Showing posts with label Contemporary Womens Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Contemporary Womens Fiction. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Secrets of a Happy Marriage by Cathy Kelly




Hardback:  426 pages                                                                                              
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Orion Books 2016
Source: St Cadfan's Church Fund Raising Sale - Tywyn
First Sentences: Prologue: In the San Francisco February dawn, Faenia Lennox sat at an off-white chalk-painted desk facing the Bay with its familiar and beloved fog visible beyond the Japanese maples in her garden and typed at speed, the same speed she'd learned from Mrs Farmsworth's classes in New York all those years ago. Over forty years ago, in fact.
Review Quote:  An uplifting story of warm, larger-than life characters. Comforting and feel good, the perfect treat read. (Good Housekeeping)
Favourite Quote: Secrets of a Happy Marriage #7 Never underestimate kindness. Being kind to the person you love is worth more than  hundred gifts. Kindness makes us feel love, supported and appreciated.
My Opinion: Cathy Kelly is an author I have read in the past but not since 2006. When I saw this brand new hardback for sale at a bargain price at a church fund raising event a few months ago I purchased as it looked like a read for lazy summer days.  Just finished reading, it was perfect for taking my mind off the weather, where has the sunshine gone?
A heartwarming story in Cathy Kelly's style of Irish storytelling about modern life. The dynamics of the relationships from the protagonists Bess and Edward, the older couple that have found love in later life to the rest of the characters within the extended family circle, are written about in a realistic way. The themes of friendship, marriage, trust, bereavement, infertility and depression are all topics covered that will not be unfamiliar to many readers.
I also liked the anecdotal chapter headings, all about marriage, a compassionate addition to the novel. Recommended to fans of Irish women's fiction, contemporary fiction and Cathy Kelly, an overall easy read.



Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:

Any family knows that a special birthday party is the perfect chance to come together, but for the Brannigan clan it's about more than just raising a glass . . .

Bess is hoping to show everyone just how happy her recent marriage is, but behind all the party-planning the cracks are beginning to show. Why is joining a family so difficult?

Jojo, Bess's stepdaughter, has a point to make. Bess is not her mother, and she won't replace the one she's been missing every day for the last two years. And will she ever get the chance to become a mum herself?

Cousin Cari is a fierce career-woman who isn't unnerved by anything - apart from facing the man who left her at the alter, and he's on the guestlist. Her job has been a safe place to hide ever since - but is it time to let love into her life again?

Thanks to laughter, tears and one surprise appearance, the Brannigans might just discover the secrets of a happy marriage . . . But will they find out before it's too late?



Author Profile:





Cathy Kelly was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on September 12th 1966. A former Irish journalist she has been writing women's fiction since 1997, since when she has gained international recognition.

Published around the world, with millions of books in print. Cathy is the bestselling author of The Honey Queen, Once in a Lifetime and Between Sisters, and is a No.1 bestseller in the UK, Ireland and Australia. Her trademark is warm and witty Irish storytelling about modern life, always with an uplifting message, a sense of community and strong female characters at the heart.
She lives with her family and their three dogs in County Wicklow, Ireland. She is also an Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland, raising funds and awareness for children orphaned by or living with HIV/AIDS.


Photographs and biographical information courtesy of the following sites.

Amazon Author Page - Cathy Kelly     Wikipedia - Cathy Kelly       Author's Official Website

Cathy Kelly Books - Facebook     Twitter - Cathy Kelly

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Ten Minutes to Fall in Love by Julia Llewellyn

  
Paperback :  389 pages 
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Fiction 
Publisher: Penguin 2012
Source: Tywyn Public Library 
First Sentences: 'Zulekha Forbes opened her curtains and peered out on to the back garden. For the first time since she'd returned to England it wasn't raining and the sun shone clear and strong through the window of her old attic bedroom where she'd hoped to never sleep again.'

Review Quote: 'Engaging and entertaining' Evening Standard
My Opinion:
 I was expecting something more romantic than the trials and tribulations of the protagonists family life. 

This was an easy read and although it is the first one I have read by this author I did not enjoy it enough to be adding her back catalogue to my wishlist. Sorry it was just not satisfying enough for me, although the idea that love can be found in just a few minutes if you meet your soul mate was an interesting theme,  the content did not really live up to the title for me. Maybe I just interpreted the blurb incorrectly, but I was expecting something more romantic than the trials and tribulations of the protagonists family life. 

