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[[Category:Women's Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Women's Fiction]]==Women's Fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Wendy Wallace1471180158|title=The Painted Bridge|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Young bride Anna Palmer places her trust in all the wrong people. One choice that backfires spectacularly is her impulsive marriage to the Reverend Vincent Palmer. Less than a year after their marriage he tells her that they are going to visit some of his friends at a place called Lake House. But Lake House is a privately run asylum 'for genteel women of a delicate nature'. Once there Anna discovers that she is not allowed to leave without Vincent's approval.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857209272</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaybe Tomorrow|author=Melanie Gideon|title=Wife 22Penny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Alice and William Buckle have been married Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for quite a few years and have two teenage children and man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a doghalf brick. With their busy lives Jamie's son, they end up having little time for each other Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and rarely get the opportunity to talk about more you read, the things more you'll suspect that matterhe's on the autistic spectrum. In order Sometimes Jamie needs to do something about her feelings of discontent, Alice googles take time off at short notice - she'happy marriage?' and although there seem to be no magic secrets for success, s a little later she is invited to take part frequent flier in an online survey about modern marriage. She is given the label, Wife 22, local A&E and is assigned sometimes Bo's not fit enough to her caseworker, Researcher 101, who sends her questions periodically, and is also available through email go to answer any queriesschool. Alice soon enjoys being able to pour her heart out through Missed shifts or the questions that she has need to answer but also finds that she is becoming more than a little attracted be away on time to her faceless caseworker. They start chatting through facebook pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and Alice finds it quite exciting to mildly flirt with her new friend. However, the more she does so, put in the more disgruntled she becomes with her own husbandwrong. There comes a point though where Alice has It was going to decide whether come to take things further and if she does, what will become of her marriage?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007481772</amazonuk>a head.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Erin KayeLauren Bravo|title=Second Time AroundPreloved|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=When Jennifer and Ben first meet, they really like each other. It doesn't take long before they are dating and although there Gwen is over sixteen years difference in age, they get pressing her middle-aged bosom on so well a big number that they can see that they do have 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 future togethermid-life crisis. However, as Ben Catharsis is closer in age to Jennifer's children, Matt key and Lucy, she Gwen has decided now is worried about what they will think. Ben's parents are equally unhappy especially as they feel that if Ben stays with Jennifer, she is not likely the time to provide them with the grandchildren they so desire. It seems that theretake back her life's no way to keep everybody happy.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847562027</amazonuk>1398510629
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008506337
|title=The Garnett Girls
|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|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|author=Ellen Sussman|title=French Lessons|rating=3Then Richard left them.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=There are six main characters in this book which is really three stories in one. Nico, Philippe and Chantal know each other, and Nico knows Josie, and Philippe knows Riley, and Chantal knows Jeremy, but Josie and Riley and Jeremy don’t know each other or anyone else. The first three are French tutors who have private lessons with their foreign students on the streets of Paris, using the city as a better backdrop for learning than a stuffy classroom. This week they each have Americans engaging their services, and over the course of one day the lives of students and teachers all change in ways they never expected.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780333846</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley ConranHadeer Elsbai|title=LaceThe Daughters of Izdihar|rating=3.54|genre=Women's FictionFantasy|summary=Lili might Drawing inspiration from Egypt, ''The Daughters of Izdihar'' explores the lives of two women who could not be young but she's more different, yet find themselves fighting for the rights of women and weavers – those with magical abilities - in a superstar 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's used to getting what she wantsis forced into an arranged marriage with Nico. She's just summoned Judy, Kate, Maxine Giorgina on the other hand did not have a privileged upbringing like Nehal and Pagan feels great pressure to provide for her suite in Manhattanfamily and maintain their reputation, whilst secretly attending meetings of the Daughters of Izdihar – a group campaigning for women's most exclusive hotelrights. They might Giorgina also happens to be at the top in love with Nico. What follows is a story of ''their'' professions - Fashionan unjust society, PR filled with hypocrisy and interior design but it's Lili who holds the whip hand here. She has cruelty, from which blossoms a simple request: ''Which one group of you bitches is my mother?''admirable women fighting for their rights and overcoming their personal obstacles.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857863908</amazonuk>0356520471
