Time for a Change (by Erica James)

(Amazon UK link)

I decided to start re-reading Erica James' books in publication order, at a rate of about one a month, interspersed with some new books and some by other favourite authors. Last month I read and very much enjoyed ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’, and I have just finished a book about many of the same characters, ‘Time for a Change’, which I last read in 2008. 

The first book is mainly about Charlotte, who moves back to a village in the UK after losing her husband. This one is about her sister Hilary, who lives over the road with her husband David and two children, teenage Philip and his younger sister Becky. And the book opens just as dramatically as the first, with Hilary remembering David talking in his sleep and finding an incriminating restaurant receipt in his pocket. 

Hilary is organised, highly domesticated, and rather inclined to try to run everyone’s lives. So she doesn’t cope at all well with the discovery that David appears to be having an affair with his secretary. And although I have read this book twice before, I could not recall at the start, or even through most of the book whether Hilary’s conviction is correct, or whether she’s made a mistake. 

Meanwhile Charlotte has agreed to marry her lodger, Alex. The other couple in the street, Cindy and Derek, are transforming their ‘In the Pink’ beauty salon into a place running courses to help people’s moods, to unwind them and give them peace. Cindy is rather cynical, and not sure where she is going to fit in, but Derek is going around like a changed character. Their teenage daughter Tiffany is growing up a little too, and her parents are beginning to appreciate her more. 

Iris Braithwaite, the elderly, astringent and outspoken lady who lives on her own, takes a bigger part in this book too. She starts a campaign against the newsagent who has started to sell what she considers to be smutty lingerie…

So there are several storylines going on, but the people are distinct enough that I had no trouble recalling who was whom. Possibly that was easier having re-read ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ only a month ago, but this book stands alone; it’s not necessary to have read the other one first. 

The writing isn’t as mature as some of Erica James’ later books, and a few of the people seem a bit caricatured. In part that’s because there are a lot of viewpoint changes in each scene. It didn’t jar as it does in some books,, but it meant it was hard to relate to anyone in any depth. I couldn’t really empathise with Hilary - her actions and the way she was talking didn’t seem to fit with her character. And I couldn’t see why her daughter Becky is considered a terror when, most of the time, she’s just a normal, lively child. 

However, I did like the growing humanness of Mrs Braithwaite, and several friendships that develop in the course of the story. Hilary and Charlotte’s father is an extremely likeable man, and it would have been nice to see more of him. And I enjoyed the changed but sometimes confused Derek. It was good to read about Alex and Charlotte’s relationship, which blossoms in the earlier book, and there’s an interesting new man, Nick, who works in Derek and Cindy’s new business. 

I thought it a good story overall, with plenty of subplots to keep the action moving. Definitely worth reading if you liked ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ and wondered what happened to some of the people. Or if you come across this book and would like some gentle women’s fiction with a mixture of memorable people and some interesting storylines. 

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews