Newest Women's Fiction Reviews
The Lodger by Louisa Treger
A writer writing about writers writing. What more could a reader, a book reviewer, a tentative writer and lover of words want from a book? Not forgetting the setting – England, early 1900s, clear class divisions and social expectations – and the characters – fascinating, colourful, and above all, real. This book has everything I look for in a story. Full review...
In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
How many planes have to crash, before people take notice? How often can an unlikely event occur before you have to stop calling it that? How horrible do things have to get before the adults are willing to talk to the children about their fears, their theories, their understanding of it all, rather than just glossing over the details? Full review...
Secrets of the Pomegranate by Barbara Lamplugh
Home in Bristol, Alice gets the news from her sister's partner, Paco. Her sister, Deborah Hardy, was on board one of the trains bombed at Madrid's Atocha station on 11 March. No one can yet confirm whether she is alive or dead. Deb had moved to Granada nearly 20 years ago, after her divorce from Mark's father, and was starting to make a name for herself as a scholar of women in Andalusia's history. Alice and her nine-year-old son Timmy fly to Spain to find that Deb is alive, but in a coma in hospital. Over the weeks she keeps vigil for Deb, Alice lives in her sister's home in Granada and reads her diaries, which proves to be a way of feeling closer to her and learning more about her than she ever knew. Meanwhile, Mark and Paco keep their distance, working through their complicated grief in their own ways. Full review...
The Turning Point by Freya North
Single-mum Frankie doesn't have time to go looking for love. In fact, its the last thing on her mind, languishing somewhere on the list below sorting out repairs on the house, writing a chapter of that new book, getting a haircut and fetching crisps for the kids. Yes, Frankie is much too busy for complications like love. But romance has a funny way of creeping up on people and when Frankie meets musician Scott on a trip to London, sparks fly and suddenly she HAS to find the time for him. Scott lives halfway across the world in Canada and has work and family obligations of his own. Can love really find a way? Full review...
The House At The End Of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag
Alba Ashby is a wallflower of a girl; studious, bookish and excruciatingly shy, so when tragedy wields its ponderous bolt, she is less able than most to adjust to life as she now knows it. In one of her midnight walks around historical Cambridge, she finds herself at the door to Number 11 Hope Street. It is house that she has never before seen; quirky and turreted with a wild garden and grandly Victorian in hue and Alba is enchanted by it. So she does something that she would never normally do, in a million years. She knocks on the door. Full review...
Based on a True Story by Elizabeth Renzetti
Augusta Price, middle-aged, washed up, substance-addicted actress has just left rehab for the innumerable time. Her only friend in the world is her equally washed-up former mentor. Augusta has recently received a sudden upsurge of interest and income when her tell all memoir became a baffling best-seller. Frances Bleeker is an American journalist who came to London with high hopes, that were quickly dashed by the reality of the British magazine market. The two meet when Frances is sent to interview Augusta about her book where Frances realises there’s far more to the story of Augusta’s life than she’s cared to put in words. Needless to say, young, optimistic Frances and self-obsessed, drunk Augusta don’t exactly hit it off at once. But when Frances loses her job and Augusta needs a ghost writer for her new book, the two offer each other a lifeline ... or enough rope to hang themselves. As Frances will learn by delving into her past, people close to Augusta don’t come away unscathed. Full review...
When We Were Friends by Tina Seskis
Six friends meet at Bristol University; six very different people from six very different backgrounds. Six lives intertwined in an assortment of ways… break-ups, marriages, careers, motherhood and bereavement; until one night six become five. Full review...
Guernsey Retreat: The Guernsey Novels Book 3 by Anne Allen
Louisa returned home one night to the house she shared with her mother, but as she opened the door a man pushed past her and dashed away. Her mother was shocked and injured by what had happened - and died in Louisa's arms, but not before telling her that the man had come for 'the jewels' - the ones which she'd worn to a ball. Betty had never married. Time and circumstances had separated her from Louisa's father before he could know that she was pregnant and no man had ever been able to match Malcolm in her heart - and it was Malcolm who had the jewels and who had to be warned that he was probably in danger. Full review...
