Finding Hannah by Fiona McCallum told the story of a women devastated by a car accident killing her husband and both of her parents. Young, not long married and still madly in love with Tristan, and close to her mum and dad, the year following their deaths was overwhelming and incomprehensive for Hannah. Making Peace Read More …
You Belong Here is the debut novel for Laurie Steed. It deals with a dysfunctional family, where the man leaves his wife and children, who are respectively bitter and angry, growing up with misguided ideas about relationships and love. A tragedy causes further impact for one of the boys, and he spirals further into despair. Read More …
I didn’t think Allayne Webster could top her last book, A Cardboard Palace, for middle grade readers, but then I read her latest. The Centre of My Everything is for older young adults, and it initially left me at a loss for words, and I had to sit with it for a few days before Read More …
Sally Hepworth’s The Things We Keep was my book of the year for 2016. I also enjoyed her next book The Mother’s Promise so I was excited when she released another book. When I started The Family Next Door I found it a bit, well, suburban – the desire to have a daughter when you Read More …
I read and enjoyed Fiona Lowe’s previous book Daughter of Mine. When I received her latest, Birthright, I thought they sounded similar. They are both set in country towns and centred around families with secrets, who are failing to connect. But on reading I found the issues were quite different, and that Lowe had taken Read More …
Kelly Rimmer’s novel, Before I Let You Go, is one that has stayed with me long after finishing it. It features sisters Lexie and Annie who were in a loving, nurturing family which dissolved when their father died. Their mother fell into depression and young Lexie had to take over parenting responsibilities, setting up a Read More …
Rosie Waterland’s second memoir starts by saying ‘I was successful. I had overcome, damn it. … My first book ended with me finding myself, with me leaving my mental-health struggles firmly in the past with my traumatic childhood. Whatever hardship I had faced, I had beaten it’. For those of you who have read The Read More …
Sisters by Lily Tuck is called a novel on the back cover but it is more of a novella – 152 well spaced pages. This makes for a quick read if you are looking for one. The quote at the front by Christopher Nicholson says “First and second wives are like sisters”. I was puzzled Read More …
Take Three Girls is written by three great writers of young adult fiction Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell and Fiona Wood. Told from the perspective of three girls in year ten at school, each author taking on one of them, giving Ady, Clem and Kate even more distinct voices and personalities than they might have if Read More …
Lynette Washington’s debut is a collection of interlinked stories all set around Plane Tree Drive. I was slightly alarmed by the extensive directory of characters at the front of the book, but I chose to ignore it as I read, and it wasn’t an issue. I was able to follow the connections, or disregard them, Read More …