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah HarknessB0B575J99N|title=Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy 2)|rating=5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=''Shadow of Night'' moves on from where [[A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness|A Discovery of Witches]] finishes. Matthew Claremont (vampire, intellectual and, even after centuries of life, still looking a pretty decent 37 years old) and Diana Bishop (historian and witch with a pedigree stretching back to the Salem witch trials) are married and have time-walked to 1591 to look for Ashmole 782, the ancient book that Diana let slip through her fingers in 2010. They also need to find Diana a tutor to help her control the powers that she's chosen to ignore for a lifetime. There aren't just supernatural items on the agenda though; Diana thought she knew all there was to know about her new spouse but there are secrets to be discovered, his connection to the historic 'School of the Night' being one of the less dangerous. Oh, and another thing, they discover that the 16th century isn't, perhaps, Beneath the best time to visit if you're a witch, especially if you need to advertise for a tutor. (I think we could have told them that if they'd asked!)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755384733</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPorticoes|author=Timeri N Murari|title=The Taliban Cricket ClubBrooke Adams|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=We all know, or think we know, how oppressive life was for Afghans, particularly Afghan women, under the Taliban regime, but when you read this novel, boy do you get a sense of how tough it really was.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742378846</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louise Douglas|title=In Her Shadow|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Hannah has had one nervous breakdown due to unbearable guilt Elizabeth Miller was thirty-four and seems on course for a secondteacher at a prestigious girl's school in York. How else can It was ''comfortable'' but she explain longed for something more in life. She'd ''still not found the fact that right vocation nor met the still dead Ellen seems right man'' and now was the time to be following her around? make a change. She needed challenges. It all started two decades earlierThere 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>0593070216</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louise Candlish0241542405|title=The Day You Saved My LifeMeredith Alone|author=Claire Alexander
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=HollyWhen 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 early twentiestrain. Then, is a single mother who has had severe post-natal depression since she can't. She simply can't force herself to leave the birth safety of her son Mikeyhome. He is now She's fortunate that she has a toddlergood friend, Sadie, who visits regularly with her two children, James and they live with HollyMatilda. Sadie's mum, Joanna. She has a somewhat sordid past cardiac nurse and full of sound common sense. In fact it was Sadie who gave Meredith her own but has given everything to raising Holly 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 loving environment; she has also had to do most of the caring for her small grandsoncharity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543551</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louise Douglas0008441618|title=The Secrets Between UsOther Parents|author=Sarah Stovell
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Sarah and Alexander meet at 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 time when both are looking for a fresh start following house price slump in that part of the demise of their previous relationshipstown. She is vulnerable, he is needy, The school had an active Parent Teacher Association and together the funds which they can support each other. Sarah is quickly employed as raised were a live in housekeeper in his sprawling home, and moves south from Manchester considerable benefit to join Alex and his young son Jamie. Life in a small village takes some getting used to, especially given what has happenedthe school. Genevieve There was one difficulty, Alex’s popularthough - they were ''devastatingly shockable'', pretty and wealthy wifewith two members, has disappeared. Some say of her own accordin particular, others are sure something sinister has happened to her, but in any event she has not been heard from since she left town and causing problems for the locals are suspicious of Sarah’s motiveshead. In their eyes she is moving in on the man who rightly belongs to the town sweetheart, taking over the role of mothering Jamie, Laura Spence and generally weaselling her way in Kate Monroe objected to become the lady of the house before Genevieve’s bed is even cold. Protestations that she is simply an employee, not a lover, fall Jo's restrictions on deaf ears, and with Genevieve’s family being the most prominent toys children could bring in town, it’s hard to get anyone to be on Sarah and Alexander’s side when accusations start flyingToy Day but that was just a warm-up act for their real gripe: LGBTQ education.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552777331</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mark DevineGiovanna Fletcher|title=Dragon of Life Book 2 Minor GodsWalking on Sunshine|rating=3.54