The Confectioner's Tale by Laura Madeleine
Petra is researching the life of late historian, author, critic and greatly missed grandfather JG Stevenson when she should really be writing a dissertation for her doctorate. While looking through his belongings she comes across a photo taken in Paris at the turn of the 20th century and an intriguing note in his handwriting. Petra has never consciously realised that Grandpa Jim (as he was to her) had been to France so the revelation spurs her on against all odds, an unscrupulous competitor and academic pressure. Gradually the search reveals a romance and notorious scandal; the sort of scandal would lead a man to regret it for the rest of his life. Meanwhile in 1909, Guillaume du Frere moves to France from the provinces in order to escape poverty and changes his life completely, although not in the way he'd expected. Full review...
The Sudden Departure of the Frasers by Louise Candlish
When something is too good to be true, maybe it is. Christy and Joe Davenport have found the house of their dreams in the luxurious enclave of Lime Park Road, and are thrilled by the asking price. After all, properties rarely come up here and when they do, it’s for an eye-watering amount. Pretty soon, though, they’re left wondering. Why was this house so cheap? Why did the previous owners clearly invest so much in giving the place a fabulous finish only to move out straight after? And why won’t any of the neighbours talk about ‘’the situation’’ which clearly went down? Full review...
That Girl from Nowhere by Dorothy Koomson
Smitty Smittson (Clemency to be formal!) designs and modifies pre-loved jewellery. Smitty was adopted at birth by the straight and very correct Heather and her dearest, late Don. Although Smitty has always been curious about her birth parents she's never searched. However when her 12 year relationship with Seth crumbles, she decides to move to Brighton, the area from which three decades earlier, as a little black baby she was given away to a white family. There any idea of searching becomes redundant as the world turns and she's the one that's found. Full review...
The Tutor by Andrea Chapin
Katherine de L'Isle comes to live with her uncle Sir Edward's family at Lufanwal Hall when she's widowed after only a year of marriage. A fine home and the bosom of the family should be a place of safety but not in this case. This is 1590 in Queen Elizabeth's protestant England and Katherine's family are Roman Catholics; something they thought was a secret till their priest is found murdered on their land. Life must go on though. The children of the household are raised and educated almost on the periphery of Katherine's vision until she meets their tutor, a certain Midlands' glove maker's son called William Shakespeare. Full review...
The Pearl a That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi
Kabul 2007: Rahima and her sisters are followed home from school one day by a boy on his bike. He taunts them innocently enough as little boys do, but with no sibling brother, the girls are unchaperoned in this land that is ruled by the laws of men. And as daughters in a household without sons, in a country that is governed by fear, the consequences will weigh heavily for them all. Full review...
The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg
2005 Alabama: Sookie Earle awakes one morning a 59 year old happily married female Methodist with American roots that go way back in history and a wonderfully steadfast dentist husband. However before she goes to bed that night all that (apart from the married and female bits) will change.
1940s Wisconsin: a Polish immigrant family lose their men to wartime conscription and so have to make a go of their family gas station alone. Fritzi and her sisters rise to the challenge and then take on another more dangerous adventure, taking to the skies for the war effort. Full review...
Yes! I Can Manage, Thank You! by Virginia Ironside
As mid-60s edges towards late, Marie Sharp has even more of life's challenges to grapple with and even more to give. Her beloved Archie has passed away and she feels it's time to take a new lodger. Maybe someone male and a little younger? There's also Melanie; a new gale force of nature next door neighbour now that the wind-chime-challenged Brad and Sharmie have moved on. Unfortunately Marie doesn't like her but this only gets worse when Marie realises that she's the only person who doesn't like her. However, not all is negative. Grandson Gene is now 7 years old and may be the link to a little part time work for Marie to keep her artistic hand in. If she could work out why one side of her tummy is a different size and shape to the other, life would be practically perfect. Or maybe it's best not to think about that at all? Full review...
Lay Me Down by Nicci Cloke
It's New Year's Eve and the nightclub is pulsating with sound. The revellers heave and swell in oceanic waves and Jack is preparing to call it a night, when he is presented with Elsa. She is small; delicate and pretty and alluringly confident - a heady combination for a man like Jack - and though he wants, with every fibre of his being, to walk away, to go home and forget her, he doesn't. Full review...
