Difference between revisions of "Newest Women's Fiction Reviews"
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
{{adsense2}} | {{adsense2}} | ||
__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> | __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --> | ||
| + | {{newreview | ||
| + | |author=Stephen P Kiernan | ||
| + | |title=The Curiosity | ||
| + | |rating=4 | ||
| + | |genre=Science Fiction | ||
| + | |summary=Microbiologist Kate Philo is a member of an Arctic expedition sent to locate life forms frozen in ice flows. Striking it lucky, she and the team find a human whom they reanimate once they get him back to their American lab. However new life brings new challenges. The man died over a century earlier and much has changed. The press is now omnipotent, his 'resurrection' offends religious fundamentalists and scientific ethics never saw this problem coming. To Kate, though, he's not a problem. He's Jeremiah, afraid, bewildered and in need of an ally. | ||
| + | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848548753</amazonuk> | ||
| + | }} | ||
| + | |||
{{newreview | {{newreview | ||
|author=Barbara Delinsky | |author=Barbara Delinsky | ||
| Line 209: | Line 218: | ||
|summary=Luke's a barrister and Eva? She's a romantic novel editor and habitual leaver. Be it a party or a man, she's working on the exit strategy from the moment everything starts. This makes the fact that Eva and Luke have been together for three years a little abnormal in Eva world. The other abnormality in Eva world is the blonde woman she keeps spotting in random places, almost as if she's being spied upon… | |summary=Luke's a barrister and Eva? She's a romantic novel editor and habitual leaver. Be it a party or a man, she's working on the exit strategy from the moment everything starts. This makes the fact that Eva and Luke have been together for three years a little abnormal in Eva world. The other abnormality in Eva world is the blonde woman she keeps spotting in random places, almost as if she's being spied upon… | ||
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846882370</amazonuk> | |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846882370</amazonuk> | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
}} | }} | ||
Revision as of 12:31, 18 July 2013
The Curiosity by Stephen P Kiernan
Microbiologist Kate Philo is a member of an Arctic expedition sent to locate life forms frozen in ice flows. Striking it lucky, she and the team find a human whom they reanimate once they get him back to their American lab. However new life brings new challenges. The man died over a century earlier and much has changed. The press is now omnipotent, his 'resurrection' offends religious fundamentalists and scientific ethics never saw this problem coming. To Kate, though, he's not a problem. He's Jeremiah, afraid, bewildered and in need of an ally. Full review...
Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky
It's ten years since Charlotte and Nicole were close. Since then Nicole has married Julian, an eminent surgeon and Charlotte has made her way as a writer. She has a base in New York, but it's little bigger than a cupboard and is only a place to stay between foreign assignments. Nicole lives in Philadelphia but still spends her summers at her family's property off the coast of Maine. This year is going to be the last time though. Her father died suddenly and her mother can't bear to go back to Quinniepeague, so Nicole is returning to the island to clear the house for sale. And she's going to write a cookbook. Full review...
Wonder Women by Rosie Fiore
Jo Hockley has always wanted to run her business but real life has got in the way. Married to Lee and mother to two small children, she has enough on her plate looking after all of them. However, when she dreams about an innovative kids’ clothing store with play facilities, she cannot let the idea go. She is sure that all mums would welcome the opportunity to shop while their children are able to play boisterously supervised by friendly staff. Encouraged by Lee, she investigates the idea further and before she knows what is happening, she is renting premises, planning interiors and hiring staff. Holly and Mel come on board and together, all three women work hard to make Jo’s dream become a reality. Full review...
By My Side by Alice Peterson
Cass is a medical student - she loves her work, and she also loves her boyfriend Sean. Tired, hung over and rather distracted, she walks into the street without noticing a fast-moving lorry coming her way... and her life is forever changed. Full review...
Things We Need by Jennifer Close
Claire Coffey used to live in New York with a successful job and a great fiancé; her sister Martha used to be a nurse; and her brother Max should have been looking forward to finishing his final year at college before embarking on an exciting and interesting career. However, things don’t always turn out the way that one expects which is why all three siblings end up back at the family home needing the support of their parents. Full review...
The Son In Law by Charity Norman
When someone is released from prison, after serving time for manslaughter, you don’t necessarily expect their first task to be tracking down the victim’s family. Perhaps their own family might be a more normal first port of call. But when you’re Joseph Scott, the victim’s family is your family, because the person you killed is your wife, Zoe. Let out after three years, Joseph is desperate to be reunited with his children, Scarlet, Theo and Ben, but his wife’s parents, who have had custody of their grandchildren since he was locked away, are determined not to let that happen. Full review...
Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Ten years after her disastrous stint at Runway, playing slave to Queen of Fashion Miranda Priestly in a job ‘a million girls would die for’, Andy Sachs finally has her life back on track. Full review...
Brooklyn Girls by Gemma Burgess
22-year-old Pia Keller has screwed up again. She should be living the dream, sharing a Brooklyn townhouse with her four best friends - but one too many drunken escapades leads to her getting sacked from her new job. After hearing this, her parents are ready to summon her to live with them abroad. They clearly don't think she's mature enough to look after herself - can she prove them wrong? Full review...
Two for Joy by Helen Chandler
Two for Joy is Helen Chandler’s first novel and is immensely enjoyable from the very first pages where the reader meets Julia and her best friend Toby who is telling her about how he intends to go down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend, Ruby. Although outwardly delighted, internally Julia experiences some uncomfortable feelings that she doesn’t really recognise and does not want to acknowledge. Come the big night, she is desperately miserable at the thought of Toby’s and Ruby’s romantic evening and can’t bring herself to do anything other than mope around in her pyjamas. Full review...
Promise to Obey by Stella Whitelaw
Jessica Harlow let her London flat and undertook a three-month nursing contract at Upton Hall to fill in the time before she took up a permanent post in Sheffield. It didn't start well: she got soaked waiting to be picked up at the deserted railway station and then she discovered that she was to nurse Lady Grace Coleman who was recovering from a hip-replacement operation and look after her two grandchildren. Five-year-old Lily was a delight, but overweight and asthmatic. Eight-year-old Daniel was autistic and on top of this Lady Grace was, er, difficult. What made her stay? Well, despite a humiliating romantic experience with a doctor in London she was rather taken by Lucas Coleman, a talented plastic surgeon - and she was obstinate enough to decide that she was going to make a go of it. Besides, where would she live if she left Upton Hall? Full review...
The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway
Nick was born in England in 1790 and is rather partial to pickled bits of pig and beef jelly. He finds this rather difficult to explain to his girlfriends, him being a young man and this being America, 2013. His 19th century Napoleonic war wounds are hard to explain away too. His second lease on life in the 21st century is thanks to the mysterious Guild whose main rule is that no one can return to the time or home country from which they originated. He doesn't mind as they pay him well for his silence but all this is about to change. Eventually they seem to think that they can send him back and won't take no for an answer. Any thought of a possible catch is suppressed by thoughts of Julia, the girl Nick left behind in England. It's all a bit fishy though. Full review...
Learn Love in a Week by Andrew Clover
The Midgleys, who have been married for ten years and have three children, are long since past the madly passionate stage in their relationship – or at least Polly is. From her point of view, Polly is drowning in executive domesticity, that is, holding down a job while trying to organise Arthur to be as effective a parent as she would be, if she were a stay-at-home Mum. Arthur sees his role differently: he’s more interested in the hearts and minds of his kids than essential maintenance to the fruit bowl. Full review...
The Hive by Gill Hornby
There's an old joke that, for parents, there are only two good days in the school holidays - the first and the last, but in St Ambrose the real work begins when the children go back to school at the start of the new school year. There's a new head at the school (and he'll have to be knocked into shape) but the real power is Beatrice - 'Bea' to those whom she elects to call friends for the time being - who rules the parents, decides who is in or out and what status they should have in the community. And how does she do it? Well, she's the queen. Full review...
An Enormously English Monsoon Wedding by Christina Jones
Jay loves Erin and Erin loves Jay. They live in a picture perfect village called Nook Green and are planning their dream wedding, which is only a few weeks away. The plans are coming along perfectly and everything is running according to schedule. Life simply couldn’t get any better than this. Full review...
Lifesaving for Beginners by Ciara Geraghty
A fatal car crash links Kat and Milo, two people who otherwise might never have met. After all, they live in different countries, and she’s old enough to be his mother. He likes lifesaving classes and the banana muffins in his mother’s café, while she lives off cigarettes and wine, and writes for a living. And yet now, because of the crash, they are linked. They don’t realise it yet, but as time passes their lives will move closer. As secrets are unearthed, they will become bound to one another in different ways. Full review...
