Difference between revisions of "Newest Women's Fiction Reviews"
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| + | |author=Kathleen MacMahon | ||
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| + | This is an incredibly gentle (and gently funny) love story set in the winter of 2008 when the Irish economy was booming and the US were about to elect their first black president. Hugh (a deliciously grumpy surgeon) and his currently unemployed architect daughter Addie lived happily in an Irish seaside town. Ok, he'd broken both his wrists tripping over Addie's dog and Addie found it hard not to cry sometimes, but they were alright. Then one day, out of the blue, they receive a voicemail message from Bruno, a distant American relative who's just popped over the ocean to say 'Hi!' Remembering the last US relative who came to visit (it didn't go well), Addie and Hugh decide to ignore the phone... and the front door... and the occupant of the bench seat across the road... He's bound to go home eventually. | ||
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|author=Ruth Saberton | |author=Ruth Saberton | ||
Revision as of 14:20, 14 May 2012
Women's Fiction
This Is How It Ends by Kathleen MacMahon
This is an incredibly gentle (and gently funny) love story set in the winter of 2008 when the Irish economy was booming and the US were about to elect their first black president. Hugh (a deliciously grumpy surgeon) and his currently unemployed architect daughter Addie lived happily in an Irish seaside town. Ok, he'd broken both his wrists tripping over Addie's dog and Addie found it hard not to cry sometimes, but they were alright. Then one day, out of the blue, they receive a voicemail message from Bruno, a distant American relative who's just popped over the ocean to say 'Hi!' Remembering the last US relative who came to visit (it didn't go well), Addie and Hugh decide to ignore the phone... and the front door... and the occupant of the bench seat across the road... He's bound to go home eventually. Full review...
Amber Scott is Starting Over by Ruth Saberton
Amber Scott has been with her fiancé Ed for over ten years. Things may not be perfect in their relationship but they muddle along OK in their London home, both going off to their separate jobs. However, one day, just as Amber is about to celebrate a promotion of her own, Ed announces that he has been offered a partnership in a law firm. This should be fantastic news but the problem is that it is over two hundred miles away in Cornwall and would mean Amber having to give up everything that she has worked for in order to go with him. And, of course, as Ed points out many times, if she really loves him she wouldn't even have to think about it. Full review...
Ten Years On by Alice Peterson
The prologue of this book sees Becca with her student friends at a New Year's Eve party. Afterwards, she and her boyfriend Ollie and their flatmate Joe hang out for a while, talking about the future. They wonder what they might be doing in ten years' time... Full review...
Dangerous Waters: Mystery, Loss and Love on the Island of Guernsey by Anne Allen
Jeanne Le Page suffered a panic attack as the ferry neared Guernsey. It was a decade and a half since she'd left the island following the deaths of her parents in a boating accident. She'd been in the boat with them but had no memory of what happened other than the occasional flashback. It was the death of her grandmother which brought her back to the island, but she never intended to stay for long - in fact just long enough to arrange for the sale of the cottage which her grandmother had left her. But somehow the island worked its magic on her and she found herself making friends and developing more of a social life than she'd had back on the mainland. Full review...
Another Home, Another Love by Gwen Kirkwood
Rosemary Palmer-Farr is nowhere near as grand as her name might lead you to expect. In fact she's a down-to-earth girl, fresh out of horticultural college who's taken over the gardens attached to her mother's hotel. It's her mother who has the social pretensions. She's determined that Rosemary Lavender (it's OK - everyone else calls her Rosie) is going to make a good marriage and that certainly doesn't include any of the tenant farmers (or their offspring) she's been so friendly with. And when push comes to shove she'll do whatever is necessary to keep her away from one particular man of the soil whilst pushing the suit of the local landowning family. Full review...
The Lonely Furrow by Pamela Kavanagh
The loss of the family business was no fault of the Drummond family, but by the time that they'd repaid what was owed they had no home and no means of making a living. The elder son, Nathan, lost his fiancé and there was little left for them to do but to leave Glasgow and move to a farm which had been in Florence Drummond's family for some time. They weren't farmers, but there was little choice but for them to buckle down and make the best of the situation presented to them. Full review...