The Lovers of Amherst by William Nicholson
2013: Alice Dickinson has decided to write a screenplay about the 19th century affair between Mabel Todd and Austin Dickinson (no relation). 1881: Austin, brother of reclusive poet Emily Dickinson, has an unhappy marriage but isn't looking for happiness outside it till he meets Mabel. The very liberated Mabel may be married too, but her husband believes in freedom within wedlock. There follows one of the most scandalous relationships to face small town New England; a relationship that Alice wants to research on-site. While there, Alice discovers that inappropriate romance still exists but this is the 21st century so she feels ready for the consequences. Full review...
The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain
Her father dead, her mother too, her only brother struggling with the after effects of a tour in Iraq. Riley’s life is not the easiest right now, but with the mammoth task of clearing out her late father’s estate, she’s back in her hometown for the summer while school’s out and she has time off her adolescent counselling job. Riley is expecting to have a long but simple task ahead of her, sorting through things to keep, things to donate, things to sell. But as she rifles through a lifetime’s collection, she finds far more than she bargained for including troubling news about her sister Lisa who committed suicide as a teenager. Except, it seems, she didn't. With the help of family friends, reams of paperwork and an email history he never expected her to find, Riley discovers her father had been keeping some big secrets. Lisa didn't drown, after all. She took off under an assumed name with a new identity, never to be heard of again. It’s a traumatic discovery for Riley, especially without anyone to share it with, but the more she digs into the past, the more she realises how little she knows about her family history. Full review...
The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan
Alice Eveleigh is sent to Fiercombe Manor in 1933 as the result of a scandal. Back in the 1890s the Manor had been home to Elizabeth and Charles Stanton and their little girl Isabel but it doesn't feel like a house that's seen much happiness. The stones are drenched in tragedy and secrets that have remained locked away since then. What sort of secrets? Will Alice be too nosey for her own good or will the secrets remain just that, with the added threat of history repeating itself? Full review...
The Crooked House by Christobel Kent
Many years ago, a tragedy shook an English village. A whole family wiped out with no warning, a whole family, that is, except for one of the daughters who was, unbeknown to the assailant, upstairs at the time. Esme was that girl, but she is no more. She has a new name, a new identity, a new life, far away from that terrible place. As Alison she flies under the radar, not attracting any attention, with a menial job to fill her days. And she has every intention of staying that way, no intention of ever stepping foot in Saltleigh again. Full review...
Vigilante by Shelley Harris
Jenny Pepper is a forty-something wife and mother who is stuck wondering where her life has gone. Privately, Jenny is jealous of her husband, he has a wonderful creative career that people can’t wait to hear more about, while Jenny’s work as a mother and her job at a charity bookshop seems to put a stopper on conversation. Jenny envies her daughter, with her youthful figure and a whole life stretched out in front of her. When tidying up one night, Jenny discovers her husband’s secret and just like that her life changes. Full review...
Hider, Seeker, Secret Keeper by Elizabeth Kiem
I was caught up by this novel from the first pages and read it with absorption in a single sitting. The young heroine, Lana Dukovskaya, is a third generation ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet but the experiences of her mother and grandmother are shrouded and lost. Her grandmother's name, we discover, has been erased from the records and her mother is a troubled secretive figure. Lana challenges the conventional notion of a ballerina: she has close cropped hair, loves high speed motor bikes and most of all she wants to experiment with the repertoire. Full review...
It's In The Cards by Pamela Fudge
Ellen Carson was just slightly put out that her family arranged a surprise birthday party for her fortieth, but more annoyed that they wouldn't accept that she was quite happy being single and unattached. She had a successful career as a card designer, a home she loved and no intentions of getting into any long-term relationship. What did make her wonder was why her brothers and sisters were so keen to get her involved with any remotely eligible male when their own relationships were so dysfunctional. She had no interest in the two men from her past who have come back into her life - or the one who has been hovering round the edges more in hope than expectation. Full review...
Accidents of Marriage by RS Meyers
What if your marriage is crumbling? What if you are living on borrowed time? What if a terrible accident occurs and your role in the family has to change from absent father to man about the house? Would you rise to the challenge or add this to a long list of things you don’t do well? Full review...
The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
I do like Jenny Colgan’s books. At least, that’s my impression although I’m surprised to discover that I had only previously read two of them. Her titles seem to feature food-related topics, and this particular one is third in a series about a young woman called Rosie Hopkins. She lives in a small village in Derbyshire with her boyfriend Stephen, and runs a sweet shop. Full review...
