When She Was Ours by Anna Nordberg

                                                        

Ebook:  308 pages                                                                         

Genre:  Adult Fiction, Contemporary Fiction

Publisher:  Lake Union, August 2026, 

Source:  NetGalley

First Sentence: When Astra was nine and travelling with her mother to Chicago, the passenger in front of them had a panic attack.

Review Quote: “This isn’t a book that demands your attention with dramatic twists; it earns it through emotional honesty.” — Manhattan Book Review

My Opinion:

Not sure now to be honest why I decided to read 'When She Was Ours', probably should not have done so as it was not for me.

A complicated story about a family that are navigating grief. Thea the mother is terminally ill and coming to terms with her imminent death. We learn how her adult daughters Astra and Phoebe cope, or rather don't as the plot lurches from one chaotic moment to the next.

A character driven novel about relationships and one that I believe the author wanted to write due to her own life experience. She certainly writes from the heart with regard to the death of a parent. 

This certainly seems to appeal to many readers, judging by the reviews, unfortunately not to me.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

 

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

Thea Erickson, a renowned surgeon, is filled with both joy and grief as her family gathers at their home on a summer night in 1995. Her elder daughter Phoebe is getting married, but even the happiness of the day feels bittersweet, as Thea grapples with a terminal cancer diagnosis. She worries she won’t be around to support her younger daughter Astra, who’s still in college, but even Thea cannot foresee what is to come—a terrible accident the night of the wedding that changes Astra’s life forever.

In a last-ditch effort to protect her family, Thea arranges a secret meeting with an old family friend and extracts a promise that will reverberate long after she’s gone.

Years after her mother’s death, Astra has moved forward with a career and relationship, but she still struggles with her grief. When a man reaches out to her and Phoebe, offering a window into their mother’s past, Astra must make a choice, and her decision forces her to face what it means to love someone after they’re gone, who we decide to forgive, and how families reckon with the past.

Author Profile:

                                                           

                                                Photo and Bio Courtesy of Goodreads

Anna Nordberg is an author, journalist and culture writer whose essays have appeared in Slate magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She spent a lot of her childhood writing novels with a number 2 pencil on yellow legal pads. She actually still has these novels. 

In 2015, she started writing a memoir about becoming a mother without her mom, who died when Anna was 17. This memoir never found a home, but its themes—how loss unfolds throughout a life, how we carry the memory of someone forward, the surprising legacy of grief—are all themes in Anna's debut novel, When She Was Ours, out August 1.

Anna grew up in New York City and now lives in San Francisco with her husband, son and daughter, and English cocker spaniel, Guinness (who also loves books). She loves muddling through middle school with her kids, trying to remember what the formula for the circumference of a circle is, and rereading books like Tuck Everlasting and A Wrinkle in Time. Favorite books she has read to her kids: The Hobbit, The Dark is Rising, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Bridge to Terabithia. 

It was always her dream to write a novel after watching her mother write one on an ancient Apple IIC when Anna was eight years old. When She Was Ours is dedicated to her.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Goodreads Profile.    Author's Official Website.    Amazon Author Page

The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes

                                                       

Hardback: 372 pages                                                                         

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Publisher:  Phoenix 2024

Source:  Tywyn Library

First Sentences: First, the canvas. Not one, but many. Great oblongs carried in and out, wrapped carefully in shrouds.

Review Quote: 'Convincing, engaging, transporting' GUARDIAN

My Opinion:

Emily Howes was a new to me author when I recently read her second novel Mrs Dickens and decided I should definitely be reading her debut novel. 

'The Painter's Daughters' is centred around Gainsborough's life in Bath, where he moves to enable the family, he hopes to have a decent standard of living.  The main protagonists of this story are his two daughters, who though so very different in character are devoted to each other.  Their mother's complicated past is also revealed to the reader as a secondary storyline. This helps one to understand the personal difficulties the family faced in private behind the public facade.

An engaging but sad insight into the life of the 18C artist Thomas Gainsborough's daughters. Recommended to readers that enjoy historical fiction, especially if it is based on fact.  

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

A story of love, madness, sisterly devotion, and control, about the two beloved daughters of renowned 1700s English painter Thomas Gainsborough, who struggle to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits.

Peggy and Molly Gainsborough—the daughters of one of England’s most famous portrait artists of the 1700s and the frequent subject of his work—are best friends. They spy on their father as he paints, rankle their mother as she manages the household, and run barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are from a young age, Molly periodically experiences bouts of mental confusion, even forgetting who she is, and Peggy instinctively knows she must help cover up her sister’s condition.

When the family moves to Bath, it’s not so easy to hide Molly’s slip-ups. There, the sisters are thrown into the whirlwind of polite society, where the codes of behavior are crystal clear. Molly dreams of a normal life but slides deeper and more publicly into her delusions. By now, Peggy knows the shadow of an asylum looms for women like Molly, and she goes to greater lengths to protect her sister’s secret.

But when Peggy unexpectedly falls in love with her father’s friend, the charming composer Johann Fischer, the sisters’ precarious situation is thrown catastrophically off course. Her burgeoning love for Johann sparks the bitterest of betrayals, forcing Peggy to question all she has done for Molly, and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.

A tense and tender examination of the blurred lines between protection and control, The Painter’s Daughters is a searing portrait of the real girls behind the canvas. Emily Howes’s debut is a stunning exploration of devotion, control, and individuality; it is a love song to sisterhood, to the many hues of life, and to being looked at but never really seen.

