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

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[[Category:Women's Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Women's Fiction|*]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Women's Fiction]]__NOTOC__
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=A Proper Family Holiday
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|isbn=1471180158
|author=Chrissie Manby
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|title=Maybe Tomorrow
|rating=5
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|author=Penny Parkes
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|rating=4.5
|summary=Chelsea can think of few things worse than a family holiday. Except maybe a family holiday to a cheap hotel in ''Lanza-grotty''. Or a family holiday where she’ll be constantly ridiculed for her ‘posh London ways’ and her inability to manage the most obvious things in life like holding down a boyfriend or starting a family of her own. It’s going to be a long week.
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|genre=General Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444742736</amazonuk>
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|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'.  He's asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school.  Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head.
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lauren Bravo
|title=Two Weddings and a Baby
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|title=Preloved
|author=Scarlett Bailey
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|rating=4
|rating=3
 
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Tamsyn Thorne was not looking forward to returning to Cornwall for her brother Ruan's wedding. They had fallen out years ago and had not spoken since. However, for the sake of the family, she had agreed to attend, and even be a bridesmaid, but as far as she was concerned, she would leave the little Cornish village at the first opportunity.
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|summary= Gwen is pressing her middle-aged bosom on a big number that starts with a four and ends with an oh-my-God-I'm-nearly-forty. Having been made unexpectedly redundant - any HR officer worth their salt would argue the toss - Gwen finds herself having a bit of a mid-life crisis.  Catharsis is key and Gwen has decided now is the time to take back her life'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091953553</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1398510629
 
}}
 
}}
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{{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
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Then Richard left them.
|author=Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
 
|title=Goodbye Piccadilly
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=It's July 1914 and the world is becoming unsettled. There's fierce unrest brewing in Ireland and Sarajevo is being put on the map for all the wrong reasons.  Back in England life is continuing as usual – at the moment.  Viscount Dene, Charles Wroughton wants to marry for love rather than materialism.  Laura Hunter is fighting for women's suffrage.  As for Beattie Cazalet, her main worry is the rumour concerning the manner in which her servant Ethel is carrying on in public.  All fears are about to deepen and worries put in sharp relief though: war is coming and a war like none the world has fought before.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751556262</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Maeve Haran
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|author=Hadeer Elsbai
|title=The Time of Their Lives
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|title=The Daughters of Izdihar
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|genre=Fantasy
|summary=The four women had been friends for over forty years. Claudia, Ella, Laura and Sal had met at university and they know each other well - or think they do.  They - like me - are what I call 'upper middle aged' - those people who are technically old, but not yet prepared to accept it.  They'd gone their separate ways in life but still lived close enough to meet up each month for drinks and to catch up with what was happening. To the women it was one of their strongest relationships - although some of their families thought of the group as 'the coven'.
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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>1447253892</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356520471
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B0B575J99N
|title=Fallout
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|title=Beneath the Porticoes
|author=Sadie Jones
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|author=Brooke Adams
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Have you ever been in love? Truly, madly, deeply (as the cliché has it) in love? Sincerely, selfishly, selflessly, in love?
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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.
 
 
With the wrong person?
 
 
 
If you haven't then you'll find ''Fallout'' an exploration of how it happens, and how we deal with it, or not.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701188502</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241542405
|title=You're the One that I Want
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|title=Meredith Alone
|author=Giovanna Fletcher
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|author=Claire Alexander
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Maddy, Rob and Ben have been friends forever. There’s nothing unusual about that in general, but it’s less common in literature, perhaps, and I can’t think of another book where two boys and a girl are the trio at the centre of a friendship. As the book starts, Maddy and Rob are about to marry, and Ben stands proudly by as their best man.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405909978</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Carys Bray
 
