Never too late (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I have had quite mixed feelings about the books I have read by the Irish novelist Cathy Kelly. I loved the first three I read, around five years ago: The house on Willow Street, Homecoming and Best of friends. I then read one I didn’t like quite as much. Since then I have read another five, and only liked one of them. The others, I felt, were too wordy and rather trite - a far cry from the excellent stories and characterisation of the first ones I read. 

I wasn’t going to try any more books by this author, but a friend gave me a used copy of ‘Never too late’, and I decided to read it over the past few days. Unfortunately, it’s another one that, in my opinion, is trite and over-long. It’s more than 500 pages and although I kept reading, it didn’t grab me in any way.

I have finally realised that the books I like by Cathy Kelly were all written in the past twelve years or so. The ones I like least were written in the earlier part of the century, or - in the case of this one - the late 1990s. ‘Never too late’ was her third published novel. Evidently it was well received at the time, since she was given a publishing contract and went on to write a large number of other novels. So I may be in the minority in having disliked it. 

There are really four main characters in this book: Evie, her daughter Rosie, Evie’s sister Cara, and Evie’s best friend Olivia. Olivia is the one I liked best; she’s a domestic science teacher, married with a small daughter whom she adores. Unfortunately her husband Stephen is very controlling. He appears narcissistically self-centred in his insistence on telling her exactly what she may and may not do. He even tries to tell her what to wear for social events, and he regularly puts her down, destroying whatever confidence or ideas she might have.

Bizarrely, Olivia still loves Stephen. When she’s offered a TV slot, out of the blue, she doesn’t tell him at first, certain he will disparage her. He is furious when he finds out, but her success has given her the confidence to give him an ultimatum. I’m not convinced that a bit of counselling would actually change someone as appalling as Stephen is portrayed, but Olivia’s story made (in my opinion) the most interesting part of the story.

Rosie is the other person I quite liked. At 17 she’s eager to be treated as an adult, but she has a lot more self-control and self-respect than most of the adults around her. Her older relatives seem to portrayed her as puritanical at times, for not wanting to behave promiscuously and I thought that was a bit sad. She’s kind, and wise, and has more depth than either her mother or her aunt.  

I really didn’t like either Evie or Cara, which is a pity as Evie is the most significant character. She’s the one who is introduced first, but she comes across as shallow, interested only in clothes, and drink, and food. She’s portrayed as being overweight and attractive, but she seems obsessed with her weight. Rosie’s father, we learn early on, was killed in an accident when Rosie was a baby, and Evie is now engaged to Simon. Simon seems a likeable kind of guy, often travelling for work and not very aware of what Evie does in the house. But safe, and secure, and they are clearly good friends. 

However Evie dreams of knights in armour coming to her rescue - there are some weird sections in italics, outlining her daydreams, which are at odds with reality. It’s obvious from early in the book that she’s going to break up with Simon, but I was shocked at how far she took the wedding arrangements before finally doing something about it. I was rooting for him, hoping I was wrong, but Evie is really quite self-centred, though not quite as controlling as Stephen. 

Evie has mood changes, for no apparent reason, and seems to think that love is primarily based on physical attraction. But she doesn’t trust the person she claims to be in love with in the second half of the book. 1990s mass produced romance novels usually included some misunderstandings before the main characters got together. But the misunderstandings in this book don’t even make sense. Evie is intelligent but she doesn’t seem to have any clue about people, and never thinks to ask normal questions when she is concerned. 

Her sister Cara is shadowy, obsessed with drinking and relationships, and she keeps quarrelling with Evie. I never really figured out why, and couldn’t remember whether they were speaking to each other or not - it changes quite rapidly. One of the catalysts for problems is that their father, widowed when Cara was a baby, announces that he’s getting married again. Evie demonstrates her small-mindedness and jealousy early in the book by being very unpleasant to her future stepmother. 

There’s a lot of internal monologue and navel-gazing in addition to Evie’s daydreams, much of which should (in my view) have been edited significantly. Worse, there are at least three detailed sex scenes, each one running over several pages. I managed to skip them easily - I cannot understand why anybody would want to read this kind of thing - but they add to my somewhat low opinion of the book. 

