Newest Women's Fiction Reviews
The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall
Leo Bruck, a world famous conductor, died suddenly of a heart attack. Amongst many mourners at his funeral are three women for whom Leo was much more than an acquaintance. Victoria was his long term partner and mother of his two children, Ralph and Salome. However, Maddy has also shared much of her life with Leo and he is father to her daughter Pheobe. Then there is Cat, who met Leo about eighteen months ago and they also formed a relationship. All three were aware of the others and, for whatever reasons, had tolerated the parallel lives that Leo was leading. However, they had never met before the funeral and there is instant dislike particularly between Victoria and Maddy. Full review...
Left and Leaving by Jo Verity
Set in modern day London, this novel explores the lives of two central characters who, on the surface, could not be any different. However, after a catastrophic incident in the city, Gil and Vivian are thrown together through the rather annoying, interfering character of Irene. Spending time with each other in the run up to Christmas, both Gil and Vivian find themselves having to face up to various family issues and responsibilities that, before, they were able to ignore. Full review...
Come to Me Quietly by A L Jackson
Aleena hasn't seen Jared for six years. Not since he hit the very bottom of his downward spiral and ended up in prison. She's trying to move on, let go of the boy she secretly loved all her life. Just as she's starting to make progress, Jared reappears. Full review...
It Felt Like A Kiss by Sarra Manning
Ellie Cohen lives with two of her best friends, works in an exclusive gallery, and sees her loving Jewish grandparents every first Friday of the month. Her single mother, Ari, has always been the epitome of cool and is Ellie’s best friend and confidante. The only thing they don’t talk about is Billy Kay, Ellie’s biological father. That doesn’t stop him being one of the nation’s favourites, recently knighted, and talked about by pretty much everyone else. But Billy is a non-issue for Ellie. She doesn’t need him, she has Chester, her mum’s best friend, who has always been enough of a dad if she needed. Her only real trouble is her penchant for lame ducks, or fixer-uppers. Full review...
Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York by Gail Parent
Oy vey! Sheila Levine is down on her luck. Try as she might to meet a nice, Jewish boy to marry, she just keeps ending up with schmucks. The wrong side of 30, single and living in Manhattan, well if only she’d taken her mother’s advice at the time. Now it’s too late. There is no hope. The only thing Sheila can do is respectfully take her own life (having made all the arrangements and tied up the loose ends beforehand, of course. Nice girls always clean up after themselves). Full review...
Take Me Home by Daniela Sacerdoti
Inary Monteith is confused. She's just spent the night with her close friend, Alex and it seems that it means more to him that she will allow it to mean to her. After her fiance ditched her not that long before the wedding she decided that she would never allow herself to be hurt like that again. Then the problem seems to be solved for her as she has to leave London and return to Glen Avich in the Scottish Highlands. Her sister, Emily, has been waiting for a heart transplant but it now looks very unlikely that she will make it through to an operation. Full review...
Emma by Linda Mitchelmore
Emma Le Goff was determined that she and her childhood sweetheart, Seth Jago, would get married but the vicar seemed strangely reluctant to oblige. Their pasts were against them. Seth’s brother had been hung and his father and brother were in prison. No one could - or would - quite believe that Seth had kept himself above the criminality. Then there were the deaths of Emma’s mother and brother, which might not have been an accident. To top it all Emma had lived with Matthew Caunter - the vicar wasn’t prepared to accept that she was simply his housekeeper. No - there was no question of his marrying them, but Emma came up with a novel solution to the problem. Full review...
Wish Upon a Star by Trisha Ashley
Cally is a single mother. The novel begins with the birth of her daughter Stella, and the discovery that her baby has a serious heart condition. Stella’s first few years are taken up with hospitals and medical procedures but eventually the NHS can provide nothing further. Then Cally learns that a doctor in Boston is able to do a new kind of operation, one that could potentially give Stella a totally normal life. The only problem is the enormous cost of surgery in the US, not to mention the need for flights and accommodation. Full review...
Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop by Jenny Colgan
Rosie Hopkins lives with her boyfriend Stephen in the village of Lipton, and we meet them first on a winter’s evening, with snow gently falling on the picturesque buildings around their cottage. Or, rather, Rosie’s great aunt Lilian’s cottage. For Rosie is a town girl who came to look after Lilian some time previously. Lilian has moved to a lovely care home, and Rosie runs her traditional sweet shop. Full review...
The Emergence of Judy Taylor by Angela Jackson
Judy's life had been the stuff which many others might envy: she'd grown up with friends about her whom she'd known since primary school and married the first man who asked her - but he did seem to be doing rather well. Then one day she discovered a lump. A hard lump. In her right breast. Nerve-racking test followed nerve-racking test, but eventually she was told that everything was absolutely normal. Husband Oli wanted to celebrate. So did her friends. The problem was Judy. Missing the bus home after her hospital appointment she sat in a cafe and thought. She realised that normal was not what she wanted. She wanted something more. Full review...
Dark Witch (The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy) by Nora Roberts
American Iona Sheehan moves to Ireland in order to discover her ancestors' roots and oh so much more. Her ancestors were witches and her cousins Branna and Conor O'Dwyer have acquired the family talent. Under their care and tutelage Iona has her own skills honed as she develops the magick passed down to her in between her work at the local stables. Unfortunately magick isn't the only thing to have survived the centuries. Cabahn, the nemesis of Sorcha, the first O'Dwyer dark witch, has unfinished business with the cousins and not in a good way. Full review...
Ghost Moth by Michele Forbes
Belfast 1949: Katherine is about to become engaged to fireman George Bedford when she meets Tom McKinley. He's bright fun and makes her feel more alive than dependable, boring George ever could. The weight of the decision Katherine eventually makes will haunt her for a lifetime. We fast forward to Belfast 1969 and as the troubles in Northern Ireland exacerbate, as do the cracks in Katherine's marriage. In fact 20 years and four children later, they've become chasms. Full review...
Leaving Haven by Kathleen McCleary
After years of trying for a second child, Georgia is over the moon to conceive using an egg donated by her best friend Alice. The pregnancy progresses well and everything is looking rosy for Georgia and husband John until, with mere weeks to go, she uncovers a devastating secret that changes everything, including her ability to love her new baby, Haven. Full review...
Is This Love? by Sue Moorcroft
Sue Moorcroft is not a typical ‘chick lit’ writer, despite the pink and purple cover of this novel, and the fact that her publisher is ‘Choc Lit’. Certainly there’s a romantic element to the book, but there’s a great deal more besides. Love, in the title, does not simply refer to romance and adult relationships, but also includes strong family ties. Full review...
The Gravity Between Us by Kristen Zimmer
Kendall Bettencourt, at the age of just 19, has become one of Hollywood's hottest properties, but is missing her best friend Payton. Flying the other girl out to keep her company in LA and help teach her music seems like a sensible thing to do. But Payton's realised she thinks of Kendall as more than a friend - does Kendall feel the same way about her, and can their feelings survive the craziness of Hollywood life? Full review...
Fractured by Dani Atkins
Rachel is not living a life most people would covet. Her job is dull, she lives alone in a grotty flat, she has a scarred face that makes people stop and squirm, and she still hasn’t come to terms with the death of her best friend – who lost his life saving hers. She has to drag herself out of London and back to her hometown for the wedding of a close friend, and she goes so reluctantly because it’s the first time the whole gang will have been back together since the accident, five years ago. It’s really not a life to hold on to. Surely she’d rather anything else? Full review...
When You Walked Back into My Life by Hilary Boyd
Hilary Boyd wrote best-selling 'Thursdays in the Park', which I enjoyed immensely, so I was delighted to be given the opportunity to read her latest novel. With the stalwarts of a white-coat hospital romance as the major characters, and a sub-plot involving a dying old lady and her money-grabbing nephew, there's plenty to hook lovers of an easy-read romantic novel. Hilary Boyd writes straightforwardly, and the story flies across the pages. Full review...