Country Loving by Cathy Woodman
When Stevie Dunsford receives a call to tell her that her father’s farm is in danger of going under, she doesn’t have any idea how bad things really are. Her life is in London with her successful career in accountancy and her good looking boyfriend. She plans to go to the farm in Devon for the weekend to sort things out and that will be that. However, when she discovers the state of things, she has no option other to stay and try to make things better even though she and her father have been estranged for years. What she does not expect though, is how readily and happily she fits back into life on the farm and soon her London life and Nick start to lose their attraction. Of course, this new contentment has got nothing to do with her blossoming relationship with the gorgeous local vet, Leo. It’s time to move forward and commit to the farm and Leo. However, just as things are really looking good, Stevie makes an unexpected discovery that threatens to ruin everything. Full review...
The Holiday Home by Fern Britton
Pru and Connie might be sisters but they're as different as chalk and cheese. It's always been like this. Pru is the elder, although not by much and she's a hard-nosed businesswoman who always gets what she wants. Husband Francis was acquired in much the same way that you might employ staff - and that's his function. He looks after Pru and their son Jeremy. Connie, on the other hand, is a homebody - married to Greg (who runs her parents' family business) and mother to Abigail their sixteen-going-on-seventeen year old daughter. There's another difference too. Francis is pure of heart and an honest man, largely unappreciated by his wife, but Greg, although Connie believes differently, is a philandering little sh.. Full review...
Leftovers by Stella Newman
Susie Rosen is what a magazine calls a 'leftover' - she's thirty something and lacks her dream man, job or home. You might think that she has the job of her dreams as she's an account manager in advertising, but she finds it unfulfilling - and that's on the good days. On the bad days she resurrects her plan that she's going to get promoted by Christmas and then quit. Boyfriend Jake cheated on her and although the relationship broke up some time ago she hasn't got over him. Right now life revolves around the job, minimising the effect of some of the more dreadful colleagues and her girlfriends - but some of them are proving to be not quite as reliable as she might have hoped. Full review...
Happy Families by Janey Fraser
Happy families are, contrary to popular belief, not all alike. Bobbie is a working mum of two children who we’ll call ‘spirited’ for want of a better phrase. Her husband works late a lot so she’s the one left trying to juggle running the house with wrangling the children and still fitting in her own job. Andy is dad to two teens who are perfectly behaved, or at least they are during the rare moments he spends at home. His wife Pamela is a goddess, and a Perfect Parent to boot. He’s a very lucky guy. And then there’s Vanessa, who feels her mothering days are behind her until her young grand-daughter comes to stay…and doesn’t leave. Full review...
Dear Thing by Julie Cohen
Everyone hopes for the happily ever after, and Claire and Ben expected that once they were married, once they had the house with a garden big enough for a swing, that the babies would naturally follow afterwards. So what happens when the babies don't? How long do you try to get pregnant? How long do you endure IVF? At what point do you say enough is enough, and let go of the dream? And what if, at that moment of feeling you simply cannot take any more, your best friend offered to be a surrogate mother, and carry your baby? Full review...
The Antenatal Group by Amy Bratley
Five women are all looking forward to meeting their new babies in a few weeks time. Part of their preparations involve joining the local antenatal group where they get to meet each other. Little do they realise, when they turn up for their first session, how much they are going to come to rely on and care for each other. This book is partly a testament to all those lasting friendships that are formed in groups just like this all over the country. Full review...
The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan
Anna has been working as a supervisor and taster at a chocolate factory. She’s 30, never much cared about school, and recently split with her boyfriend. Life isn’t particularly exciting, but she’s reasonably content with her lot. Then a freak accident at work, followed by a nasty infection in hospital leaves her unemployed, apathetic and with no idea what her future holds. Full review...
Good Husband Material by Trisha Ashley
Fergal is part of a popular pop band. Regularly in the news for various scandals, he is introduced in the prologue to this novel when he recalls his first, somewhat dramatic meeting with 17-year-old Tish, and the year-long romance which followed. Full review...
The Art of Leaving by Anna Stothard
Luke's a barrister and Eva? She's a romantic novel editor and habitual leaver. Be it a party or a man, she's working on the exit strategy from the moment everything starts. This makes the fact that Eva and Luke have been together for three years a little abnormal in Eva world. The other abnormality in Eva world is the blonde woman she keeps spotting in random places, almost as if she's being spied upon… Full review...