The Lady Most Likely by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Connie Brockway
Hugh, the Earl of Briarly, has acknowledged his mortality after a nasty accident, and has decided to take a wife. Not being a very sociable person - he likes horses better than people - he asks his married sister Carolyn to produce a list of eligible young ladies. She does so, and then invites them and various other friends to a house party. Full review...
Me and My Sisters by Sinead Moriarty
Louise, Sophie and Julie. Three women. Three sisters. One a successful business woman. One a successful trophy wife. One a successful mother of four. All of them seem to the others to have it all. All of them have more troubles than the others could ever imagine. Full review...
Nutmeg by Maria Goodin
Meg was rather underdone when she was born. Her mother ate lots of eggs during pregnancy, in the hope of giving her a good glaze, but instead she came out clucking like a chicken, and was fortuitously caught in a frying pan by the gas man... Full review...
The Greatest Love Story of All Time by Lucy Robinson
It was the blurb on this one that had me interested, mentioning Fran’s 30th birthday (mine’s a few months away) and the fact she’s bluffed her way into a very posh job (something some might say I’ve just done too). I thought we might be kindred spirits and even if we weren’t, I thought I might be signing up for some fun, flirty chick lit which is never a bad thing.
Until now. Full review...
Ninepins by Rosy Thornton
Laura lives deep in the Cambridgeshire Fens with her daughter Beth and at the time that we meet them she's just coming up to her twelfth birthday. Her father has remarried and now has three young sons, but mother and father decided early on that they would have cordial relations for Beth's sake - and the habit has stuck. Money from Beth's father is a little hit and miss, so Laura has been in the habit of letting out the pumphouse - once a drainage station - to students, but this time its occupant is Willow, who is seventeen years old and who has been in care. It takes a while for her history to emerge, but her mother was a hippy with no sense of responsibility and it seems that Willow might have been guilty of arson. Full review...
Rainshadow Road by Lisa Kleypas
It's sometimes said that bad luck comes in threes. It certainly happens that way for Lucy, the rather hapless heroine of this book. First her boyfriend of two years announces that he wants her to move out, because - of all things - he has decided that he likes her sister Alice better. Then Lucy's car breaks down. And then, just as she seems to be dealing with her circumstances fairly well, she is knocked over by a car. Full review...
Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating by Eleanor Prescott
'Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating' is a very enjoyable and light-hearted look at the world of dating agencies. Table for Two is a thriving agency run by Audrey Cracknell and her team including Alice who is most successful at setting up dates leading to lasting love. There is nothing more exciting that receiving gold written wedding invitations from former clients. There's also fierce competition from the other dating agencies in town especially Love Birds run by Audrey's arch rival, Sheryl Toogood. Then of course, there's the annual Matchmakers' ball – the highlight of the year but also the place to be seen and score points. There's a great deal of fun and lots of romance too. This book is pure escapism. Full review...
Escape by Barbara Delinsky
Emily and James are a couple of 30-something lawyers living in New York, except they’re not really living so much as existing, running from home to work to yoga class to book club, barely spending any time together. It’s just the way it is until one day Emily takes a particularly tough call at work and realises in that moment that what she’s doing isn’t right. It isn’t how she imagined life would be. It isn’t what she went to law school for, or what she wants. And so she leaves. Fleeing the city for an altogether more relaxed place, she tells neither her work nor her husband that she is leaving, she just goes. Full review...
Welcome To Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop Of Dreams by Jenny Colgan
Rosie Hopkins is reluctant to leave her beloved London, Gerard, a live-in boyfriend of eight years and her work as auxiliary nurse. But when an elderly aunt who had spent her life running a traditional sweetshop in a small village in the North of England becomes just too elderly to cope, Rosie surprises everybody – even herself – by taking up the challenge. A 100% townie who can't ride a bike and doesn't seem to own a waterproof, a pair of wellies or even walking boots, Rosie soon discovers that the countryside has its charms, not least of which is the local supply of masculine eye candy. Soon she will find herself re-opening the shop (just to sell it as a running concern, you understand) as well as somewhat accidentally, saving and enriching lives all around, from a lady of the manor's Lab to her own dignified, but possessed of an acid tongue, great aunt Lillian. Full review...
The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall
When Beth receives a parcel from her estranged mother she realises she must finally face up to her past. The parcel contains a scrap book, full of photos from each summer when Beth was 10 until she was 16. As she turns the pages we learn of Beth's childhood, the separation of her parents and the summers she spends with her mother in Hungary. Full review...
