I usually like Rowan Coleman's books for quick, fluffy chick lit, but this one kind of slogged for me. It was almost exactly halfway through the book before any of the characters realized they were living in the same town again and spoke to each other. It felt simultaneously like it had taken for...
The last 3 or 4 pages of this book had me grinning like crazy! The author really held everything right up until the end and then just let it all come out. This book was adorably cute. I loved Natalie and how she was a strong and independent woman, but still felt vulnerable and insecure all at the...
This was such a wonderful story to read emotional in parts whilst uplifting too. I found myself getting emotional and needing the tissues to hand in parts so be warned!The story is about a lady called Claire who suffers with Alzheimer’s disease which not only addresses the issue and the characte...
Wanted to like this more than I actually did. Interesting story of 3 generations of women, the middle generation - Claire, suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. We piece together her story from her narrative as well as daughter and mother. The family relationships are handled very deftly and wi...
I saw this book in Tesco and thought it looked good but didn't buy it for whatever reason. When I went back a few weeks later it had gone! After finally getting it sent to me on Amazon, I took it as my holiday reading as I was looking forward to reading it.I really enjoyed the huge chunk I read...
I should make a group of books, the category "Hallie Chose For Me". This is another book that Hallie pulled off the shelf while I was looking for something else and said, "Here's a book for ya Mommy." I gave it a glance, gave it my usual once over to make sure it met all my pre-reading of a com...
Reminiscent of characters in the “Shopaholic” series, Rowan Coleman’s “Mommy by Mistake” follows the adventures of a thirty-something woman as she embarks on child rearing – unexpectedly.When Natalie Curzon impulsively connects with a charming man – Jack Newhouse – and agrees to a weekend in Veni...
I first read The Accidental Mother a few months ago but I managed to find The Accidental Family, which is the sequel, a few days ago and so decided to read The Accidental Mother again. I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time around.The story is a unique one, a woman, Sophie, who made a ...
An original and hugely enjoyable novel about the complex emotions of separation, coming to terms with the loss, and finding that life doesn’t have to end with a broken affair -- it is only the beginning.
A day in the life of Sam, a single mother whose friends have set her up with a blind date. As she prepares for the date, Sam looks back on her life so far: an, ultimately, upbeat, funny look at life and what it throws our way.
They have been best friends since school. Their teenage years were spent drinking too much wine in the park, making wrong choices with men and thinking tomorrow was too far off to worry about. Eleven riotous years later, Jenny realizes that nothing much has changed. Here she is, still hung-over a...
Child soap-star Ruby Parker discovers fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! Ruby Parker has been acting in the glamorous soap, Kensington Heights, for most of her life. She is stunned when she overhears the script writers discussing whether to kill her character off, or to replace Ruby with a m...
Ruby's mother is now going out with Hollywood superstar Jeremy Fort! And when he invites her and Ruby to stay at his mansion over Christmas, Ruby is over the moon. This could be the chance of a lifetime for her acting career. Could her dreams come true in Hollywood?
It’s the first time I’ve seen him in full light. The chase must have taxed him; his face is waxy with sweat, his dark hair turned wavy with damp. He has a sort of sweet softness to him – the polar opposite of Vincent’s rugged good looks. He has a face that has read a lot of books. There was nothi...
on Saturday, sipping chamomile tea in the dark, wondering if she needed to do something practical in her new capacity as landlady, perhaps draw up a bathroom schedule or something that made her look as if she were capable and in charge of this house that was newly brimming with strangers, but she...
Moments that are impossible to turn back from—that, if you aren’t very careful, can shape the rest of your life. Willow Briars knew this better than anyone.Which was why she was trying rather hard not to murder Lucy Palmer.Many words and phrases have been used to describe thirty-nine-year-old Wil...
We’re all fine.” There was nothing else, not a hint that he missed her, that he was worried about her, or that he even wanted to talk to her. Sophie’s thumb hovered over the Call button for a long moment, but she resisted the urge to call him.She spent the rest of Sunday in bed, or in her pajamas...
Rose smiled as she watched Maddie, as happy as she had ever seen her, her thick hair flying behind her, her feet barely touching the ground in her hurry to be the first to announce that they were home. Taking some of their luggage out of the boot, Rose paused for a second, allowing herself a mome...
When I auditioned for The Lost Treasure of King Arthur it hadn’t been glamorous at all, at least not the first time. We all had to wait in a grubby corridor above a shop in Soho and then troop one by one into a whitewashed dance studio where a panel of people who I thought were utterly terrifying...
It’s hard to know why we are doing this. I mean, I know the practical reasons, and I even know the emotional reasons, I suppose. Yet still, even knowing all of that, it’s hard to feel that it makes sense to go and turn my life, and Paul’s and his family’s life, upside down. And for what? We know ...
Dad said to me as we sat on the tube train on the way to the competition. “I never thought I’d be taking you to another audition so soon.” “It’s not an audition,” I said. “It’s a competition. I haven’t changed my mind. I want the school choir to do well. They’ve – we’ve – all really tried hard.” ...
Anne-Marie and I grabbed it out of their hands and read it out loud. “Parental consent forms?” Anne-Marie made a face. “Will you be able to sign those for me, Mrs Parker? I don’t need an actual parent to sign them, do I?” “Well, your mum has agreed for me to look after you while we are here, so I...
Catherine asked Jimmy again as he stood at the door with the girls. “Of course I don’t mind,” Jimmy said. “Why would I mind taking my own daughters to school? I’ve done it loads of times before.” “I just feel so …” Catherine looked at her two girls kicking at pebbles in the front garden, Leila wi...
It’s the photo Claire gave me on the day she told me we were having a baby, and until now I’ve always kept it in my wallet. We hadn’t been together for very long when Esther was conceived – less than a year. But I already knew that I loved Claire more than I’d ever expected to love anyone. Even t...
‘Please, Shona, stay a bit longer.’ ‘I can’t, babe,’ Shona said, with a regretful smile. ‘It’s been over a week, Mum’s fed up with the boys and anyway, I miss them! I need to go home, get my life sorted the way you are.’ Rose wasn’t at all sure she was getting her life sorted in any sense of the ...
Camille stood beside her and together in the mirror they looked like the yin and yang bridesmaids, or maybe Superbridesmaid and her not quite evil twin. ‘I know,’ Camille said with a self-approving glance. ‘Say what you like about the stuck up old bag, she’s got great taste,’ she said with a gigg...
Anne-Marie said as we walked back in from netball practice the next day, dogged by Menakshi Shah and Jade Caruso, who had been compulsively teasing me since news got round about my terrible audition. “What do you know anyway?” Anne-Marie snapped at them. “Neither of you two were even good enough ...
It was bound to be bad because Mum made chicken risotto, and she only ever makes that when we have guests or if I’m sick or something, because it takes her hours and she has to stir it until her wrists go funny. I sat at the table and watched her stir and stir, her face tipped down into the steam...