I won’t be keeping this, or reading it again, and wouldn’t recommend it. But it’s been highly rated by others. So if you like this kind of light ‘chick lit’ with very little substance, and want a long book for holiday reading, then it may be worth trying. 

But if you prefer novels with three-dimensional characters and well written storylines, try some of the author’s more recent books which I did like, and do recommend. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

She's the one (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I discovered the author Cathy Kelly about six years ago, and loved the first couple of books I read by her. I then started to acquire others, some of which I liked, some not so much. When, a few years ago, a friend gave me ‘She’s the one’, having read it herself, I put it on my to-be-read shelf. I wasn’t enthusiastic enough to read it immediately, but finally picked it up a few days ago.

Isabel and Dee are the two main characters in the book, which is mainly set in Dublin. Both are journalists, both in somewhat stressful romantic relationships… and both apply for a job as features editor in a women’s magazine. Dee already works for the magazine in another department, and Isabel is an outsider who has only recently moved to Dublin. The magazine decides to bring in someone fresh, so Isabel is given the job, and Dee appointed as her deputy.

It’s a good start to a book that switches viewpoints each chapter between the two women. They’re quite three dimensional. Isabel is tall, trim and confident, and has left her risk-taking husband who, once again, has gambled everything including her family home. She has two daughters: teenage Robin and eleven-year-old Naomi, who both adore their father. But while Naomi is easy-going and supports her mother, Robin is furious that she’s been uprooted, and has become very moody. 

Dee, by contrast, is overweight and lives with her fiancé Gary. He insists that he loves her but won’t do anything to help in the house. Her self-esteem is very low, and she drinks too much as well as binging on high-fat high-sugar snacks. Gary is a somewhat unrealistic person, sometimes slobby and disparaging, sometimes encouraging and positive. He criticises Dee’s drinking and eating habits, but then gives her sweets and alcohol. It’s hard to imagine what she sees in him. 

The management at the office consist of men who like upsetting their staff: so Isabel is introduced without anyone knowing that she has been appointed, and Dee is very upset, determined to hate her. Isabel is a genuinely nice person, and is very supportive of Dee, so they become friends. I’d like to have seen more of their interactions, as Dee changes her mind all too often. 

The magazine is bought up by another company, and the bullying management leave, only to be replaced by an unapproachable boss, a likeable manager, and another manager who is rude and arrogant, and appears to loathe Dee. Dee is easily bullied, until one day (towards the end of the book) she decides she won’t be bullied any more, and then changes personality with, apparently, no effort. 

I was enjoying the book, on the whole, for the first couple of hundred pages. Admittedly the male characters were almost entirely one-dimensional caricatures, but I did like both Isabel and Dee. In addition, there was far too much detail about the contents of everybody’s wardrobe, and many comments made about appearance. There was rather a lot of detail about food and alcohol, too; significant editing would have helped to cut down this very long novel (over 550 pages in paperback). 

Still, I was able to skip those rather uninteresting sections, and was intrigued by the story. 

However it then takes a different direction. Isabel starts to fall for a married man who flirts with her, and then Dee starts going out clubbing and gets involved with a visiting Texan. They have very casual affairs, it seems to me, and there’s far too much detail about what goes on in the bedrooms… and most of the rest of the story is about these relationships. There are brief forays into the office, but everything there is rather left hanging; and the last hundred pages or so become increasingly unrealistic. Isabel leaps to a conclusion and becomes irrational, while Dee becomes confident and assured just because a couple of men have admired her.

The book was written in 1998 so it was one of Cathy Kelly’s earlier novels; it’s a good thing I didn’t read this one first as it really didn’t grab me. I did keep reading the book, mildly interested to know how it would all pan out, but it’s not a novel that I shall read again. 

Not really recommended. This author has written much better books. 

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews

Always and forever (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I have read several books by Cathy Kelly over the past few years. They’re women’s fiction, often featuring several main characters, and set in Ireland. I very much liked most of them, and was looking forward to reading ‘Always and forever’ which I picked up inexpensively at a church book sale back in 2019.