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh
Frances Irvine enjoys a privileged lifestyle in Victorian England: a beautiful house, servants, rich gowns and all the trappings her position as the daughter of an industrialist demands. However, Frances' lifestyle proves to be a precarious house of cards balanced on her father's investment in the Northern Pacific Railroad in North America. When the Canadian terrain proves too much for the railroad construction to continue, her father's shares are rendered worthless. As this occurs just before his sudden death, Frances is forced to make a choice as her finery and home are auctioned off. Does she throw herself on the mercy of her lower class relatives or commit herself to a loveless marriage to distant cousin Dr Edwin Matthews? Full review...
Croissants and Jam by Lynda Renham
Even before Annabel Lewis boards the flight to Rome that will take her to her wedding, she is having doubts. After all, she has only known Simon for seven months and he does tend to be quite controlling and not much fun. So, when a series of unfortunate events causes her to miss her connecting flight, although she is reluctant to admit it, it is a welcome relief. She does still intend to go ahead with the wedding though, so she needs to find away to get across France and into Italy. As there are no flight options, she ends up agreeing to share a car with the man who inadvertently made her miss her flight. As a fashion conscious stylish woman though, she is more than a little perturbed when the car in question ends up as a clapped out old Citroen (affectionately known as the lemon) and when Christian, her travelling companion, stops at a French supermarket so that she can get some clothes to wear. Bels is much more used to designer labels than cheap and functional clothing. Full review...
The J M Barrie Ladies' Swimming Society by Barbara J Zitwer
When Joey Rubin arrives at Stanway House to oversee its renovations she is looking forward to the challenge of preserving its ties with one of her favourite authors, J M Barrie. It also means a change of scenery from her somewhat lonely life in New York as well as the opportunity for catching up with Sarah, her oldest and closest friend. However, things don't go quite according to plan as Sarah has changed out of all recognition and everything Joey says or does seem to cause offence. Full review...
The House on Willow Street by Cathy Kelly
You don't get to a certain age without having a bit of a past and a few stories, some of which you'd rather weren't told and others which you'd just plain rather forget about. In the idyllic Irish coastal village of Avalon we meet four women and they've all got big histories. Tess is descended from the local landowners, but now she lives with her teenage son Zach and her nine-year-old daughter Kitty and she owns the local antiques shop. It's a struggle to make ends meet when her marriage falls apart. To cap it all, her first love and the man she's never really forgotten returns to the village but they're no friendlier than they were the last time they met. Full review...
The Summer of Living Dangerously by Julie Cohen
When I read Julie Cohen's book Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom a couple of years ago my poor toddler had to endure neglect for the day since I couldn't stop reading it. This time Julie had me risking my own health since I started reading her new book in the bath and my husband came to find me there several hours later sitting in stone cold water, unwilling to get out since I didn't want to stop reading! I do love it when you find a book that captures your imagination, but I'd advise perhaps a comfortable armchair located near to a stash of plentiful snacks would be a wise place to begin. Full review...
Babies In Waiting by Rosie Fiore
Three women, three different situations, ages spanning three decades. Gemma, Toni and Louise don’t have masses in common, but come into each other’s lives when they all fall pregnant around the same time. With partners, parents, siblings and other friends not quite getting all that’s going on in their heads...and in their tummies...the women quickly form a tight support network in which all their differences cease to matter. Full review...
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach
When Ravi and his cousin Sonny decide to open the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Bangalore as a retirement home, they don't know whether they will get any takers. However, by advertising it as a newly restored palatial hotel that will provide a life of leisure, good weather and mango gin, they soon get a great deal of interest and are welcoming their new residents. Evelyn, Madge, Dorothy, Norman and all of the others who decide to move to the hotel have their own reasons for leaving Britain but they are all excited by the new opportunity and the lease of new life that it could provide. Full review...
The Case of the Missing Boyfriend by Nick Alexander
You could be forgiven for thinking that CC had it all. At thirty nine she was near the top of the advertising business, owned her own flat in north London and had a group of close, party-going friends. That's what you saw from the outside, looking in. What CC saw was a life that lacked that one essential which she seemed unable to acquire. She was desperate to find the man of her dreams and preferably one who would whisk her off to a farm house in Devon where she'd live The Good Life. In the meantime she was stuck with the memories of too many heartbreaks, a mother whose current lifestyle brought a very unfortunate word to mind and being on the periphery of her friends' dramas - and as they were all gay she didn't have a lot of chance of meeting that elusive man. Full review...