An Englishwoman in New York by Anne-Marie Casey
I just love that feeling. I’m in the hands of an writer who knows the business of writing inside out, and I can relax and enjoy a surprise ride with plenty of laughs along the way. No, I’m not related to veteran scriptwriter and producer Anne-Marie Casey: in a literary world awash with good reads, this is the highest-calibre popular novel I’ve read in a while. Full review...
Finding Mother by Anne Allen
Nicole Oxford knew that her marriage was over when she discovered that Tom had been unfaithful - again. They'd seemed like the golden couple of television but that and their gorgeous home suddenly seemed as insubstantial as dust. Taking a break from work Nicole flew out to stay with her parents in Spain. Actually, they were her adoptive parents - and Nicole wondered if the bond between them all was going to be strong enough to stand the weight of what she was going to ask of them. Nicole had stopped liking herself and she felt that she needed to go back to her roots, discover who she was - and she wanted their help to trace her birth mother. Full review...
Step Back In Time by Ali McNamara
Career girl Jo-Jo gets hit by a car, but the accident leaves her not in hospital, but transported back to 1963. Another such accident leaves her in the 70s, a third in the 80s, and a fourth in the 90s. With a different life each time, and fashion and music being very different from what she's used to, can she find her way home? Full review...
The Flavours of Love by Dorothy Koomson
Saffron's husband, Joel, was stabbed in the street eighteen months ago and no one has ever been arrested for his murder. It's hard for Saffron and her two children, Pheobe and Zane, to live with what happened but somehow they have to find a way of getting on with their lives; lives that no longer have Joel in them. It's hardly surprising that they struggle on a daily basis and it all culminates when Saffron is called into school to discuss fourteen year old Pheobe. Saffron doesn't know how to deal with the situation especially as her daughter won't talk to her. On top of all that, Joel's killer is still out there somewhere and that makes her scared for all her family's safety. Full review...
Mr Perfect by Joanna Davies
This book made me feel old. Old, and a bit boring. From the blurb I'd expected a light-hearted chick-lit style story of finding the perfect man, or perhaps realising that the perfect man doesn't exist and finding, instead, the man you love has been living right under your nose all along! It is, in part, that sort of story. But it's also the story of two people who spend an awful lot of their lives having sex with entirely the wrong people and occasionally running into each other (literally at one point!) but missing the fact that they like each other for many, many years. Full review...
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding
Bridget, as you might have heard, is back. Some things have changed (she’s now a mother! And in her, ahem, 50s) and some things haven’t (she still has dating disasters and drinks wine as if it were water) but the most important thing of all is that she’s still Bridget, and she’s still journaling her life for our amusement. Full review...
Amelia Grey's Fireside Dream by Abby Clements
Amelia and Jack live in a cramped flat in Hackney where they hardly have room to swing a cat. They can't afford to upgrade in London but maybe a small cottage away from the city could be affordable. When Amelia is overlooked for a promotion at the school she teaches in it feels that the time is right for a change. After their dream cottage is sold to another buyer, they discover Brambledown Cottage. It looks to be just what they are after; however, do they really know just how much work they are taking on? Full review...
A Heart Bent Out of Shape by Emylia Hall
Hadley Dunn is quite a fancy name for a girl like her. She has lived quite a nondescript life up until now, and even her university years look like they’ll be quite uneventful since she’s decided to live at home rather than move away. Then, out of the blue, an opportunity arises, and Hadley finds herself spending a year abroad in Switzerland. Away from the responsibilities of home, and surrounded by exciting new friends, Hadley becomes a much more appealing character. She is especially close to Danish student Kristina who is also there for a year in Lausanne, and the two soon grow close, even if each has secrets they keep to themselves and cannot share with even their closest of friends. Full review...
