It's four years since I was first introduced to a book by Amanda Brookfield, and I've read a few more over the years. I don't remember where I acquired this one; perhaps I picked it up second-hand from a church bookstall, or maybe someone passed it on to me. It sat on my to-be-read shelf for a while before I picked it up to read a week ago.
'Life begins' revolves around Charlotte who is approaching her 40th birthday, and not finding life at all easy. Her unhappy divorce from Martin has just been finalised, and she finds it very difficult to see him with his new partner Cindy. However, the logistics of allowing their 13-year-old son Sam to visit his father means that she can't avoid them altogether. It doesn't help that Sam having a tough time at school, no doubt related to the breakup of his parents' marriage, but is unforthcoming about what's going on. He seems to have lost most of his friends, and Charlotte is quite worried about him.
Charlotte would really like to make a new start in her life, so she puts her house on the market, and finds the house of her dreams... although it's rather beyond her budget, and looks as though it may be sold privately. While doing this she meets the estate agent Tim who seems to find her attractive, but she's not keen. Unfortunately her rather lost demeanor also attracts the attentions of her best friend's husband. Then her mother - whom she has always found difficult to get along with - has an accident...
While the plot is primarily about Charlotte and her gradual acceptance of her circumstances, there are a lot of subplots in this book, and such a big cast of people that I often found myself forgetting who was whom. It's quite a long novel (nearly 400 pages) and it took me a week to read it, just a few chapters at a time. I found it remarkably difficult to keep track of - for instance - the names of the people who own the bookshop where Charlotte works, and her various friends and their spouses. I didn't even try to keep track of her friends' numerous children.
Still, I found that I gradually warmed to the book during the week. I was quite eager to start a new chapter each evening, and began to remember at least the most significant characters. By the last couple of days, I found it quite difficult to put down. Some of the novel was predictable, including the man with whom Charlotte eventually got together, but there were a few surprises along the way which kept me turning the pages.
Each chapter begins with a brief, first person account from Charlotte's past, in italics to distinguish it from the main text. I quite liked this device and felt it helped me to get to know her better. It saved lengthy flashbacks, and allowed her past to be revealed gradually, meshing in with the present, over the course of the book.
I liked her as a person, although she seemed a bit jumpy and over-reactive, and I very much liked Sam, who had a lot of depth. I never did manage to separate the various friends in my mind, and I found the estate agent to be a very unpleasant man: charming on the surface, but rather a creep when given access to his thoughts.
While I wasn't sure that I was going to like this at first, I definitely did by the time I turned the last pages.
Recommended to anyone who likes light women's fiction that's primarily character-based. Now available for the Kindle as well as in paperback form.
Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 1st July 2012
It was three years ago that I first borrowed and read a book by Amanda Brookfield. I enjoyed it, and have acquired a few others since then, all of which I have liked. I was delighted to discover a couple more a few months ago, in a bag which a relative was about to take to her local charity shop.
In the past week I've been reading one of them, 'The lover'. It's about Frances, who was a fairly contented mother of two young adults, until her life is shattered by the sudden death of her husband. This happens shortly before the story begins; the first chapter is about his funeral, which did slightly make me roll my eyes since it's a much-used device in fiction. But it wasn't a problem; relatives and friends are introduced, and Frances comes across, right at the start, as a sympathetic character.
The first half of the book shows Frances' life as she begins to come to terms with her loss. It gives a sensitive account of her journey through grief, and the struggles she has to relate to her friends and acquaintances as a widowed woman and to work out what her role is, now she is no longer a wife. Her daughter lives in France, and her son is at university, so there are times when she feels that there is almost nothing left to live for.
Eventually she decides to make something of an effort, and then meets someone new and rather attractive... the rest of the book explores her growing awareness of herself, and various issues that arise as she embarks on a relationship that is very different from the one she had with her husband.
The writing is good, the characters realistic and believable. I found the story interesting, and the resolution satisfying, despite a few shocks along the way. As with other books by this author, there was rather more bad language than I'm comfortable with, mostly seeming quite unnecessary.
But still, I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it to anyone who likes women's literature of this nature. Not always in print, like many of Amanda Brookfield's novels, but fairly easily found second-hand. 'The Lover' is also now available in Kindle form.
Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 29th July 2011
It's only in the past year or two that I've been reading books by Amanda Brookfield. I've liked them all, in a low-key kind of way, and am always happy to find more, particularly in charity shops and thrift stores. So I was very pleased to be able to rescue one from a bag of books someone was about to take to a charity shop a few months ago.
'The Godmother' is the story of a high-flying advertising director called Rachel. She has plenty of money, some good friends, and an enjoyable social life. She has never wanted long-term commitments, so is happy to have a boyfriend/lover in another continent whom she sees from time to time, and to be the shoulder to cry on for her friends who have difficulties with their marriages or children.
Rachel has managed to acquire four godchildren over the past ten years or so. The story opens just after the christening of her youngest godchild, Leo. Rachel escapes as soon as she can, feeling almost claustrophobic in the happy family environment where she knows almost nobody, wanting to return to her structured and unencumbered life.
But gradually Rachel becomes aware of what it means that she is approaching forty. She feels that something is missing in her life, and wonders if having a baby would provide the extra love and fulfilment she thinks she wants.
Since she really doesn't want a husband, she makes some plans... and finds herself discovering that not everything can be organised in advance in the way she wants. There are ups and downs, pleasures and disappointments, and several misunderstandings before she finally realises what - or whom - it is that she wants most of all.