Recipe for Love by Katie Fforde
When Zoe Harper arrives at Somerby, a lovely old mansion and the setting for the latest televised cookery contest, she is full of excitement. Before long, she finds herself rescuing one of the judges, Gideon Irving, from a ditch and realises that she is extremely attracted to him. Not long after, she meets her room mate and fellow competitor, Cher, for whom there is no immediate attraction as she comes across as shallow and devious. All the rest of the contestants are friendly though and they are soon all immersing themselves in the challenges of the various rounds. Full review...
Between a Mother and her Child by Elizabeth Noble
Maggie and Bill had a wonderful, happy family until tragedy struck, nearly a year before the story opens. The blurb on the back of the book says exactly what this tragedy was, but it's not explained until several chapters into the book. It would have made more powerful reading had I not known what had caused the family to break up. Full review...
The Angel at No. 33 by Polly Williams
Sophie is the wife of disorganised Ollie (who watered a plastic plant for a year before realising), mother of typical little boy Freddie and she's dead. Yes, Sophie is very dead. During a wine-filled evening of moaning about her predictable lifestyle with her best friend Jenny, Sophie tries to stop a taxi in the worst way possible. The taxi stops but not quite soon enough. Full review...
Never Can Say Goodbye by Christina Jones
When Frankie is unexpectedly handed the reins to the shop where she currently works, she’s surprised to say the least. Current boss Rita is heading off for a new life (and love) in the sun, and leaving her home and business behind. It’s a swift learning curve to go from shop assistant to business owner, but with her friends, and most of the village, behind her, Frankie’s going to give it a shot. Full review...
The Great Escape by Fiona Gibson
Hannah, Sadie and Lou have all known each other since their student days in Glasgow. That was thirteen years ago and since then, although they have kept in touch, they have not seen as much of each other as they would have liked. Sadie is married to Barney and is the mother of twin babies. She is trying to adjust to life in a country village and to fit in with all the other young mums who always appear to do things so much better than her. Lou lives in York with Spike, her boyfriend since college days. She has had to put her dreams of being a jewellery designer on hold while she supports herself and Spike (who does very little) by working in a soft play barn. She often thinks that there must be more to life but does not have the courage to break free. Hannah loves her fiancé, Ryan, but finds the open hostility from her future stepchildren hard to take and this is the reason why the imminent wedding is so daunting. They all need some time out which is why the others jump at Hannah's suggestion of a weekend away visiting their old student haunts. Full review...
Ruth by Marlene S Lewis
The late 1950s saw a lot of changes in society but they were late in coming to Ruth's home in the Owen Stanley range in Papua New Guinea. Ruth, the only daughter of plantation owner John Madison, was still in her late teens and away at boarding school for much of the year, but when she returned home one of the first people she wanted to see was her great friend Tommy. They'd grown up together but there was no possibility of the relationship being taken any further as Tommy - despite being light skinned - was the son of one of the black plantation workers and certain 'standards' were expected of Ruth. Full review...
A Life Lived Ridiculously by Annabelle R Charbit
Maxine is from a Jewish family who think that as her 20s are nearing their end, she should be married. Maxine, for her part, hasn't found anyone to interest her and is more concerned with combining her job and her studies and getting away from the yoke of her parents. She is also worried about her possessions and worries that she has too many and that they make her flat look untidy. She just can't get her flat organised the way she likes it, either, with the light not being quite right and never quite being able to decide which room her television should be in. Full review...
The Two Week Wait by Sarah Rayner
Up in Yorkshire , Cath and Rich aren’t sure their future can include children following her major illness, which would be ok if she didn’t want a baby so badly. In Brighton, Lou hasn’t had quite the same infertility issues but has problems of her own that might get in the way of the tick tock of her body clock. The two women don’t know each other, and in spite of what you might expect, don’t get to know each other, but their stories sit side by side in this tale of the trials and tribulations of fertility treatment. Full review...
