Newest Women's Fiction Reviews
The Dress Shop Of Dreams by Menna Van Praag
Cambridge is a city of winding streets and cobbled alleyways and in such a street you will find A Stich In Time, a tiny dress shop filled to bursting with dresses that will take your breath away. Etta Sparks spends her days crafting gowns from jewel-coloured velvets and beaded silks that are unlike any dresses you have seen before; once you try one of Etta's creations on - and with a few stitches from her expert and rather magical needle - these incredible, amazing garments have the power to reach within your soul and extract your deepest desire and hidden-away dreams. Full review...
Shopaholic to the Rescue by Sophie Kinsella
After a year of waiting (and somewhat frantic googling for the release date), Becky returns with the latest in the Shopaholic series, and guess what? It was completely worth the wait. Full review...
I'll Meet You In Heaven by Jill Thrussell
Rebecca and Gideon were made for each other. They've been married for 10 years and, apart from their unfulfilled desire for children, all is perfect, love remaining at the centre of their relationship. Well, all was perfect until their 10th anniversary dinner and that fatal a fatal car crash. The next thing they know, they arrive in a garden to be told that they'll be sent back to Earth for 3 months to live separately as a test. Why? More importantly, would they be able to find each other again afterwards? Full review...
The Sea Between Us by Emylia Hall
To her parents, the move to Cornwall was an escape to a better way of life. For city-girl Robyn, it was wet, remote and miserable and she was counting down the days to University and her return to civilization. Desperate for something to do to entertain herself, Robyn takes a wetsuit and surfboard and makes her way to a secluded cove. An inexperienced surfer, she soon gets into difficulty, but is rescued from the sea by a young local man called Jago. From that moment on, the two lives are intertwined by an invisible bond; a bond that will be tested and stretched during the years that follow. Full review...
The Dress by Kate Kerrigan
In 1935 a young man left his cruel father, stealing from his kindly schoolteacher to fund his trip to Dublin. Years later he left for New York. He'd never dreamed of being rich, but hard work brought wealth his way. He'd never thought about a wife either, but it seemed the right thing to do and Frank Fitzpatrick married Joy. She may well have been the most beautiful woman in New York, but she adored Frank. He was, well, ambivalent about her. For her thirtieth birthday Joy decided that she was going to throw a party at the Waldorf and for this she required the most stunning dress ever made. The Dress. She hoped that it would bring Frank back to her. Full review...
The Time Of The Clockmaker by Anna Caltabiano
The Time Of The Clockmaker is not so much a sequel to 'The Seventh Miss Hatfield, rather it's more like The Seventh Miss Hatfield : Part Deux. Cynthia (who is now the aforementioned Seventh Miss Rebecca Hatfield and from this point we shall refer to her as such) has just seen her predecessor and mentor, the somewhat intimidating Sixth Miss Hatfield, murdered in the only way it is possible for an immortal to die – she has been slain by another immortal. Forced to flee for her life (with the clock that governs Rebecca's ability to travel through time), Rebecca is stunned to find herself back in the Court of King Henry VIII. It seems that the hands of her mysterious clock have somehow inadvertently been moved, during the course of a break-in, and Tudor England is the backdrop for Miss Hatfield's fight for survival. Full review...
The Things We Do For Love by Alice Peterson
January is an unusual name for a reasonably normal girl, a single mum to a daughter (and a dog). She has a few unusual characteristics, though. Her dog comes to work with her (at a property company where, before you ask, she's not the boss or even close to it). She was raised by her grandparents following the sudden death of her parents. And her daughter, though adorable, has a few issues which can make everyday life a bit tricky. None of this really matters, though. Because, as the title suggests, this is a straight up love story (or search for love story) and it's a pretty brilliant one. Full review...
A Better Man by Leah McLaren
Maya and Nick are both the same type of person. A special type of person. She doesn’t really see it, but they are. He is obsessed with his company, an advertising agency, and the expected long hours of not just shoots and post-production, but also client relationship management that such a field entails. She is just as obsessed, but it’s not with her former life as a hot shot lawyer – now she’s obsessed with their twins and every moment of their little lives, from enriching activities to bonding sleepy times in the family bed. The one thing they’re no longer really obsessed with, though, is each other. And therein lies the problem. Full review...
