I love a book that explores family in all it’s depths and heights. This is my second post looking at family in books, I did one back in August 2019, but with different books.These were all 4.5 to 5 stars for me and would love to reread them all.
At present I am reading and really enjoying this first one at the moment. Almost finished. The heroine lost her mother when she was very young and was brought up by a very ungracious aunt. Her heart is hungry for family. Jack is the Dad of two girls who lost their mother a year ago. One of the girls takes to Flora but Izzy, the other daughter, has huge issues and there is tension. The author’s intention I would hazard a guess at is to model really good openness and discussion within relationships.
This one explores what happens when a young aunt takes on the care of two nieces while there Dad is in a submarine and their mother is missing. And within the book there is mystery, shocks and an absorbing family story.
A single mother and her son and three children wo have been abandoned by their mother and their father is a wreck. Can a new blended family form?
For the Guinness family a happy ending looks out of reach. Olly and Mae’s marriage is crumbling, their teenage daughter Evie is on a mission to self-destruct and their beloved Pops is dying of cancer. Their once strong family unit is slowly falling apart. Yes that is the opening and it sure just is a wonderful journey of family.
It is complicated family relationships at its best. It made me waver back and forth about all the characters – did I like them, did I agree with them, could I accept them for all their flaws? Final verdict is that I did hold them in my heart – wept at times and smiled at times. Cheered them on.
This series started out in the 1980’s and they were in our shops and so accessible to me. I read them all except for the last one which didn’t seem to be that successful. I don’t have this book any longer but three of the later ones I do.
I read a number of books by this author, not sure how I came to find out about them. Usually romance and mystery with a Catholic/religious flavour. Haven’t read one for years, should try one to see how I go with them these days.
We watch the unlikely friendship of a ninety two year old woman – Mrs G, and Raymond a seventeen year old, develop. And its a meaty friendship – genuine and full of caring. I loved both these characters and how they related to each other. Mrs G is blind, she has lived a full life and has a lot of wisdom. But she is in need of help big time. Raymond is a lonely seventeen year old – one who feels he has never been “seen” or understood. Mrs G really sees him! Loved this relationship.
In One Summer in Paris we see the friendship between Grace – in her forties and a teen Audrey. Grace has come to Paris to escape the fact her husband has left her for a “new version” about the same age as their daughter! Audrey has come to escape the alcoholism disease that her mother has. Due to various circumstances they form a great friendship that helps both of them move forwards in their lives. Loved the two of them, loved the book.
The beautiful friendship that develops between Arthur and Maddy. An old man who visits his wife at the cemetery every day, and Maddy an eighteen year old teen who really is very alone.
I’ve mentioned this book before in terms of an author I now want to read everything he writes. But here I want to mention the theme of friendship where it makes a huge difference in some lives. It’s between an old woman and a young child and the old woman and the little girls parents. I really loved seeing how it all developed.
This was already on my TBR. Yes its another WW2 book. But I’ve already read a brief short story of this woman who was a spy in France. She was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia. So that’s all the read on I need.
This is another historical fiction book. It’s set in England just after WW2. A group of disparate people come together to save Jane Austen’s home and legacy. Sounds interesting.
A romance writer who no longer believes in love. And a literary writer who happily kill of his cast. Hmm they meet and what happens next?
