A Change For The Better by Pamela Fudge
| A Change For The Better by Pamela Fudge | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A heart-warming story about the changes Jo Malone makes when she loses her alcoholic husband and demanding mother. A delightful, feel-good read. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 224 | Date: June 2010 |
| Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0709090601 | |
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Jo Farrell had spent all her life caring for other people. After she lost her alcoholic husband and her demanding, hypochondriac mother she had time for herself, but when she looked in the mirror she wasn't particularly impressed by what she saw. The middle-aged, slightly plump woman with grey curls reminded her of her mother and the clothes she was wearing did little to help either. It was something odd which helped her to change. The very scruffy man from downstairs (the sort you would cross the road to avoid) came to borrow a newspaper and somehow they got talking about what needed to be done to change her life.
The changes weren't massive. She wanted to learn to drive, to update her wardrobe, redecorate her flat and go to cake decorating classes. Yes – cake decorating classes – and Greg said that he would go with her. Before long he had a list of changes that he was going to make – he'd rather let himself go since his wife died and Jo was the inspiration which made him pull himself together again. It wasn't long before Jo had slimmed down and looked smart and Greg was the object of attention of all the ladies in the cake decorating class.
Jo had a very good friend, Denise and she'd long thought that Jo would be happiest if she found a good man. She herself had been widowed and later found happiness with her late-husband's best friend. One of the men she'd introduced to Jo had barely noticed her before her transformation but was completely smitten by the new woman. Could he be Jo's soul mate?
If you're looking for a heart-warming easy read then you could do a lot worse than A Change For The Better. The pages turn of their own accord and the urge to find out what was going to happen to Jo next meant that I read the book in one very self-indulgent sitting. I loved Jo, seeing something of myself in the ease with which you can slip into premature middle age and envious of her get-up-an-go. She's feisty but with a soft spot for friends and family, particularly her son Petie, who had been something of a tearaway but seemed to have got his life back on the rails gain. They're all real people who come off the page fully formed and stick in the mind after you've finished reading. It was great fun.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
If this book appeals then you might also enjoy You Don't Have To Be Good by Sabrina Broadbent or A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde.
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