==Women's Fiction==
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Liza Palmer
|title=A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Grace is reluctantly participating in a 5k race when she receives the news: her estranged sister is calling to tell her their estranged father has had a stroke. That's two lots of estrangement in just two generations of family, but a summons is a summons, and Grace soon finds herself dragged back into the heart of the family she deserted, working with the others to discover the many hidden secrets of the father who deserted them all. It's a tough jump from her happy life of a good job, a new boyfriend and a home of her own to return to the family life she left behind a long time ago, and Grace has to decide whether she can ignore the pull of her biological siblings once more or whether the time has come to let bygones be bygones. After all, while there are lots of four letter words she would associate with her family, ''love'' is not one of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340962151</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Themed fiction, where there is a clear obsession with a specific topic can be a bit hit or miss, but in the past I have enjoyed ones that focus on [[Book Lover by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack|books]] and [[Clicking Her Heels by Lucy Hepburn|shoes]] and especially [[The Food of Love by Anthony Capella|food]]. The key in my mind has always been to write about something other people obsess over, establishing an immediate bond between reader and writer. This title falls into this category but with a rather unusual and specific fixation: tropical plants. I know little about these, and have never really wanted to change that fact, but though I didn't share the author's fascination initially, by the end of the book I was hooked.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091926122</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chika Unigwe
|title=On Black Sisters' Street
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sisi, Ama, Efe and Joyce are prostitutes, working in Antwerp's red-light district. They arrived in Belgium through the auspices of Dele, a grasping, ''talent-spotting'' Lagos pimp, who arranges illegal entry into Europe for young women in return for a large percentage of their earnings for many years.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085301</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Penny Jordan
|title=Sins
|rating=2
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=''Sins'' is set in the 1950s and follows the turbulent love lives of four girls — Emerald, Rose, Janey and Ella. Scheming Emerald is determined to bag herself a royal husband, outsider Rose just wants to fit in, wild child Janey puts her heart and soul into becoming the next Mary Quant, and sensible Ella concentrates on avoiding the mistakes of her parents. As the years pass, the girls reach for their dreams and come to terms with issues that have haunted them from childhood.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847560741</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lauren Willig
|title=The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=I used to have months when I would gorge on chick lit before I got married. I lived in London and would wile away the tedium of the tube by escaping into easy, comforting reads of twenty-somethings who worried about shoes and shopping and men. It was reassuring to know that the girl, albeit after a series of highs and lows, would ultimately get the guy. I'm a different kind of person now, a stay at home mum more likely to be found playing in the park than shoe-shopping in London, and so it's been a while since I've felt like picking up a chick lit book. Something about this one intrigued me though. From the back cover blurb it's hard to tell if it's a historical novel, or contemporary chick lit, or perhaps some kind of mystery. I have a feeling that if you come to it with any particular expectations of it fulfilling one of these genres you might be disappointed. But if you see it as a fun, exciting, genre-less read then, hopefully, you won't be able to put it down.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007613</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Meg Wolitzer
|title=The Wife
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=The fact that Joan Castleman is the wife of one of the 20th Century's most lauded and acclaimed authors has not escaped her notice and certainly there are people a-plenty to remind her how amazing her entire existence must surely be. The role of the supportive significant other is a part that Joan has played for almost her entire life, watching her husband Joe's steady rise to the top of his professional tree, whilst suppressing her own career aspirations and talents to be the silent stanchion of her marriage, in every conceivable way.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099478196</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Susan Wooldridge
|title=The Hidden Dance
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=It is 1933, and the SS Etoile has just left Southampton harbour en route for New York. On board is Lily Sutton, a timid, disturbed woman whose posh accent seems unsuited to her situation of travelling in steerage. Through a series of flashbacks to various years in Lily's life we learn why she is so frightened and what has brought her to make this secretive journey to New York. As well as learning about her romantic aspirations through the story we also see her stumble into a difficult situation on board ship that lends a crime mystery feel to the latter half of the book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007419</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Meg Wolitzer
|title=The Ten-year Nap
|rating=5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Amy couldn't remember the last time her husband Leo had gotten terribly excited by her. Jill could not understand why she did not really feel like much of a mother to her adopted daughter, Nadia. It had been four years, but still the quiet little girl that she and her husband, Donald, had 'rescued' from a Siberian orphanage seemed like a stranger to her. Roberta didn't seem to know how she had come to give up on her dream to be an artist, but somehow amidst her marriage, the children's craft projects and the part time work as a puppeteer, it had simply faded away until she could barely remember what it was like to hold a brush in her hands.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523485</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Katie Fforde
|title=Love Letters
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Love Letters is one of those enjoyable and satisfying reads that is so perfect for these hot lazy summer days. It's gentle pace and intriguing characters draw you in as you want to find out what happens next. What's more, the storyline is based around a literary festival which makes fascinating reading for any book lover like me.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846054478</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jane Elmor
|title=Pictures of You
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=This is the story of Luna, who is an artist. It's also the story of Angie, her mother, and - to a lesser degree - it's about Nat, a teenage single mother in horrendous circumstances.
It begins when Luna and Angie attend the funeral of Luna's long-estranged father in 2003. Or rather, the story actually begins when Luna and her boyfriend Pierre are making love in a cupboard under the stairs just after the funeral. And the book itself starts with a prologue, set six years later, when an unnamed man (with wife and two children in tow) spots an unnamed woman in an art gallery, and thinks back to a lifetime of loving her.
Confused? Yes, I was too. And not at all sure what to expect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230014569</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maggie Dana
|title=Beachcombing
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=You'll like Jill Hunter. She's smart, independent and likes to have fun. Her business is one that she's built up from scratch and she's brought up two sons on her own since her divorce many years ago and to her credit they're both splendid young men. Money's a little tight but she's managed to restore a dilapidated beach cottage in Connecticut where it sits amongst some rather more expensive neighbours.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230742688</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eloisa James
|title=Duchess by Night
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=In this third instalment of the ''Desperate Duchesses'' series the focus is on Harriet, the Duchess of Berrow. A widow of two years, Harriet manages her vast estate, makes judgements in the local court (where the judge is only a drunken figurehead) and is generally settled into her life. But she feels unattractive, old and boring; ready to find another husband but doesn't attract too many dancers, never mind suitors, when she turns up at a costume ball dressed as a dumpy Mother Goose (complete with a stuffed bird). When her friend sets off on a visit to a permanent house party at a residence of a certain very disreputable Lord Strange (in order to create a scandal and entice a husband she never met back to the country), Harriet decides to go with her, but worried about the debauchery, she goes as a young man, a nephew of Duke Villiers who also accompanies the ladies.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340961082</amazonuk>
}}