|title=A Song for Issy Bradley
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Bradley family are constantly busy as you might expect when there are four children but their most testing time comes on seven-year-old Jacob's birthdayHis elder sister, Zippy and elder brother Alma have other things going on in their lives but his little sister isn't feeling wellFour-year-old Issy has retreated to bed and she's rather hoping that her mother will come and make her better, but Claire is trying to cope with Jacob's birthday party and it's quite a while before the family realise that Issy is very illShe has meningitis and that night she dies in hospital.
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|summary=When we first meet Meredith Maggs it's Wednesday 14 November 2018 and she's not left her home for 1,214 days.  She'd ''like'' to: in fact, she so nearly does.  Her outdoor clothes are on and she's even considered which shoes to wear if she's going to catch her trainThen, she can't.  She simply can't force herself to leave the safety of her home.  She's fortunate that she has a good friend, Sadie, who visits regularly with her two children, James and Matilda.  Sadie's a cardiac nurse and full of sound common sense.  In 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 arrives.  He's from Holding Hands, a charity which supports people with problems such as Meredith's.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091954371</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008441618
|author=Helen Chandler
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|title=Other Parents
|title=To Have and to Hold
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|author=Sarah Stovell
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=We're looking at a few months in the lives of three women.  On the face of it Ella has it allShe's got a happy marriage and two gorgeous children along with a home in the village-y part of WalthamstowBut she ''wants'' something more - and her husband doesn't agree that another child is the answer.  Her friend Imogen and partner Pete used to have a fun relationship but after the birth of Indigo things changed, with Imogen needing to focus on the baby and Pete becoming more distant and less involved.  Then there's PhoebeShe's just fifteen years old and bullied at school: she's that unfortunate girl in the class who is overweight and under cool.  She and her mother simply don't get on - Liz is a model and a size eight - but she's close to her father, but round about the time of her GCSEs her parents split up and that closeness was lost.
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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>1444786776</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Giovanna Fletcher
|title=No-one Ever Has Sex on a Tuesday
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|title=Walking on Sunshine
|author=Tracy Bloom
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|rating=4
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Matthew and Katy were together as teenagers but now years later both are with other significant others, and both Katy and Matthew’s wife, Alison are pregnant. Oh, and they’re in the same antenatal class. And, oh yes, Katy’s not 100% sure who the father of her baby is, current boyfriend Ben or, you’ve guessed it, long lost flame Matthew. Cue a comedy of errors, misunderstandings, fisticuffs and emotional outbursts, not all triggered by swarming hormones.
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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>0099594757</amazonuk>
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|isbn=140593560X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B09FS89KX9
|author=Nicole Mary Kelby
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|title=Fall On Me
|title=The Pink Suit
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|author=Penelope Potts
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=In November 1963 the world was shocked by the assassination of President John F Kennedy, but the picture which brought home to us the horror of what had happened was not of JFK but of his wife in the iconic pink suit, soaked with her husband's blood.  'Let them see what they have done', she said.  I've always assumed that the suit was new for the occasion - but it had a back story too and it's told in ''The Pink Suit'', a work of historical fiction based on facts.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844089738</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=After The Honeymoon
 
|author=Janey Fraser
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=A TV star and his make-up artist wife, and a dinner lady and her husband are not two couples you would expect to end up honeymooning at the same place, but through a twist of fate (ok, a teacher at the school one works at and the other sends her kids to) both women and their new husbands end up on the same secluded Greek island at the same time. It’s run by a British woman who left for the continent 15 years ago, and it’s the perfect spot to get away from it all, be it your toddler's safely left with grandma, or the paparazzi who are desperate for an exclusive.
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099580845</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008421714
|author=Sinead Crowley
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|title=Mrs March
|title=Can Anybody Help Me?
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|author=Virginia Feito
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=Yvonne and Gerry are proud new parents.  However, as they've only recently moved to Gerry's native Dublin, Yvonne mourns the lack of a support network.  This all changes when she turns to Mammynet, a web-based online forum and chat room for new and soon-to-be mums.  It works too - Yvonne quickly makes a local online friend but then the friend disappears without warning.  Meanwhile Garda Sergeant Claire Boyle is investigating the murder of a young woman.  There may be a connection but will Claire discover it before the killer strikes again?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782067221</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=TaraShea Nesbit
 
|title=The Wives of Los Alamos
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=1943: In the US a group of men, women and children are uprooted from their homes with hardly any notice and after being sworn to total secrecy.  Their destination is a hastily knocked up, unfinished small town in the New Mexico desert; a place where muddy water drips from the taps and their lives are turned upside down for nearly 3 yearsThis isn't mass abduction by a malevolent power but the US government's plan to end WWIIThe men (and some of the women) are scientists, the place is Los Alamos, the site of the project that will result in Robert Oppenheimer stating ''Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."  His story has been well documented in the past; now the voices belong to the Los Alamos Wives.
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|summary=The problem began just after the publication of George March's most successful novel to dateEveryone but Mrs March (we know her first name only on the last page) seemed to either be reading it or had already done soEvery 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>1408845997</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kirsty Wark
 
|title=The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Elizabeth Pringle bequeathed her house on Arran to Anna Morrison even though she didn't actually know her. Anna just happened to walk past and ask to buy the house decades earlier.  Elizabeth hadn't said yes but always remembered the young lady, walking past with the baby in the pram.  The baby, Martha, is now an adult visiting Elizabeth's house – Anna's house – after Elizabeth's deathThrough the belongings that Elizabeth left with it, Martha sees glimpses of a past life while hoping that that this refuge will now become a haven for her mother before it's too late and while she still has a mind to take her back to the good times.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444777602</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1473685745
|author=Vanora Bennett
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|title=Unbreak Your Heart
|title=Midnight in St Petersburg
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|author=Katie Marsh
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Historical Fiction
 