Previous Review: Mrs Dickens 

Author Profile:

                                                      

                                                Photo and Bio Courtesy of Amazon

Emily Howes was born in Essex in 1981. 

She has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, writer, performer and director in stage, television and radio. In addition to writing fiction, she holds an MA in Existential Psychotherapy, and works as a psychotherapist in private practice. She lives with her two children, her two cats and her dog in East London.

THE PAINTER'S DAUGHTERS, her debut novel, won the 2021 Mslexia Novel Competition, judged by Hilary Mantel, Jo Unwin and Marianne Tatepo. It is the relatively unknown story of Peggy and Molly Gainsborough, and their mutual struggle with insanity. 

Her second novel, MRS DICKENS, is about Catherine, wife of Charles, who had ten children, climbed Vesuvius, and wrote a cookbook. 

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Amazon Profile.      Goodreads Profile

The Pool Party by Rebecca Bainbridge

                                                 

Ebook:   343 pages                                                                         

Genre:  Thriller, Domestic Drama, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Thriller,

Publisher:  Quercus Books, July 2026, 

Source:  NetGalley

First Sentence: From the moment Kate realised the commotion in the room was not the crowd simply revelling in the party, it was as though someone had slipped their foot onto the accelerator pedal.

Review Quote: A pacy and sharply observed thriller about the precariousness of 'school gate' friendships and the lengths we'll go to to protect our externally perfect veneers. Fans of Liane Moriarty will want to dive right in! — Lizzy Barber

My Opinion:

A debut novel that I chose to read as it sounded like it had the potential to be an entertaining domestic thriller.

The novel revolves around the friendship of the female protagonists Kate and Melody as they navigate their seemingly perfect life styles. As the new friends get to know each other tensions mount as everyone around them, including themselves seem to be hiding secrets. The two women are both vulnerable in different ways to the dramas unfolding in their respective lives.

Rather slow in parts and did not for me deliver the pace I expect from a thriller. Nevertheless  a readable character driven story if you are looking for an easy read.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read and review.

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

One summer's day. Two families. Countless secrets . . .

Kate is new to the idyllic village of Fletching. She's determined this move will be a fresh start for her family, though she misses her old life.

Melody has it she's as beautiful as her house, with a wealthy husband and two beloved children. But she'd love a friend she can rely on.

From the year's first school run, Kate and Melody grow close - a friendship formed during playdates and shared glasses of wine.

But when Melody's annual summer party turns into every parent's worst nightmare, a near-fatal accident threatens to expose secrets both women have kept beneath the surface.

Who is really to blame? And what have they been hiding?

Author Profile:

                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

        Photo and Bio Courtesy of Amazon

Rebecca Bainbridge is a new and exciting voice in the domestic suspense genre. For readers of Liane Moriarty, Lucy Foley and Lisa Jewell, and lovers of character-driven family drama, Rebecca is a debut author whose experience as a global brand and marketing professional provides her with an insight into gaining and retaining attention, and the very best storytelling.

Rebecca has led projects for organisations including Procter & Gamble, Warner Brothers, the BBC and Unilever. Having lived in Switzerland, France and Italy, she is passionate about languages, travel and culture, and is settled in the UK.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Goodreads Author Profile.       Amazon Author Page.    Facebook Author Page.   

 Instagram Profile

Venus Vanishing by Rebecca Birrell

                                                             

Ebook:  377 pages                                                                         

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Lesbian, Art History,

Publisher:  Picador, July 2026, 

Source:  NetGalley

First Sentence: Mother, I write to you from another life.

Review Quote: A deeply felt debut -- Chloe Ashby, The Art Newspaper

My Opinion:

'Venus Vanishing' is the debut novel from Rebecca. As she is known for her work in feminist and unorthodox art history, it is no surprise that her inspiration came from these interests.

The characters Kurt and Elke Grese draw the young Jewish protagonist Hannah Sherman into their lives, without Hannah in her innocence realising that she was being used. Although the main characters are fictional the author has woven their stories into real life in pre WWII Berlin, when many peoples lives were ruined by the rise of the German Reich.

A fascinating read with an obviously well researched art element. The author's historical notes make this clear and they are well worth reading at the end of the novel.  Recommended to fans of historical fiction and art history.

With thanks to NetGalley, Picador and the author for the opportunity to read and review.

Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

Venus, Vanishing is the blisteringly passionate and page-turning debut novel from Rebecca Birrell, of desire, art, and the stories lost to the darkness of history – for readers of Sarah Waters, Yael van der Wouden, and Alice Winn.

Berlin, 1928. Hannah is new to the pleasures and freedoms of the city. An artist, a runaway, she is building a new life, loving without boundaries and sketching with a cutting edge.

But the party is ending. Hannah begins a recklessly consuming affair with a powerful man’s wife and it soon threatens to do more than ruin both of their reputations. People are disappearing. The shadows of something unspeakable are growing darker. Her art could be the thing that secures her survival – or will deny her any chance

Author Profile:

                                                   

                                                                                                                                         

                                                Photo and Bio Courtesy of  Goodreads

Rebecca Birrell grew up in Southport, and currently lives in Cambridge. She studied English Literature at UCL, followed by Women’s Studies at the University of Oxford. She has occupied curatorial positions at the Jewish Museum London, the Department of Prints and Drawing at the British Museum and at the Charleston Trust. In 2018 she undertook a fellowship at the Yale Centre for British Art. She recently completed her PhD at the Edinburgh College of Art. For the next year she will be Assistant Keeper of Paintings, Prints and Drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:

Goodreads Author Profile.    Rebecca Birrell on Amazon