Zu Forbes is back in London with her father and brothers after spending time travelling to try and sort out the emotional baggage she has carried around for years. In fact since her alcoholic mother first made her teen years a misery she has been a very mixed up young lady unable to make commitments in her life. She needs to sort her life out and come to terms with her past if she is ever to find happiness for herself, her father and brothers. These are issues she needs to deal with if she is ever going to be able to travel again without feeling guilty about how lonely her father is. Her problems may be partially solved when she unexpectedly finds herself working for a dating agency, with an opportunity to sort out her Dad's love life. This would of course leave her free to run away from her own demons with a clear conscience. However it is no surprise that nothing goes according to plan and there are some witty and comic scenes involving trips to the Ukraine, drug abuse and dominatrices!
There is enough going on in this novel to make it worth picking up and reading if it is a light easy read with some humour that you are looking for. 

This might be the first time I have read a book by this author but it is in fact the sixth that she has had published, for those of you that might be interested I have included links to all her novels on Amazon.

The Love Trainer (2004)
If I Were You (2006)
Amy's Honeymoon (2007)
The Model Wife (2008)
Love Nest (2010)
Ten Minutes to Fall in Love (2012)

Author Profile




As Julia Llewellyn Smith she writes regularly for The Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Times and many other publications, having been a journalist for nearly twenty years. Julia lives in London with her family and considers that patience, humility and a sense of curiosity about the world around you are essential attributes for a writer. 

The biographical information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites, where you can also find more information about the author and her writing. 

Julia Llewellyn - Author Interview    Penguin Books - Author Interview   Julia Llewellyn Books - Lovereading

Julia Llewellyn Books - Amazon   Twitter - Julia Llewellyn

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Sun at Midnight by Rosie Thomas





Paperback488 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction
Publisher: Harper Collins 2005
Source: Oxfam Charity Bookshop
First Sentences: The wind blew straight off the frozen bay. It was thickened with sleet but the man working on the skelton roof didn't seem to notice the cold, or the way the flecks of ice drove into his eyes.
Review Quote:   'The majesty and hostility of the landscape leap off the page.' Daily Mail
My Opinion: A rare glimpse of an amazing world.



Rosie Thomas is not only an author but a keen traveller and mountaineer which has provided her with excellent and well researched material for her novels. To research the Antarctic background for Sun at Midnight Rosie spent a month living with the scientists on a Bulgarian research station on Livingstone Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula.
I am a long time fan of her writing although I still have to catch up with her most recent novels. With Sun at Midnight I was immediately engrossed in this adventure and love story that is set in Antarctica and gave me a rare glimpse of an amazing world. The author's personal research pays off as it shows in her writing as I really felt transported to the location from page one. In fact to quote from her website ' she believes that her travelling and writing are interdependent, and that one informs and enables the other.'
Having raved over the atmospheric setting of the novel I had better give you a brief outline of the story without spoilers of course. The theme is a familiar one for Rosie Thomas that of love and loss but it works as it is the stronger background settings that for me personally make her novels so readable. 

The female protagonist is Alice Peel a geologist and daughter of a famous scientist who had worked in Antartica. It is due to her mothers failing health that Alice is herself given the opportunity to take part in a research programme herself.  In sharp contrast to her normal life in Oxford she finds herself on-board a ship in a desolate landscape about to enter the realm of the unknown and unpredictable. Nothing has prepared Alice for the stark beauty of this place or for the realities of living in close confinement with a small group of people, just one other woman besides herself. It is with James Rooker, a man on the run his entire life and another member of the expedition, that she finds she has a spark with, like she has never felt with anyone before. The characters are all realistic with well portrayed personalities. As the claustrophobic tension builds amongst the people living and working together in this isolated research station, it is the present moment and survival that matters most. Their behaviour and reactions to the environment and situations they find themselves in may be a little implausible, it is their personal reactions that are more believable. Alice discovers something about herself in Antarctica that may change her life for ever if she survives the experience. Whilst saying that the human reactions were more believable, it does not mean you will necessarily agree with them, but I think you will understand them.