|summary=Inna Feldman is in the Kiev theatre the night that Prime Minister Stolypin is assassinated in front of the Tsar.  Fearing the retribution against the Jews in general and being picked out as a suspect in particular, Inna flees to St Petersburg and her landlord's cousin Yasha.  Her arrival causes complications.  Not only is she unexpected but Yasha is a revolutionary, a dangerous occupation in Russia during 1911.  The family that Yasha is living with takes her in anyway, unaware that darker times are ahead for all of them.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780890036</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rosie Thomas
 
|title=The Illusionists
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Devil Wix is a great Victorian illusionistAdmittedly Lady Luck hasn’t been too good to him lately and he may look a little ragged but he's talented and repeatedly tells himself soOne particular night as he's reassuring himself over a drink or three, he runs into Carlo Boldoni. (Or rather Carlo runs into him as he's picking Devil's pocket at the time.) Formerly Charlie Morris and a dwarf to the Victorians/person of restricted growth to us, Carlo was part of a performing troupe but now finds himself alone due to tragic circumstancesThey join forces but little do they know the future nor the part that a certain young lady will play in it.
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|summary=When Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, Simon was angry and Beth was doing her best to apologise for having knocked Simon's son, Jake, off his bikeHe wasn't hurt but Jake has history.  He has HLHS - that's Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of you who are not ''au fait'' with your medical acronymsWhen he was born, the left side of his heart hadn't developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days old.  So, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007512015</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=C J Carey
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|title=Widowland
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|rating=4
 +
|genre=General Fiction
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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 widowsFemale 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.
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|isbn=152941198X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ruth Hogan
|title=A Single Breath
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|title=Madame Burova
|author=Lucy Clarke
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Eva is blissfully content with life. She has a fulfilling career in her job as a midwife and a happy marriage to the man of her dreams who clearly adores her. Her contented existence is thrown into complete turmoil when, early one morning, her beloved husband Jackson is swept out to sea whilst fishing on the Dorset coast. It seems that in one fell swoop, all of her hopes and dreams have been washed away into the cold, white water.
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|summary=This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connected. So we have a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a girl in a humdrum job wanting to become a singer, and chiefly, Imelda, the third generation of Madame Burova, ''Tarot-Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant'', to use her family's sea-front booth. The singer, the scryer and the sufferer's mother will all become staff at a revamped holiday camp, but just before then we see Imelda fly solo for the first time in the family stall.  We also see her on her last day, fifty years later, in possession of a pair of letters that will change everything for a woman called Billie. Just who is she, and who delivered the secrets about her to Imelda, and why did it have to remain a secret all this time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007481365</amazonuk>
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|isbn=152937331X
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Jennifer Saint
|author=Sally Wragg
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|title= Ariadne
|title=Loxley
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|rating= 4.5  
|rating=3.5
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|genre= Women's Fiction  
|genre=Historical Fiction
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|summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus.  
|summary=Harry, the eleventh Duke of Loxley, fell in love with Bronwyn and they married. It wasn't the match that his mother would have chosen - Bronwyn was, after all, nothing more than the daughter of the local doctor and even Harry and Bronwyn wondered whether or not they'd done the right thing as they struggled to come to terms with married life. Katherine, the dowager Duchess, didn't make Bronwyn's life any easier - I mean, the girl wasn't above starting to clear the breakfast dishes when there were servants to do ''that'' sort of thing.  And - to cap it all - she still wasn't pregnant and an heir for Loxley was of paramount importance.
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|isbn=1472273869
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00EHMH5XC</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lucy Holland
|title=Skeletons
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|title=Sistersong
|author=Jane Fallon
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|rating=5
|rating=4.5
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|genre=Women's Fiction
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|summary=Sistersong is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.
|summary=Jen doesn’t have the happiest of families, so she’s immediately drawn to her husband Jason’s. Luckily they welcome her with open arms and she’s soon like a fourth child to Charles and Amelia. So when she discovers a secret that could tear lives apart, it’s as devastating to her as if it were her own parents. She has a choice to make: share the burden and ruin relationships in the process, or keep it to herself and shoulder it all alone.
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|isbn=1529039037
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141047267</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08NF79QXT
|author=Fiona McIntosh
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|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique
|title=The French Promise
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|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=4.5
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|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=A few years on from [[The Lavender Keeper by Fiona McIntosh|The Lavender Keeper]] Luc the former resistance fighter and Lisette the former British spy have survived the ravages of war and start a new life together in England with their little boy HarryHowever Luc can't settle, missing the lavender farming that's in his bloodThis is remedied when the freshly transplanted family move again, this time to TasmaniaNonetheless they still have a lot to learn; the biggest lessons being that no one can outrun the past and that fate isn't always kind.
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|summary=Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer AwardShe's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleasedSonja, her mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and their four-year-old daughter, AvaLife would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a man in her life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749015659</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08GFSK2WZ
|title=Little Beach Street Bakery
+
|title=The Karma Trap
|author=Jenny Colgan
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|author=Lisette Boyd
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Polly is disconsolate. She thought she had it all, the perfect yuppie lifestyle in Plymouth. She is 32 and has worked tirelessly marketing and managing her artist boyfriend’s graphic design consultancy. Now, with the sudden economic downturn and the competitive nature of new technologies, the bank has foreclosedChris just wants to shut out the world and slink back to his mother's, leaving Polly bereft, homeless and confused as she struggles to start over again away from the rat race.  Faced with the prospect of grungy student flat shares, she looks further afield for new affordable accommodation and finds a neglected tidal island in Cornwall connected by a causeway to the mainland. In the harbour, there is a dirty, derelict building for rent. The upstairs loft is over a disused bakery.
+
|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 postmanShe only has to take her mother's dog out for a walk for her to end up with dog poo spattered across her face - and a photo being taken by someone who shares it around the office.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751549215</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B08CHJLNBS
|title=Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase
+
|title=Capturing Emilia
|author=Louise Walters
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|author=Brooke Adams
|rating=4
+
|rating=3
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Every family has its stories, the anecdotes passed down the generations that help to explain who we think we areRoberta is sure that she knows all there is to know about her family until she comes across a letter written to her grandmother in 1941.   The contents cast doubt on all her assumptions about the past.
+
|summary=He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents.  She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door.  Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a little deeperCharles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''.  They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind?  She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends.  And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him?  The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444777424</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author= Helly Acton
 +
|title= The Shelf
 +
|rating= 4
 +
|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?
 +
|isbn=1838770879
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{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.
|title=The Dead Wife's Handbook
+
|isbn=0349003297
|author=Hannah Beckerman
+
}}
|rating=5
+
{{Frontpage
|genre=General Fiction
+
|author= Katie Fforde
|summary=Rachel wasn't ready to drop dead at thirty-five. It's been a year since - a year she's spent trapped in some sort of netherworld that allows her brief, tantalising glimpses of the lives of those she's left behind. There's no apparent rhyme or reason to the glimpses, and Rachel wishes they were more often and lasted longer.
+
|title= A Springtime Affair
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718178149</amazonuk>
+
|rating= 4
 +
|genre= Women's Fiction
 +
|summary= I've wanted to read author Katie Fforde for ages and this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting - a warm, cosy read focused on romance, family and friendships. This provided two romances for the price of one, but it was actually the family element as opposed to the romance that I really enjoyed.  
 +
|isbn=1780897561
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=B07W4MNBSG
|author=Alan Titchmarsh
+
|title=Be Careful Who You Marry
|title=Bring Me Home
+
|author=Lizzy Mumfrey
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When we first meet Charlie Stuart he's half wishing that the guests at his annual summer party at his Scottish castle would hurry up and leave - and half hoping that he could delay what he knows will have to be done once everyone has goneHe knows that life will never again be the same, but to understand why we have to go back from June 2000 to 1960 when Charlie was just a young boy being shown the ways of the loch and the surrounding land by the ghillie, who, oddly enough, was also his uncle.
+
|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 fiftyWhen 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340936916</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Features|the latest features]]
|title=Mother of the Year
 