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Luke and Martha have been apart for some time as LukeMike's been in Valparaiso where one of the hotels which wife, Pia, who he sold to a consortium of employees was with for seventeen years, has been having problemsdied. When they meet again itAnd whilst he is dealing with his grief, so are their best friends, Vicky and Zaza. But Pia left them all some 'rules's in Seattleto follow, but knowing that she was dying and that they're would need help to carry on their way 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 the Far East in the hope take one of starting a new their trips away, and Vicky and Zaza, struggling with their grief and their own life free from the attentions of the FBI which they so tired of troubles, decide to drop everything in the [[Dragon of Life Book 1: Raining Truth by Mark Devine|first book]] in the series. They had perhaps hoped that life would be simpler - but this is Luke Whittaker we're talking about their own lives, and 'simple' is just never going to happengo along with him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B008674NNO</amazonuk>140593560X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adele ParksB09FS89KX9|title=Whatever It Takes|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Whatever it takes means giving up your exciting, settled life in the capital to move to Dartmouth, if that’s what your husband wants. Whatever it takes means being a constant shoulder to cry on for your best friend even when that nagging voice at the back of your mind is asking whether this is really a two-way friendship. Whatever it takes means prioritising the needs of others – your daughters, your in laws – ahead of your own needs. All day, every day. Whatever it takes means maintaining a calm, put-together demeanour in the face of event crashers, party trashers, unfaithful spouses and life-changing secrets. Whatever it takes means keeping up appearances, no matter what. But if a relationship’s a sham, it’s only a matter of time before the façade starts to crack and splinter.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755371348</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFall On Me|author=Mark Devine|title=Dragon of Life Book 1: Raining TruthPenelope Potts
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=When we first encounter Luke Whitaker he is Life should have been good for Hollie: She was just going into the final year of her veterinary degree and - he tells us three years later - a disembodied spirit placed in this part of the heavenly kingdom so that he can remember his life and emotions exactly as they were lived. I donwas still working at BB't know about you, but I'd find that rather unpleasant and decidedly embarrassings diner. Luke Whitaker recognises that there are parts of his life which he'd rather remove from Bob - the record, but acknowledges that owner - regarded her fondly: he can'twas a good boss. We join him Hollie had moved in 1967 in Seattle with her boyfriend, Marcus: her mother thought he was great and he's on was doing well in his way to Honolulucareer. When he sets off he doesnHollie wasn't realise quite how momentous 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 trip is going fact that he would be violent, both to her and to beother people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>098501640X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pamela Fudge0008421714|title=Turn Back Time|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Charles and Tessa have managed reasonably well since their divorce. Both adore their daughter, Megan and would agree that the other is a good parent - that is if they ever had any contact with each other other than the occasional text or email. Just before Megan is due to go to university Charles sends a message to Tessa via Megan. He has something which he needs to discuss with her and thinks that they should meet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709098448</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMrs March|author=Fannie Flagg|title=I Still Dream About YouVirginia Feito|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=At the age of 60, Maggie Fortenbury's glory days seem to have passed her by. An ex-Miss Alabama, she headed for the fame she dreamt of in 'the Big Apple' and ended, instead, making disastrous life choices that took her along a different route. However she had made one good decision: to work for the diminutive Hazel Whisenkott, midget and founder of Red Mountain Realty. Now, as Hazel is dead, and despite her friendship with her colleagues (obese, optimistic Brenda and moaning Ethel), suicide seems the next logical step. It has to be done correctly as Maggie comes from an era when you wouldn't want to let anyone down or any commitment unfulfilled. Therefore picking her final day becomes increasingly difficult when other things get in the way, including a troupe of Whirling Dervishes. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555484</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Fiona McGregor|title=Indelible Ink|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Once wealthy, middle class Australian suburbanite Marie King never thought sheThe problem began just after the publication of George March'd be starting a new life at 59 but here she is, divorced and having s most successful novel to sell the marital homedate. Unfortunately, attached to the marital home is the marital garden into which Marie didn't only give life Everyone but also pour Mrs March (we know her own lifefirst name only on the last page) seemed to either be reading it or had already done so. However, Marie tries Every day Mrs March went to the local patisserie to be positive and decides buy olive bread but on that if particular morning, Patricia asked, as shewas wrapping the bread, ''but isn't this the first time he's going to be based a new personcharacter on you?'' She mentioned that Johanna, she may as well go the whole way. This means tattoos (much to principal character had 'her offspringsmannerisms'' horror) and an unlikely friendship with tattooist Rhys. With that comes Perhaps this would not have mattered, except for the realisation fact that Johanna is the privileged suburb whore of Mossman isnNantes - 't all there is to Sydney. There's much more to the citya weak, plain, detestable, pathetic, and indeed herselfunloved, than she first thoughtunloveable wretch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857894129</amazonuk>''
