One Night Only by Sue Welfare

One Night Only by Sue Welfare
Buy One Night Only by Sue Welfare at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Women's Fiction
Reviewer: Jo Heffer
Summary: Helen Redford was once a famous soap star but in recent years she has faded from the public eye. Because of this, when she is invited to take part in the TV series 'Roots', her agent is keen for her to accept. However, this means revisiting the town where she grew up and digging into her past, which would all be very well if there were not people and events that Helen would prefer stay forgotten.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 400	Date: March 2012
Publisher: Avon
ISBN: 9781847561190
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When Helen Redford is approached to take part in the TV series, 'Roots', she is a little reluctant. 'Roots' is similar to the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' series where celebrities trace their ancestors. Even though the producers assure her that everything will be handled sensitively and they will not show anything that she is unhappy with, she is not sure that it is something she want to take part in. She has moved on from many things and does not want to be reminded of ex-boyfriends, friendships that have turned acrimonious and family secrets. However, she is persuaded to do it and somewhere, lurking at the back of her mind, is the hope that the series will reunite her with her mum who walked out when she was only a small child. What she does not realise is that the programme makers have a totally different reunion in mind – one that will leave her shocked and confused. It's a trip down memory lane that she will soon want to forget.

This is a wonderful tale that I found myself caught up in from the very first pages. I loved finding out about Helen's life and I liked the way that alternate chapters switched between the present and the past. The author cleverly reveals things that occurred in the past that the reader knows will be picked up by the television crew in following chapters. This style worked very well for me and certainly helped to keep my interest throughout.

I thought the characters were all excellent especially Helen, who I expected to be a shallow and vain TV star, but was actually a well rounded sympathetic character. She never sought to live her life in the public eye and is quite horrified at the intrusive lengths that the 'Roots' production team will go to in order to get a good story. This story definitely makes the reader think twice about these types of reality shows and whether what they choose to present to the viewer is the truth or a rather nasty distortion.

This book is very well written and the pace is good too. It is the sort of book that I just couldn't bring myself to put down. In fact I read it in just a couple of days and could have happily carried on reading more.

When I started reading the book, I thought that Sue Welfare was a new author for me but I have since found out that she also writes under the name of Kate Lawson – an author I have enjoyed for some time now – as well as the name of Gemma Fox. Therefore if you have read books by either of these, you will definitely want to read 'One Night Only'.

Why not also take a look at Keeping Mum or Mother of the Bride by Kate Lawson

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You can read more book reviews or buy One Night Only by Sue Welfare at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy One Night Only by Sue Welfare at Amazon.com.

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