The accidental family (by Rowan Coleman)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m slightly shocked to realise that it’s over two-and-a-half years since I picked up a couple of books by Rowan Coleman on a church bookstall, for 50 cents each. I hadn’t heard of the author, but the covers looked interesting and the blurb on the back made them sound like the kind of book I’d like to read. I did in fact read ‘The Accidental Wife’ in October 2019, and liked it very much. But it was clear that some of the characters had a back story… and in reading a bit more about it, I realised that there were a series of three.

I thought I would try to get hold of ‘The Accidental Mother’, first in the series, but it was out of print and hard to find. So finally I decided to read ‘The Accidental Family’, which is the third book. It opens with a kind of pseudo-fairy story that summarises the first book in the series - and I was surprised to find that I actually remembered the scenario. Sophie Mills, who’s quite a high-powered London businesswoman, is devastated when her best friend Carrie dies in a car crash. Carrie was raising her daughters Bella and Izzy as a single mother, and left them to Sophie’s care.

So her life was turned upside down for a while. Then the girls’ father Louis returned after three years abroad, and the three were reunited, and it looked as though Sophie could go back to her old life. Except she realised that she didn’t just love the girls, she loved Louis. So she went to find them in Cornwall. Some of that took place in the second book, which I read, and since the first one has been summarised so many times I no longer feel any need to acquire or read it.

‘The Accidental Family’ opens when Sophie is installed in a B and B not far from where Louis lives with his daughters. Louis is as passionate about Sophie as she is about him, and they decide to get married, much to the delight of the girls who have learned to love Sophie, while still desperately missing their mother.

But an old flame of Louis’ reappears, and a surprising secret is revealed, and it seems that everything is falling apart. Sophie and Louis have to re-examine their priorities and decide whether or not their passion for each other has the kind of lasting quality that is needed for marriage. And they really don’t want the girls to be hurt, after so much disruption in their lives.

It’s a good storyline, and some of the characters are very believable. I particularly liked the two children, who seem realistic, struggling with their feelings, and quite different from each other in personality. Sophie, too, is a likeable kind of person, albeit rather scatterbrained and not at all sure that she’s cut out to be a stepmother. Louis feels more distant… he seems more interested in the physical side of their relationship than anything emotional, and is unwilling to discuss anything much. But over the course of the book they both learn a lot about themselves, and mature significantly.

I have to say, I found the first half of the book a bit tawdry. The author doesn’t make the mistake (thankfully) of letting us know in detail what Louis and Sophie get up to on the rug, or the sofa (since she refuses to spend the night in his bed, not wanting the girls to hear them). But there are many incidents referred to, again and again, mostly in the most unromantic terms. Then Sophie’s mother finds a lover and is all over him in ways that did not feel at all realistic… and an old lady in the B and B tells Sophie about her four husbands, with considerably more information than feels appropriate.

However in the second half of the book, where there’s more heart searching and emotional impact, I found myself enjoying it more. There’s perhaps more introspection than I liked - Sophie keeps repeating things to herself, and to other people, and wondering whether or not she really wants to get married. But I skimmed a bit, and found the storyline, involving Sophie moving back to London for a while, and Louis spending time with his old flame, well-paced and at times difficult to put down.

I’m not sure I’d recommend it; there’s quite a bit of bad language (mostly from one particular person) as well as a lot of innuendoes and discussion of various people’s sex-lives in rather casual ways. But if you don’t mind that kind of thing, it’s a good story, with a very readable writing style, and an entirely satisfactory ending.

'The Accidental Family' is not currently in print in paperback, but can often be found second-hand. It's also available for the Kindle.

Review copyright 2021 Sue's Book Reviews