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Family life & relationships

September 2010

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Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

You don't have to be good / by Sabrina Broadbent.
"Bea is in her late forties, has a dead-end job with the Council in Cambridge, and is married to Frank, a feckless would-be writer with extra-mural distractions. Bea's successful sister, Katharine, the one who always worked hard, is a consultant paediatrician with two children whom Bea has minded off-and-on since they were small. One morning Bea simply disappears. Her work mates are concerned when the normally reliable Bea doesn't turn up; her husband is suspected of foul play; her uptight sister becomes increasingly emotional and starts to unravel. Only the kids seem quietly, genuinely upset. The police dig up Frank's patio; Katharine finds she can't really function without the sister she's taken for granted; the children, more practically, check websites. Bea, it emerges, has history which her nearest and dearest know little about, and things don't turn out quite as they might have liked or expected." (Amazon)

Whatever you love / by Louise Doughty.
"Two police officers knock on Laura's door and her life changes forever. They tell her that her nine-year old daughter Betty has been hit by a car and killed. When justice is slow to arrive, Laura decides to take her own revenge and begins to track down the man responsible. Laura's grief also re-opens old wounds and she is thrown back to the story of her passionate love affair with Betty's father David, their marriage and his subsequent affair with another woman. Haunted by her past, and driven to breaking point by her desire for retribution, Laura discovers the lengths she is willing to go to for love." (Amazon)

Jubilee / Eliza Graham.
"It's the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, and Rachel and her aunt Evie are celebrating with the crowds on the village green. The scene is tranquil, but Rachel and her aunt can never forget what happened exactly twenty-five years ago. On that day, Evie’s young daughter Jessamy vanished. She hasn’t been seen since. Soon after, news comes of Evie’s sudden death, and Rachel must return to the village to deal with her aunt’s estate. The extraordinary story she uncovers there will change everything." (Amazon)

Backseat saints / Joshilyn Jackson.
"After a gypsy predicts that Rose's violent husband will kill her, Rose grabs a gun and her dog Gretel and sets out on a cross-country escape, following messages that her missing mother has left hidden for her in graffiti and behind paintings. Running for her life, she realizes that she must face her past in order to overcome her fate, death by marriage and become a girl who is strong enough to save herself from the one who loves her best." (Book cover)

Family ties : a novel / Danielle Steel.
"Annie Ferguson was one of Manhattan's brightest young architects. But overnight she became mother to her sister's three orphaned children. It wasn't the life she'd planned, but one that rewarded her tenfold for every sacrifice she'd had to make. Now, at forty-two, with a satisfying career and a fulfilling family life, Annie has reconciled herself to being single. With the children now grown into young adults and confronting major challenges of their own, she is navigating a parent's difficult passage between lending them a hand and letting them go. Then, an accident leads Annie to a man who will tempt her to reconsider her belief that it isn't too late to fall in love, after all." (Amazon)

Heart of the matter / Emily Giffin.
"Following a tragic accident, two women, Tessa Russo, wife of a renowned paediatric surgeon, and Valerie Anderson, an attorney and single mother, living in the same Boston suburb but with relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children converge in ways no one could have imagined." (Book cover)

The love verb / Jane Green.
"For Callie, love is about looking after her family, her husband and two children and their beautiful home. For Steff, Callie’s younger sister, love is about experiencing all that life has to offer without having to ever settle down. For Lila, Callie’s best friend, love is about finding a soul mate and when she meets divorced father-of-two Eddie, she knows her search is over. For Walter and Honor, Callie and Steff’s divorced parents, love is about caring for the daughters they share. When Callie gets some life-changing news, suddenly the whole family is about to understand what ‘love' really, really means." (Amazon)

Speak to me / Sarah Hopkins.
"This is the story of a troubled daughter who cannot talk to her mother, a mother who does not know how to listen, a father who listens but cannot see, and a son who will only talk to God. Over the course of one week, events will threaten to tear this family apart, but also bring them from the brink of darkness towards a kind of redemption." (Book cover)

I think I love you / Allison Pearson.
"In the 1970’s South Wales, very close friends, Petra and Sharon, just live for singer David Cassidy. His fan magazine is the girls’ Bible and they memorise every word that he sings and writes, in the hope of becoming the future Mrs Cassidy. But unbeknownst to Petra and to millions of other hopefuls, David’s letters may not be all his own work. The secret lies with Bill Finn, English graduate turned reluctant pop journalist, whose job it is to compile the Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz. Top prize: the trip of a lifetime, to meet your one and only love. Over two decades later, bruised by grief, Petra is living with her thirteen-year-old daughter, who has her own teen crush. By sheer chance Petra discovers that the questions which obsessed her back in 1974 are suddenly very much alive. And Bill, successful in business but never in love, has some confessions of his own." (Amazon)

Men of bad character / Kathleen Stewart.
"When Rose's eighteen-year relationship ends in the most shocking and unexpected way, she emerges from years of what she thought was a loving relationship and realises the extent to which she was being emotionally manipulated and controlled. While trying to pick up the threads of her shattered life, she meets a charming and elusive new man. He offers hope and possibilities for the future, but as Rose is drawn further into the labyrinth that is Gary's life, she starts to wonder if he is the man she thought he was." (Book cover)

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