The Wife Who Ran Away by Tess Stimson
Kate's life is far from easy. She earns a great deal more money than her husband Ned, and works long hours... but her boss seems to be trying to edge her out. She pays not just for their mortgage, but for her mother's too, and fees for their teenage children Guy and Agness who are in expensive private schools. Full review...
The Child Inside by Suzanne Bugler
Rachel Morgan feels that she does not fit in anywhere. Certainly not with all of the other mums at her son Jono's posh school. Certainly not with all the happy jolly families on the beaches when they are on holiday. And most of all, she no longer feels that she fits in with her own little family. Nothing ever feels right and she continually feels isolated on the outside looking in. Of course, these feelings lead to an increasing sense of dissatisfaction which she can only deal with by dwelling on what she perceives as her happier past. Full review...
Shakespeare's Mistress by Karen Harper
The conceit of Shakespeare's Mistress is that Shakespeare was married to Anne Whateley the day before he was married to Anne Hathaway, and Anne W remained the love of his life, with an affair (if you can have an affair with your 'wife') continued in London where the same Anne was also the famed dark lady of his sonnets. There is some basis for this theory in that the parish records do show a mysterious entry into the register for just such a contract the day before the Hathaway marriage but although the author claims this is 'faction', it's very much at the fiction end of that scale and is really a 'what if?' piece. Full review...
Falling for You by Giselle Green
Rose is full of worries and insecurities. Her father is frail, her mother died some years previously. Rose is desperately hoping for a letter offering her a place at the university of her dreams... but has no idea how her father will survive without her there to look after him. Full review...
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith
The story takes place over the course of only twenty four hours but so much happens during that small amount of time. It starts when the reader meets Hadley having missed her flight to London by a mere four minutes. As it turns out, those four minutes are some of the most significant of her life, as they result in her booking a later flight and consequently meeting Oliver with whom she is seated throughout the journey across the Atlantic. Full review...
Maine by Courtney Sullivan
The Kellehers' beach-front holiday home in Maine was built on a plot of land won in a bar-room bet at the end of World War II. It's not in the same league as the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port but there are a couple of substantial properties on the plot and there's still room to spare. It's a place of indulgence, secrets and the sort of burning cruelty which you only get in families who care for each other - some of the time. Maine is essentially the story of a summer at the property - but the seeds of what happens were, of course, planted long ago. Full review...
The Golden Thread by Monica Carly
It was a sad day when Claudia Hansom retired as headmistress of Kingdown School. The staff respected her, despite the fact that she was always somewhat distant and the children did well under her charge. She was a stickler for discipline and the pupils accepted this – but once again there was no love. No, the sadness was all Claudia's, for what was she to do with the rest of her life as the ex-head teacher living alone with her cat? Her mother had died when she and her sister were teenagers and her father not long before she retired. There hadn't been any contact with her sister was forty years. She might imagine doing some writing, but the reality was that the life ahead of her was empty. Full review...
The House of Eliott by Jean Marsh
When Evangeline and Beatrice's father dies, the two sisters discover that he has left them with very little money and without any qualifications with which to support themselves. They struggle to find suitable employment before accidentally discovering their talents as seamstresses and fashion designers. The book follows their journey of independence after their father's death, and the new relationships they begin to build without him dominating their lives. Full review...
Pear Shaped by Stella Newman
One night Sophie was out with her friend Laura. They met a couple of men and there was an immediate chemistry between Sophie and James Stephens. He was good looking, charismatic, great fun and obviously attracted to Sophie. The fact that he was rich (complete with Maserati) didn't matter to her - but it didn't do any harm either. What's not to like? Well, there's nothing 'not to like' but just the odd thing that might give some pause for thought. He's forty five and never been married - and has a history of dating super-slim models. But - he is obviously very taken with Sophie and she falls head-over-heels for him. Full review...
Off the Rails by Beryl Kingston
A young girl from a Yorkshire village was weeping, begging her mother to be allowed just one more night at home, but the carter was waiting for her. The girl was fifteen, unmarried and pregnant. She was to go any stay with her aunt until the baby was born and she would be Mrs Smith whose husband had died at sea. The father of the baby was actually a village boy, George Hudson, who would prefer to pay a fine for bastardy than make an honest woman of the girl. He too ended up leaving home over the matter. In the years to come the paths of Jane, along with her daughter Milly, would cross and recross with Jane swearing that she would have vengeance. Full review...