|author=Karen Ross
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=The one person who could best judge a 'Mother of the Year' competition would surely be a nominee’s daughter, right? And yet where three-time winner Beth Jackson is concerned, her daughter JJ is the one person who remains unconvinced the accolade is warranted.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091956404</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 11:49, 13 November 2023

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Review of

Maybe Tomorrow by Penny Parkes

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head. Full Review

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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

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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

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Review of

Other Parents by Sarah Stovell

5star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

Walking on Sunshine by Giovanna Fletcher

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

Fall On Me by Penelope Potts

3.5star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

Mrs March by Virginia Feito

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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

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Review of

Unbreak Your Heart by Katie Marsh

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

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Review of

Widowland by C J Carey

4star.jpg General Fiction

It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on the mainland. But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit. Full Review

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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

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Review of

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

4.5star.jpg Women's Fiction

This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus. Full Review

1529039037.jpg

Review of

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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

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Review of

Cherry Blossom Boutique by Brooke Adams

3star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

B08GFSK2WZ.jpg

Review of

The Karma Trap by Lisette Boyd

4star.jpg Women's Fiction

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

B08CHJLNBS.jpg

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

1838770879.jpg

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

0349003297.jpg

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

1780897561.jpg

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

B07W4MNBSG.jpg

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

Move on to the latest features