I recommend Rosie Thomas  to women  that are looking for more than romance in their reading. She is a writer whose style of writing is now appealing to a new generation of young women as well as those of us that have been reading her novels since the early eighties.

Other reviews of titles by Rosie Thomas to be found on LindyLouMac's Book Reviews
White (Audio Book Version)       Follies

Author Profile
Courtesy of Facebook
Rosie Thomas is the pen name of Janey King, née Morris, born 1947 in Denbigh, Wales she grew up there before becoming a boarder  at Howell’s School. The school had a strong tradition of music and games, but unfortunately Rosie had no aptitude for hockey and no enthusiasm for Gilbert and Sullivan choruses. She found the library instead, immersing  herself in books was the ideal apprenticeship for a writer.

Rosie read English at St Hilda’s College Oxford, and for the first time in her life felt that she was in the right place at the right time.  She worked in women's magazines and publishing until she and her husband had a family, it was after the birth of her son that she started to write a book and her first one was published in 1982, just after the birth of her daughter. She has been writing full time ever since, and that first novel has been followed by a score of others.
Rosie lives and writes in London, but she is also a keen traveller, mountaineer and skier. Among many adventures she has climbed in the Alps and the Himalayas, trekked in Pakistan, Ladakh and Bhutan, followed the Silk Route through Asia, worked on a research station in Antarctica, sailed the Atlantic, explored in Chile, and competed in a classic car rally from Peking to Paris. Most recently she has sailed the southern ocean from Falklands to South Georgia and then crossed the island in the footsteps of Sir Ernest Shackleton.
Photographs and biographical information courtesy of the following sites.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Unfaithfully Yours by Joanne Clancy



Ebook: Also available as paperback 190 pages
Genre: Contemporary Womens Fiction
Publisher: CreateSpace (December 13, 2011)
Source: From the author in return for an unbiased review.
First Sentence: "I'm in love with a married man," Shona Morgan sighed deeply and put her head in her hands.
My opinion: Lively easy read.

I did sort of enjoy this, it was certainly a very lively easy read, two sessions and I was finished. I felt it was very weak to start with but it improved once the author got into her flow, The story might have improved but I am sorry to say the editing didn't, there are at least a couple of times where the wrong name is used which catches the reader off guard for a moment, so watch out for those if you decide to read this. The theme of the novel as you can easily tell from the first line is one we have all seen in novels like this before, married man and his sordid adulterous relationships which turn sour.  In this case, to quote William Congreve, as the author herself does 'Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

I really did not like any of the characters, apart from the scorned wife. The male protagonist Mark McNamara is an unpleasant person, he deserves everything he gets. However I must say that I did not have much sympathy for the 'other' women in his life either. Rebecca his wife is the only character I had any sympathy for at all and I felt she was right wanting her revenge. This will no doubt stir your emotions in some way or another, a sign of a well written story.

A very quick précis then is that Rebecca's perfect marriage falls to pieces when she discovers her husbands guilty secrets. She and the other women in his life who are all angry with him for different reasons, decide that he will pay for his behaviour and if you want to find out how you will have to read it yourself. I think it is fair to warn you though that if you do not like explicit sex scenes then this is not for you! 
I have another of Joanne Clancy's novels on My Kindle and I enjoyed this one enough to say that I am now looking forward to reading and reviewing Unforgettable Embrace. Ms Clancy has more to offer as a writer I feel so it will be interesting to see how her writing develops.

                                          Book Trailer - No Spoilers.
                                          Published on 2 Apr 2012 by 


Author Profile


Joanne Clancy is from County Cork, Ireland. She is an avid reader,obsessive writer and a self-confessed Kindle addict who loves tea.
Joanne is the author of Secrets and Lies, the first book in The Secrets and Lies Trilogy, The Wedding Day, Unfaithfully Yours, Unforgettable Embrace and My Love.
She is currently working on Aftermath, the second book in The Secrets and Lies Trilogy which will be available during Autumn 2012. Redemption, the final book in the trilogy, will be released before Christmas.



Information and photo used in this post are with thanks to the following websites.

YouTube    Amazon Author Profile      Goodreads Profile        William Congreve -Wikipedia