The book is undoubtedly of the class called 'women's fiction', but I'd class it higher than 'chick-lit'. There are some quite complex issues explored through Rachel's eyes, and some excellent characterisation. Amanda Brookfield writes well, with a good pace - not too rushed, but with plenty happening. While someone like Rachel bears little relationship to anyone I have ever met, I found her likeable and sympathetic; there were moments when I smiled, moments when I was quite moved.
All in all, very enjoyable. Unfortunately this book is now out of print, but no doubt available second-hand.
Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 11th July 2011
It was over a couple of years when I first borrowed a book by Amanda Brookfield, which I enjoyed. I picked up another at a charity shop, which I also liked, but then pretty much forgot about her. However, when I spotted another of her books available for review on The Bookbag site, I leapt at the opportunity.
'Before I knew you' (which apparently had a working title of 'The House Swap' for a while) features two couples who agree to swap homes for the summer. They don't know each other but have a mutual friend. Sophie and Andrew are teachers who live in London, rather jaded with life and also with each other, but hoping for a break. They have two teenage daughters who are on a music tour, but hope to join them for the last week. Andrew is musical, also rather vague and self-centred.
William and Beth are a newly married couple, who live in a large, extravagant home in Connecticut. William is rather older than Beth; he's a Brit who has three teenage sons living with their mother in London, not far away from Sophie and Andrew's home. William - whom I regularly confused with Andrew, despite him being rather a nicer person - wants to spend time with his sons in the summer, and Beth hopes to get to know them better.
The first half of the book explores what happens during the exchange - the sights each couple sees, the people they meet, the discoveries they make. There is increased closeness for one couple, and increased stress on the other. Then things start to fall apart for them all, yet none of them can never return to what they had previously.
Although a bit slow to get started, there are some heavy issues touched upon in this novel including dark family secrets, addictions, and the deep ties between parents and children that can never be loosed.
I found the book thought-provoking and the tricky topics sensitively covered. Definitely recommended.
You can also read my slightly longer review of 'Before I knew you' on The Bookbag site.
I hadn't heard of Amanda Brookfield until a couple of months ago, when someone recommended 'The Simple Rules of Love' to me. I enjoyed it, and having decided to look for more books by the same author, was pleased to discover one fairly soon in a charity shop.
'Sisters and Husbands' is about two sisters: Becky and Anna. The book is written mainly from Becky's perspective. She is the younger, and has always rather envied her sister, who seems to have it all. Anna is attractive, intelligent, happily married, wealthy, wise, and apparently calm and unflappable. Becky has rather a difficult relationship with her mother, ever since their father died in a swimming accident twenty years previously. But Anna usually manages to mediate and keep everyone reasonably happy.
However, other than the occasional pang, Becky isn't seriously jealous of her sister. She looks to her for advice and encouragement, and loves her dearly. Becky is going through a difficult time at present. Her husband Joe is trying to become a restaurant owner, but that means putting a lot of time into his training, and a great deal of money into something that isn't guaranteed to succeed. Becky has a good job, but would really much rather give it up and embark on parenthood.
As Joe works longer and longer hours, Becky becomes frustrated and does something rash. Meanwhile Anna is unexpectedly pregnant, and determined not to have the baby. As a result of these and other stresses, unexpected memories of the past revive, and Becky realises that her view of their family is not at all the same as Anna's view. Both of them have to mature and change, and review their relationships with their husbands before they can move on.
Although I really wish novels like this made less use of bad language - one four-letter word which I've hardly ever heard in real life appeared countless times in conversations in this book - I very much enjoyed it. The characters are sympathetic and three dimensional, and there are some thought-provoking themes to do with fidelity, loyalty, and priorities.
'Sisters and Husbands' is mainly character-driven, but there are plenty of subplots to keep the pages turning, some unexpectedly moving moments near the end, and - in my opinion - a satisfying and hopeful conclusion. Recommended as light women's fiction.
Not currently in print, but fairly widely available second-hand.
Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 28th August 2008
I hadn't come across Amanda Brookfield, but someone recommended her novels to me, and lent me this particular book. I had not realised that it's actually a sequel (to 'Relative Love') - but it didn't matter, as 'The Simple Rules of Love' is complete in itself. Moreover, there aren't any annoying flashbacks, and when prior events are referred to, they seem natural to mention.
This is a family saga, about the Harrisons. They are all introduced in the first chapter, which I found rather confusing - no doubt it would have been less so if I had read the previous novel first. However I soon sorted everyone out in my mind. There are four siblings with two wives and a fiancé, and seven children - mostly in their late teens.
Charles and Serena own Ashley House, but are going through a stressful patch as their children are growing up and away from them. Peter and Helen seem to have a perfect life together, but their are hidden flaws that surface right after Peter has a back injury, and visits a physiotherapist. Elizabeth's son is growing up and having doubts about himself; and Cassie, the youngest of the four siblings, is engaged to a crime writer, whom she finds increasingly demanding and possessive.
There are a few sordid moments early in the book, which nearly put me off altogether; there is also rather more bad language than I am comfortable with. However, as I continued to read I found myself feeling more and more involved with the various people and their lives.
The book charts a year, featuring each of the main characters in turn. It's a year of changes, which (as the blurb on the back mentions) include an unplanned pregnancy and an adulterous affair, as well as a wonderful family holiday.
The older teenagers in the book mature, and their parents eventually find they can let go and develop more equal relationships. As a parent of sons who have recently left home, I could empathise strongly with characters going through the same kind of thing.
The writing style is very good; it drew me into the family in a surprising way, and I'm glad I continued. It was hard to put down by the time I was half way through. Definitely recommended. I shall look out for more by this author now!
Review copyright Sue's Book Reviews, 6th July 2008. All rights reserved.