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Trisha Ashley1473685745|title=Chocolate Shoes and Wedding BluesUnbreak Your Heart|author=Katie Marsh
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Tansy was brought up by her greatWhen Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange -aunt Nancywell, who is in her nineties at the start of this book. Tansy lives with Simon was angry and Beth was doing her fiancé Justin, but time is racing by and she is beginning best to despair of ever getting married or apologise for having babies. Justin is under his demanding motherknocked Simon's thumbson, Jake, and Tansy loves getting away to the village where her great aunt owns a small shoe shop.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562779</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kathleen MacMahon|title=This Is How It Ends|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This is an incredibly gentle (and gently funny) love story set in the winter of 2008 when the Irish economy was booming and the US were about to elect their first black president. Hugh (a deliciously grumpy surgeon) and off his currently unemployed architect daughter Addie lived happily in an Irish seaside townbike. Ok, he He wasn'd broken both his wrists tripping over Addiet hurt but Jake has history. He has HLHS - that's dog and Addie found it hard not to cry sometimes, but they were alright. Then one day, out Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of the blue, they receive a voicemail message from Bruno, a distant American relative you whoare not 's just popped over the ocean to say 'Hi!au fait' Remembering the last US relative who came to visit (it didn't go well)with your medical acronyms. When he was born, Addie and Hugh decide to ignore the phone... and the front door... and the occupant left side of the bench seat across the road... Hehis heart hadn's bound to go home eventuallyt developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days old. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847445462</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ruth Saberton|title=Amber Scott is Starting Over|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Amber Scott So, Simon has been with her fiancé Ed for over ten years. Things may not be perfect in their relationship but they muddle along OK in their London home, both going off every right to their separate jobs. However, one day, just as Amber is about to celebrate a promotion of her own, Ed announces that he has been offered a partnership in a law firm. This should be fantastic news but the problem is that it is over two hundred miles away in Cornwall and would mean Amber having to give up everything that she has worked for in order to go with him. And, of course, as Ed points out many times, if she really loves him she wouldn-protective particularly when someone isn't even have to think about it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409135500</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alice Peterson|title=Ten Years On|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The prologue of this book sees Becca with her student friends at a New Year's Eve party. Afterwards, she and her boyfriend Ollie and their flatmate Joe hang out for a while, talking about the future. They wonder what looking where they might be doing in ten years' time..re driving. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857383256</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne AllenC J Carey|title=Dangerous Waters: Mystery, Loss and Love on the Island of GuernseyWidowland
|rating=4
|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Jeanne Le Page suffered a panic attack as the ferry neared Guernsey. It was a decade 's April 1953, and a half since sheAdolf Hitler'd left the island following s schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the deaths state funeral of her parents in Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a boating accident. She'd been in bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the boat throne of Edward VIII with them but had no memory of what happened other than the occasional flashbackhis wife, Queen Wallis. It was For yes, Britain caved in the death of her grandmother which brought her back lead-up to the islandWorld War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, but she never intended to stay for long - in fact just long and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough to arrange for the sale of the cottage which her grandmother had left her. But somehow same blood as the island worked its magic Germanic peoples on her and she found herself making friends and developing more of a social life than she'd had back on 'the mainland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780882300</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gwen Kirkwood|title=Another Home, Another Love|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Rosemary Palmer-Farr is nowhere near as grand as her name might lead you to expect'. In fact she's But this is most certainly a downdifferent Britain, for Nazi-to-earth girlstyled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, fresh out has put all of horticultural college who's taken over that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the gardens attached drudges, and beyond those, right on down to her mother's hotel. It's her mother who has the social pretensionschildless, the husbandless and the widows. She's determined that Rosemary Lavender (it's OK - everyone else calls her Rosie) Female literacy is going to make a good marriage and that certainly doesn't include any of the tenant farmers (or their offspring) she's been so friendly withactively discouraged. And when push comes to shove she'll do ''whatever'' in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is necessary to keep her away from one particular man of the soil whilst pushing employed with the suit task of the local landowning family.