Wish You Were Here by Catherine Alliott
The Murray-Browns are off for their usual summer holiday - a month with the in-laws in the highlands - when a surprise encounter lands them a holiday in an amazing French chateau - all for free. Flora is teeming with excitement until she realises her idea of a blissful break as a family of four isn't going to be what she gets. For a start, her teenage daughters are determined they're not going without their boyfriends. And since the family are no longer going to Scotland to see her husband's father and sisters, they must be invited as well. Oh and if they're coming, so is Flora's slightly eccentric mother and if that's the case then no-one is stopping Flora's mad best friend joining the party. Soon the Murray-Brown holiday is looking less like a peaceful getaway and more like a circus. Flora remains determined to enjoy herself but between policing her daughters' bedrooms (and her mother's), a beautiful, French host who is just too friendly with her husband and a blast from the past rolling into their lives, this holiday becomes more like purgatory than paradise. Full review...
The New Woman by Charity Norman
Charity Norman has written yet another thought provoking book that will hook the reader in from the very first page. This is the story of Luke Livingstone who becomes Lucia Livingstone as the story progresses. It is also the story of a family that is ripped apart by Luke's revelation and how each one deals with having a husband, father or son who is really a woman. Full review...
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
How do you find someone who doesn't want to be found? For Jenna, it's to enlist the services of a fallen-from-grace psychic, and a fallen-from-grace former cop turned PI. Can this mismatched threesome uncover the truth of what really happened all those years ago? Full review...
A Better Man by Leah McLaren
Maya and Nick are both the same type of person. A special type of person. She doesn’t really see it, but they are. He is obsessed with his company, an advertising agency, and the expected long hours of not just shoots and post-production, but also client relationship management that such a field entails. She is just as obsessed, but it’s not with her former life as a hot shot lawyer – now she’s obsessed with their twins and every moment of their little lives, from enriching activities to bonding sleepy times in the family bed. The one thing they’re no longer really obsessed with, though, is each other. And therein lies the problem. Full review...
The Seventh Miss Hatfield by Anna Caltabiano
Cynthia is a simple, All American girl who whilst generally happy – she’s fed and watered with a roof over her head - and relatively care free, she is somewhat bored of her existence in Suburbia. Miss Hatfield is Cynthia’s mysterious and rarely seen neighbour. What an enigma she is and how compelling and irresistible it is for Cynthia to attempt to discover more about her. Ever hear the phrase Be careful what you wish for?. Full review...
Techbitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza
Imogen Tate (Editor in Chief, fashionista, all round legend) is back after an extended break for health reasons. Back at her desk at Glossy magazine, back in charge of the magazine and the team she’s spent years building and nurturing. Except she’s not. Things have changed a little while she’s been off. Her former assistant has sprung up the ranks and is now running the show. And it’s a show that’s now moved on, had its interval, and started its second act. Print and permanent are out, tech and temporary are in. The world has changed, the magazine’s going online and the old ways of working are just like Imogen – old. Forget trying to thrive, her new goal now is simply to survive in the arena she once loved and was happy to call home. Full review...
The Red Lily Crown by Elizabeth Loupas
Florence 1574: Chiara Nerini only approaches Francesco de' Medici to sell him her late father's alchemical equipment. She and her family are starving and a sale would mean survival. However the soon to be Emperor has other ideas and abducts Chiara to become his assistant in the quest to find the Philosopher's Stone. If he finds it she will go free. If not... Best not think about that option! Full review...
The Woman Who Fell in Love for a Week by Fiona Walker
Jenny is a teacher who sometimes spends her school holidays housesitting, and that’s just what she’s up to now, spending a couple of weeks in the country. It’s a happy coincidence that the house she’s placed at is a grand manor, owned by two well-known writers, because she herself is into literature, teaches the subject, and also works a bit as a proof reader. It’s a match made in housesitting heaven. Full review...
The Lodger by Louisa Treger
A writer writing about writers writing. What more could a reader, a book reviewer, a tentative writer and lover of words want from a book? Not forgetting the setting – England, early 1900s, clear class divisions and social expectations – and the characters – fascinating, colourful, and above all, real. This book has everything I look for in a story. Full review...
In The Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
How many planes have to crash, before people take notice? How often can an unlikely event occur before you have to stop calling it that? How horrible do things have to get before the adults are willing to talk to the children about their fears, their theories, their understanding of it all, rather than just glossing over the details? Full review...
