Kiss and Kin by Angela Lambert
| Kiss and Kin by Angela Lambert | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A mature couple meet and fall in love. One is married, the other is widowed, but the biggest difficulty is that their children are married. An intriguing look at love and a welcome acknowledgement that the need for a sexual relationship when you're older is not an aberration. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 360 | Date: January 2016 |
| Publisher: Romaunce Books | |
| ISBN: 978-1861514301 | |
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It's six months since the death of Harriet Capel's husband George. Looking back she's concluded that she was fond of - but probably not in love, with - him. They had two sons and it's the elder of these, Roderick who's married to Jennifer. They have three children, but there's been a rather silly feud between the Capels and Jennifer's family, the Gaunts, which dates back to the couple's wedding, when Clarissa Gaunt, Jennifer's mother said something unpleasant in the church which dropped into one of those silences which always occur when you say something which you really shouldn't. Honours (or should it be dishonours?) were even when George Capel later said something crass and vulgar about the bride's mother and was overheard.
Now that George has gone, Harriet has had enough of feuding and suggests to her son that the families get together and start afresh - and that the tenth birthday of Hugo, the couple's only son and eldest child, would be a suitable occasion to mend fences. Clarissa Gaunt can't make the party, but Oliver, Jennifer's father, comes over from France. It's years since Oliver and Harriet have met - and when they did they were rather over-shadowed by the feuding, but when Oliver sees Harriet again he falls in love - and Harriet falls in love with him. Harriet would accept the relationship as being just for the week that they're both in London: that way no one is going to get hurt, but Oliver will have none of this. He's going to leave Clarissa and live with Harriet in her Dorset home.
Normally I have a perverse dislike of 'insta-love'. Perhaps it's because I've never been smitten in this way and believe that relationships develop rather than arriving fully clothed, but on this occasion it's necessary to put aside your disbelief that the coup de foudre could have left them both equally smitten, because what follows is an elegant dissection of love in all its forms. Jennifer and Roderick used to love each other, but he's having an affair - the lady involved thinks it's love - and Jennifer is simply dissatisfied with her lot, despite it being a rather good one, in the great scheme of things. They have three children, whom they profess to love, but Jennifer's not really maternal and neither of them have time for the children, who get most mothering from the Swedish au pair.
The story is set in 1995 and it's a lovely cameo of the nineties, when some people had mobile phones, but they weren't yet attached to everyone's ear. Homosexuality was supposed to be acceptable, but hadn't yet been accepted and it's easy to see how the relationship between Harriet and Oliver has the potential to rip the family apart.
I was impressed by the characters: putting aside Harriet and Oliver's immediate infatuation, I liked them both as characters. Harriet's thoughtful and considerate and something of a restraining influence on Oliver, who can be a little headstrong. Jennifer and Roderick are very much of the brash nineties, but the person who stole my heart was little Hugo - I just wanted to give him a good listening to!
And - there's a twist at the end which I don't think you'll see coming. I certainly didn't.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
If this book appeals we think you might also enjoy When I Was Invisible by Dorothy Koomson.
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