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709096305</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Pamela Kavanagh|title=The Lonely Furrow|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=The loss bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of the family business was no fault of the Drummond familyit – after all, not every book can be banned, but by the time that they'd repaid what was owed they had no home and no means of making a living. The elder sonnot every story excised immediately from British civilisation, Nathan, lost his fiancé and there was little left for them to do but to leave Glasgow and move to so they just get a farm which had been in Florence Drummondhefty tweak towards the party line before they's family re stamped ready for some timereprint. They weren't farmers, but there was little choice but for them to buckle down and make the best of the situation presented to them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709096372</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Julia QuinnThat is her job, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway|title=The Lady Most Likely|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Hughat least, until the Earl first emerging signs of Briarly, has acknowledged his mortality after a nasty accident, and has decided to take a wife. Not being a very sociable person - he likes horses better than people - he asks his married sister Carolyn female protest come to produce a list of eligible young ladies. She does solight, and then invites them and various other friends with their potential to a house partyspoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>074995776X</amazonuk>152941198X
}}
 {{newreview|author=Sinead Moriarty|title=Me and My Sisters|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Louise, Sophie and Julie. Three women. Three sisters. One a successful business woman. One a successful trophy wife. One a successful mother of four. All of them seem to the others to have it all. All of them have more troubles than the others could ever imagine.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241950589</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maria GoodinRuth Hogan|title=NutmegMadame Burova
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Meg was rather underdone when she was bornThis book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connected. Her mother ate lots of eggs during pregnancy 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 hope third generation of giving 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 good glazerevamped holiday camp, but instead 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 came out clucking like a chicken, and was fortuitously caught in who delivered the secrets about her to Imelda, and why did it have to remain a frying pan by the gas man...secret all this time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908248246</amazonuk>152937331X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lucy RobinsonJennifer Saint |title=The Greatest Love Story of All TimeAriadne |rating=24.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=It was This re-telling of the blurb on this one that had me interested, mentioning Fran’s 30th birthday (mine’s a few months away) myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the fact she’s bluffed her story in a way into that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a very posh job (something some might say I’ve just done too)modern audience. I thought we might be kindred spirits and even if we weren’tSaint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, I thought I might be signing up for some funspanning from her childhood to her death, flirty chick lit which is never allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a bad thing. Until nowprop in the heroics of Theseus.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241952980</amazonuk>1472273869
}}
 {{newreview|author=Rosy Thornton|title=Ninepins|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Laura lives deep in the Cambridgeshire Fens with her daughter Beth and at the time that we meet them she's just coming up to her twelfth birthday. Her father has remarried and now has three young sons, but mother and father decided early on that they would have cordial relations for Beth's sake - and the habit has stuck. Money from Beth's father is a little hit and miss, so Laura has been in the habit of letting out the pumphouse - once a drainage station - to students, but this time its occupant is Willow, who is seventeen years old and who has been in care. It takes a while for her history to emerge, but her mother was a hippy with no sense of responsibility and it ''seems'' that Willow might have been guilty of arson.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905207859</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa Kleypas|title=Rainshadow Road|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=It's sometimes said that bad luck comes in threes. It certainly happens that way for Lucy, the rather hapless heroine of this book. First her boyfriend of two years announces that he wants her to move out, because - of all things - he has decided that he likes her sister Alice better. Then Lucy's car breaks down. And then, just as she seems to be dealing with her circumstances fairly well, she is knocked over by a car.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749953888</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Eleanor PrescottHolland|title=Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of DatingSistersong