Secrets of the Pomegranate by Barbara Lamplugh
Home in Bristol, Alice gets the news from her sister's partner, Paco. Her sister, Deborah Hardy, was on board one of the trains bombed at Madrid's Atocha station on 11 March. No one can yet confirm whether she is alive or dead. Deb had moved to Granada nearly 20 years ago, after her divorce from Mark's father, and was starting to make a name for herself as a scholar of women in Andalusia's history. Alice and her nine-year-old son Timmy fly to Spain to find that Deb is alive, but in a coma in hospital. Over the weeks she keeps vigil for Deb, Alice lives in her sister's home in Granada and reads her diaries, which proves to be a way of feeling closer to her and learning more about her than she ever knew. Meanwhile, Mark and Paco keep their distance, working through their complicated grief in their own ways. Full review...
The Turning Point by Freya North
Single-mum Frankie doesn't have time to go looking for love. In fact, its the last thing on her mind, languishing somewhere on the list below sorting out repairs on the house, writing a chapter of that new book, getting a haircut and fetching crisps for the kids. Yes, Frankie is much too busy for complications like love. But romance has a funny way of creeping up on people and when Frankie meets musician Scott on a trip to London, sparks fly and suddenly she HAS to find the time for him. Scott lives halfway across the world in Canada and has work and family obligations of his own. Can love really find a way? Full review...
The House At The End Of Hope Street by Menna Van Praag
Alba Ashby is a wallflower of a girl; studious, bookish and excruciatingly shy, so when tragedy wields its ponderous bolt, she is less able than most to adjust to life as she now knows it. In one of her midnight walks around historical Cambridge, she finds herself at the door to Number 11 Hope Street. It is house that she has never before seen; quirky and turreted with a wild garden and grandly Victorian in hue and Alba is enchanted by it. So she does something that she would never normally do, in a million years. She knocks on the door. Full review...
Based on a True Story by Elizabeth Renzetti
Augusta Price, middle-aged, washed up, substance-addicted actress has just left rehab for the innumerable time. Her only friend in the world is her equally washed-up former mentor. Augusta has recently received a sudden upsurge of interest and income when her tell all memoir became a baffling best-seller. Frances Bleeker is an American journalist who came to London with high hopes, that were quickly dashed by the reality of the British magazine market. The two meet when Frances is sent to interview Augusta about her book where Frances realises there’s far more to the story of Augusta’s life than she’s cared to put in words. Needless to say, young, optimistic Frances and self-obsessed, drunk Augusta don’t exactly hit it off at once. But when Frances loses her job and Augusta needs a ghost writer for her new book, the two offer each other a lifeline ... or enough rope to hang themselves. As Frances will learn by delving into her past, people close to Augusta don’t come away unscathed. Full review...
When We Were Friends by Tina Seskis
Six friends meet at Bristol University; six very different people from six very different backgrounds. Six lives intertwined in an assortment of ways… break-ups, marriages, careers, motherhood and bereavement; until one night six become five. Full review...
Guernsey Retreat: The Guernsey Novels Book 3 by Anne Allen
Louisa returned home one night to the house she shared with her mother, but as she opened the door a man pushed past her and dashed away. Her mother was shocked and injured by what had happened - and died in Louisa's arms, but not before telling her that the man had come for 'the jewels' - the ones which she'd worn to a ball. Betty had never married. Time and circumstances had separated her from Louisa's father before he could know that she was pregnant and no man had ever been able to match Malcolm in her heart - and it was Malcolm who had the jewels and who had to be warned that he was probably in danger. Full review...
The Confectioner's Tale by Laura Madeleine
Petra is researching the life of late historian, author, critic and greatly missed grandfather JG Stevenson when she should really be writing a dissertation for her doctorate. While looking through his belongings she comes across a photo taken in Paris at the turn of the 20th century and an intriguing note in his handwriting. Petra has never consciously realised that Grandpa Jim (as he was to her) had been to France so the revelation spurs her on against all odds, an unscrupulous competitor and academic pressure. Gradually the search reveals a romance and notorious scandal; the sort of scandal would lead a man to regret it for the rest of his life. Meanwhile in 1909, Guillaume du Frere moves to France from the provinces in order to escape poverty and changes his life completely, although not in the way he'd expected. Full review...
