The five-minute marriage (by Joan Aiken)

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It’s well over a decade since I last read Joan Aiken’s historical novel ‘The five-minute marriage’. This author is probably best known for her children’s classic, ‘The wolves of Willoughby Chase’, but she wrote quite a few books for adults too. I don’t like all of them; she has written some ‘gothic’ style thrillers which don’t appeal to me. But I did recall that I had very much enjoyed this book.

The heroine is a young woman called Philadelphia Carteret - known as Delphie - who lives with her mother. Delphie is a musician, and earns her keep by giving piano lessons to wealthy children. Her mother was widowed some years earlier and is not good at sticking to a budget. And she’s been quite unwell recently. So the medical expenses - in these pre-NHS days - have taken up most of their rather scanty savings. 

One of Delphie’s clients is the wealthy, outgoing Mr Browty. He has two daughters who take piano and singing lessons from Delphie and they adore her, though neither is very talented. He finds her interesting and wants to help; he learns that she and her mother are estranged from her mother’s family. And in one of those unlikely coincidences (which seem quite believable when reading) Mr Browty is acquainted with her great-uncle Mark, Lord Bollington. 

The Saturday place (by Alice Peterson)

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I’ve acquired most of the novels by Alice Peterson over the past couple of decades, and reread them about four years ago. Then I discovered that I didn’t have ‘The Saturday place’, so I put it on my wishlist, and was given it for Christmas 2024. I’m not sure why I haven’t picked it up before now, but finally I did take it from my to-be-read shelf a few days ago.

The main character is a woman in her early forties called Holly. We meet her, first, on a beach with Jamie in a prologue, set twelve or so years before the main story. We learn a bit about his history, and that he and Holly are planning a life together. He talks about where he wants his ashes scattered, and she tells him not to be morbid..

Then in the first main chapter - a very short one - Holly opens her door to a policeman, telling her the terrible news that Jamie was killed in a car crash. This was not a surprise, given the prologue, and it’s spelled out in the blurb on the back, too.  The novel isn’t about their marriage: it’s about Holly gradually finding new meaning in life, as she comes to terms with what’s happened.

Anne's house of dreams (by Lucy Maud Montgomery)

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I’m enjoying rereading the ‘Anne’ books by LM Montgomery, at a rate of around one per month. I’ve just finished the fifth in the series, ‘Anne’s house of dreams’, which I last read in 2008. I read these books as a teenager and probably at least once as a young adult, so the storylines are familiar to me. But I don’t tend to remember a lot of details, and like them afresh each time.

This book opens with Anne getting married to Gilbert Blythe. It follows directly on from the previous book, ‘Anne of Windy Willows’, which I reread last month. Gilbert has finished his medical training, and Anne has given up her teaching post; as a woman in Canada a hundred years ago, she would no longer work outside the home once she was married. She liked teaching, but she’s glad to have given it up.

The wedding scenes are nicely done, and we meet some old friends who are delighted to see the happy couple married at last. Then the two set off for their new home, sixty miles or so away, where Gilbert has been appointed as the local doctor. He’s found a house, which he has described to Anne in detail, but she hasn’t seen it until this point. 

The woman he loved before (by Dorothy Koomson)

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I’m glad I decided to reread the novels I’ve acquired by Dorothy Koomson. I don’t have her most recent ones, which - so the reviews tell me - are quite dark thrillers. But I like her earlier books very much. I hadn’t read ‘The woman he loved before’ since 2015, so - unsurprisingly - I had no memory of it.

The characters, as is the case with most of this author’s books, are believable, rounded people even if some of the things that happen to them are way beyond my experience or knowledge. And the main two characters in this are a married couple called Jack and Libby. However the book opens in a dramatic way with what is obviously an excerpt from a diary, saying that someone has most likely died…

Chapter one is even more dramatic. Libby is falling in and out of consciousness, trapped in a car after a crash. There’s a fireman cutting her free, and also talking to her, so that she stays awake. She’s aware of Jack, but he isn’t in the car with her. We’re not sure if she’s going to survive, at first - but then we meet her in hospital, swathed in bandages, and in a lot of pain.

Family matters (by Helen Parker)

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I started reading Helen Parker’s books for teenagers because, years ago, she was part of our local writers’ group. I read ‘Hide and secret’ a few years ago and thought it both interesting and well-written. I enjoyed the stand-alone sequel, ‘Island treasure’ too, when I read that a year or so later, although I would have liked more about the characters in ‘Hide and secret’.

So when the third book, ‘Family matters’,  was published, I put it on my wishlist and was given it last Christmas. I just finished reading it. I hadn’t really remembered the characters from ‘Hide and secret’, but realised after a few chapters that some of them were in this book: in particular Ruth, whose early years were spent in Cairo. She is now 14 and goes to a high school in Edinburgh. She still doesn’t feel entirely at home there, but she’s reasonably settled. Most of her local friends are ones who also belong to her church youth group.

One of Ruth’s friends is Lucy, who is excited that her mother has a new boyfriend, Zak. He’s very generous, and she hopes he might be her stepfather. Ruth has other friends with stepfathers, and they all like them very much; some of what Lucy says feels a bit strange, however. Not that he’s behaving inappropriately to Lucy, but she isn’t quite sure how to deal with a new man in the family - and one or two of the things she says don’t quite ring true.