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary='Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art Sistersong is part of Dating' is a very enjoyable and light-hearted look at genre I particularly enjoy, the world modern retelling of dating agenciesfolk and fairy tales. Table These stories, for Two is most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a thriving agency run by Audrey Cracknell fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and her team including Alice who is most successful at setting up dates leading new meaning to lasting love. There is nothing more exciting stories that receiving gold written wedding invitations from former clients. There's also fierce competition from are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the other dating agencies in town especially Love Birds run by Audrey's arch rival, Sheryl Toogoodrole of women. Then Sistersong is a perfect example of coursea modern retelling done well, there's the annual Matchmakers' ball – the highlight of the year plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but also allowing the place characters to come to life, to be seen feel real and score pointshuman, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. There's This is a great deal masterpiece of fun storytelling and lots of romance too. This book is pure escapismI was captivated from beginning to end.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857387146</amazonuk>1529039037
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara DelinskyB08NF79QXT|title=EscapeCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=43
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Emily and James are a couple of 30Thirty-one-something lawyers living in New Yorkyear old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, except they’re not really living so much as existingthe Cherry Blossom Boutique, running from home to work to yoga class to book club, barely spending any time together. It’s for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the way it is until one day Emily takes a particularly tough call at work Retail Best Newcomer Award. She's delighted and realises in that moment that what she’s doing isn’t right. It isn’t how the two people she imagined life would be. It isn’t what she went 's brought with her to law school for, or what she wants. And so she leaves. Fleeing the city for an altogether event couldn't be more relaxed placepleased. Sonja, she tells neither her work nor 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 that she is leaving, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she just goesmisses having a man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780335016</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenny ColganB08GFSK2WZ|title=Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of DreamsThe Karma Trap|author=Lisette Boyd
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Rosie Hopkins George Jackson is reluctant thirty-three years old, absolutely gorgeous to leave her beloved London, Gerard, a livelook at -and single. She's not had sex for eight months and she's stuck in boyfriend the karma trap: an awful lot of eight years bad luck is being visited on her and her work as auxiliary nurseshe has a real talent for attracting drama. But when an elderly aunt who had spent her Her life running a traditional sweetshop in a small village in 's chaotic: she dealt with the leak from the North of England becomes just too elderly to cope, Rosie surprises everybody – even herself – shower by taking up putting something down at the challenge. A 100% townie who can't ride a bike and doesn't seem to own a waterproof, a pair bottom of wellies or even walking boots, Rosie soon discovers that the countryside has its charms, not least of which is stairs to absorb the local supply of masculine eye candy. Soon she will find herself rewater -opening then the shop (just to sell shower fell through the roof whilst she was in it as a running concern, you understand) as well as somewhat accidentallyand left her, saving and enriching lives all aroundstark naked, from a lady of staring at the manorpervy postman. She only has to take her mother's Lab dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her own dignified, but possessed of an acid tongue, great aunt Lillianface - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>075154454X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emylia HallB08CHJLNBS|title=The Book of SummersCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=4.53
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=When Beth receives a parcel from her estranged mother she realises she must finally face up to her past. The parcel contains He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a scrap bookpartner at Wickham Jones, full of photos from each summer when Beth was 10 until she was 16the Mayfair letting agents. As she turns the pages we learn of BethShe's childhoodEmilia, the separation of her parents twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the summers she spends with her mother in Hungaryheritage library next door.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755390830</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jennifer McVeigh Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|title=The Fever Tree|rating=4Secret]] 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.5 Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Frances Irvine enjoys a privileged lifestyle in Victorian England: a beautiful houseJack Reacher]] man himself, servantsbut, rich gowns and above all the trappings her position as the daughter of an industrialist demands. However, Franceshe's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian' lifestyle proves to be a precarious house of cards balanced on her father's investment in the Northern Pacific Railroad in North America. When the Canadian terrain proves too much for the railroad construction to continueThey're obviously not at all compatible, her fatherso why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's shares are rendered worthless. As this occurs just before not his sudden death, Frances is forced usual type at all: it's obvious to make a choice as her finery and home are auctioned offhis friends. Does And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she throw herself on the mercy of her lower class relatives or commit herself feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a loveless marriage to distant cousin Dr Edwin Matthewsnon-starter, isn't it? