the early nineteen sixties three women met in BombayHow would they fare in the hot climateIt wasn't just the women who changed when they went out to India, eitherHow would the husbands of Jess, Joan and Jackie cope when sex seemed to be freely available wherever they looked?
+
|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 doorEmilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a little deeperCharles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mindShe's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friendsAnd 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>0709092458</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Helly Acton
|author=Karen Abbott
+
|title= The Shelf
|title=A Father For Daisy
+
|rating= 4
|rating=4
+
|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=Beatrice Rossall found herself in a difficult position.  Her 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 workhouse. At the end of the nineteenth century this wasn't a good position to be in.
+
|isbn=1838770879
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709092415</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=Chima Njoku-Latty
+
|isbn=0349003297
|title=Thoroughly Modern People: The Long Way Home
 
|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>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Katie Fforde
|author=Adele Parks
+
|title= A Springtime Affair
|title=About Last Night
+
|rating= 4
|rating=4
+
|genre= Women's Fiction
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|summary= I've wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a warm, cosy read focused on romance, family and friendshipsThis provided two romances for the price of one, but it was actually the family element as opposed to the romance that I really enjoyed.  
|summary=I've noticed a trend in recent women's commercial fiction titles of rather dark subject matters.  It 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 together.  They've supported each other through everything, and although they both find themselves living very different lifestyles they are still best friendsOr 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.
+
|isbn=1780897561
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755371291</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=B07W4MNBSG
|author=Gabrielle Donnelly
+
|title=Be Careful Who You Marry
|title=The Little Women Letters
+
|author=Lizzy Mumfrey
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|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 generationsSo, before I'd even turned to chapter one, I was loving this bookBut will it live up to my lofty expectations?
+
|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 weekend.  There was just one problem - there were too many Elizabeths in the class.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156587</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Features|the latest features]]

Latest revision as of 11:49, 13 November 2023

1471180158.jpg

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

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Review of

Meredith Alone by Claire Alexander

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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

0008441618.jpg

Review of

Other Parents by Sarah Stovell

5star.jpg Women's Fiction

Jo Fairburn knew that she was under intense pressure as the new head of West Burntridge First School: if she didn't live up to her retired predecessor there could well be a house price slump in that part of the town. The school had an active Parent Teacher Association and the funds which they raised were a considerable benefit to the school. There was one difficulty, though - they were devastatingly shockable, with two members, in particular, causing problems for the head. Laura Spence and Kate Monroe objected to Jo's restrictions on the toys children could bring in on Toy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ education. Full Review

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Review of

Walking on Sunshine by Giovanna Fletcher

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

Mike's wife, Pia, who he was with for seventeen years, has died. And whilst he is dealing with his grief, so are their best friends, Vicky and Zaza. But Pia left them all some 'rules' to follow, knowing that she was dying and that they would need help to carry on living. Whilst some of the rules are around practicalities such as clearing out her wardrobe, another one that Mike discovers one day encourages him to take one of their trips away, and Vicky and Zaza, struggling with their grief and their own life troubles, decide to drop everything in their own lives, and go along with him. Full Review

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Review of

Fall On Me by Penelope Potts

3.5star.jpg Women's Fiction

Life should have been good for Hollie: She was just going into the final year of her veterinary degree and - three years later - was still working at BB's diner. Bob - the owner - regarded her fondly: he was a good boss. Hollie had moved in with her boyfriend, Marcus: her mother thought he was great and he was doing well in his career. Hollie wasn't quite so certain though: Marcus wanted to control her and most of all he wanted her to leave her job at the diner. Then there was the fact that he would be violent, both to her and to other people. Full Review

0008421714.jpg

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

1473685745.jpg

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

B08GFSK2WZ.jpg

Review of

The Karma Trap by Lisette Boyd

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

Capturing Emilia by Brooke Adams

3star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

The Shelf by Helly Acton

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

When Mike Parker's girlfriend comes into school with a black eye, claiming he gave it to her, her whole world is tipped upside down. Her relationship has just ended and now she's the talk of the school. Mike was the most popular boy in school who was always so in love with her, everyone knew that, so why did he do what he did? Some people believe her and some don't, but one thing is for sure, this isn't going to blow over any time soon. Full Review

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Review of

A Springtime Affair by Katie Fforde

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

Be Careful Who You Marry by Lizzy Mumfrey

4star.jpg General Fiction

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

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