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670920894</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lynda RenhamHelly Acton|title=Croissants and JamThe Shelf|rating=3.54|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Even before Annabel Lewis boards the flight to Rome that will take her to her weddingWhen we meet Amy, she is having doubts's in a relationship with Jamie. After allYou can't really call it a partnership, she has only known Simon for seven months and he does because things tend to be quite controlling and not much fun. Soget done on his terms, when a series of unfortunate events causes her to miss her connecting flight, although but she's sticking around because she hopes she is reluctant to admit it, it is a welcome reliefcan change him. She does still intend to go ahead with the wedding thoughAh, so she needs to find away to get across France and into Italyyes. As Haven't we all been there ? Things are no flight options, she ends looking up agreeing when he tells her to share pack for a car with the man who inadvertently made her miss her flightsurprise trip. As a fashion conscious stylish woman though, she is more than a little perturbed when Could this be it? Is he ''finally'' going to get down on one knee? Was the car in question ends up as a clapped out old Citroen work (affectionately known as and the lemonwait) and when Christian, her travelling companion, stops at a French supermarket so that she can get some clothes to wear. Bels is much more used to designer labels than cheap and functional clothing. worth it?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0957137206</amazonuk>1838770879
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{{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|author=Barbara J Zitwer|title=The J M Barrie LadiesWhen Mike Parker' Swimming Society|rating=4s girlfriend comes into school with a black eye, claiming he gave it to her, her whole world is tipped upside down.5|genre=WomenHer relationship has just ended and now she's Fiction|summary=When Joey Rubin arrives at Stanway House to oversee its renovations she is looking forward to the challenge talk of preserving its ties the school. Mike was the most popular boy in school who was always so in love with one of her favourite authors, J M Barrie. It also means a change of scenery from her somewhat lonely life in New York as well as the opportunity for catching up with Saraheveryone knew that, so why did he do what he did? Some people believe her oldest and closest friend. Howeversome don't, but one thing is for sure, things donthis isn't go quite according to plan as Sarah has changed out of all recognition and everything Joey says or does seem going to cause offenceblow over any time soon. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780720408</amazonuk>0349003297
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy KellyKatie Fforde|title=The House on Willow StreetA Springtime Affair|rating=3.54|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=You donI't get ve wanted to a certain age without having a bit of a past read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a few storieswarm, cosy read focused on romance, some of which you'd rather weren't told family and others which you'd just plain rather forget aboutfriendships. In This provided two romances for the idyllic Irish coastal village price of Avalon we meet four women and they've all got big histories. Tess is descended from the local landownersone, but now she lives with her teenage son Zach and her nine-year-old daughter Kitty and she owns it was actually the local antiques shop. It's a struggle family element as opposed to make ends meet when her marriage falls apart. To cap it all, her first love and the man she's never romance that I really forgotten returns to the village but they're no friendlier than they were the last time they metenjoyed.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007373619</amazonuk>1780897561
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie CohenB07W4MNBSG|title=The Summer of Living DangerouslyBe Careful Who You Marry|author=Lizzy Mumfrey|rating=54|genre=Women's General Fiction|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 I read Julie Cohenyou're only seventeen that seems positively ancient, but Liz was convinced that 's book [[Nina Jones 'your entire life depends on who you marry''. The only eligible boys were the Young Farmers and the Temple idea of Gloom by Julie Cohen|Nina Jones living in a farmhouse and the Temple of Gloom]] having a couple of years ago my poor toddler had children called Will and Olly appealed to endure neglect for Charlotte, or perhaps William and Oliver if you were Elizabeth who was determined to marry the day since I couldnrather superior Patrick Shepley-Botham. The place to start their search was obviously the Young Farmers't stop reading itHalloween disco that weekend. This time Julie had me risking my own health since I started reading her new book There was just one problem - there were too many Elizabeths in the bath and my husband came to find me there several hours later sitting in stone cold water, unwilling to get out since I didn't want to stop reading! I do love it when you find a book that captures your imagination, but I'd advise perhaps a comfortable armchair located near to a stash of plentiful snacks would be a wise place to beginclass.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755350650</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=Rosie Fiore|title=Babies In Waiting|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Three women, three different situations, ages spanning three decades. Gemma, Toni and Louise don’t have masses in common, but come into each other’s lives when they all fall pregnant around the same time. With partners, parents, siblings and other friends not quite getting all that’s going Move on in their heads...and in their tummies...the women quickly form a tight support network in which all their differences cease to matter.[[Features|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857389580</amazonuk>}}the latest features]]