The prologue introduces a woman from California called Leah who has decided to buy a large, run-down house which has been unsaleable for a while. The estate agent thinks she’s crazy, but she’s evidently quite wealthy, and sure it’s the right place to start her centre for wellness and healing. 

The action then moves to January, a year and a half later. And we met Mel, in the ladies’ room at her prestigious office, rapidly changing her laddered tights prior to an important meeting. Mel, we quickly learn, is a mother of two young daughters whom she loves. But she also works full-time in a high-powered job where she’s expected to put her career first. Mostly this works - her mother loves looking after her grandchildren, and they go to an excellent nursery. But Mel wants to be around for milestones, and doctor’s appointments, and feels that her boss - a woman, and a mother herself - is unfeeling. 

Then just as I was beginning to feel as if I quite liked Mel, a new chapter starts, with another new character. Cleo has just finished a hotel management course and has lots of ideas for renovating and refreshing her parents’ traditional hotel. It has been successful for many years, but it’s looking tired, and while it still attracts some loyal clients, more people are looking for more modern accommodation. Cleo’s two brothers seem only to care about money, and her parents are looking tired. But they don’t seem to have any respect for her at all.

I found Cleo a bit annoying, entirely lacking in tact, and wasn’t surprised that nobody seems to listen to her. And then after a lengthy chapter with Cleo and her family at loggerheads, yet another new person appears: Daisy, who lives with the love of her life Alex, and really wants to have a baby. They’ve been trying for a while and she’s decided they need to visit a fertility clinic. Alex isn’t happy about this, but Daisy is becoming a bit obsessed with the idea so he agrees, reluctantly, to go with her to the first meeting. 

The book continues, alternating viewpoints, and it took me until at least half way through to remember who was whom, and who their friends/partners/family members were. I was somewhat interested in the different subplots, although there is rather too much introspection for my tastes, but none of the people feel really three-dimensional or believable. Inevitably each of them meets Leah and spends some time at her healing centre trying different treatments; Leah has her own stresses of the past, but appears to be a superwoman, extremely wise and able to help everyone to overcome traumas and become more positive.

I did keep reading, although I skipped a few pages here and there when we were taken into flashbacks of one character meeting another in the past; it didn’t seem to matter at all. I had to look back, a few times, to remind myself who was whom, and although eventually I could remember the main characters, I regularly forgot minor ones. It’s not heavy reading, but my eyes started glazing over if I read more than a chapter at a time. Nothing much happened other than a great deal of discussion and navel-gazing. Then they visit the healing centre and everything looks much brighter.

‘Always and Forever’ was first published in 2005 and is one of the author’s earlier books, so perhaps that’s the reason I found it less appealing than the later books of hers that I’ve read. It’s not that it’s a bad book, and it ends reasonably positively, but it didn’t do anything for me. It would have been better with some significant editing, in my view.  I doubt if I’ll read this one again.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's Book Reviews

The year that changed everything (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve read by Cathy Kelly, so I added some to my wishlist and was given ‘The year that changed everything’ for Christmas… over a year ago. The book has been on my to-be-read shelf all that time but I finally picked it up to read a few days ago. It claims to be ‘warm, witty and wise’ according to the front cover, and the cover itself, dark blue with flowers, is quite appealing.

The novel features three different women in Ireland: they’re known as Callie, Sam and Ginger. They haven’t met each other at the start of the book, and in fact don’t meet until almost the end; I found that slightly odd as their stories were running alongside each other, as if in three different books, until very late in the book. I had hoped there would be a bit more interaction earlier on, although in fact it works pretty well.

We first meet the three women on their birthday, a date which they share: Callie is 50, Sam ie 40 and Ginger is 30. Callie is the wife of a rich and somewhat controlling man called Jason. She didn’t want a big celebration for her half-century, but Jason insisted. He called in caterers, and invited guests, many of whom she doesn’t even know. She’s escaped to the kitchen for a few minutes when there’s an unexpected ring on the doorbell… and her life is changed forever.

Sam, meanwhile, is giving birth to her first baby. She and her husband Ted appeared to be unable to have children, and fertility treatments some years ago did not work. Then, at 39, she found herself pregnant. They are both thrilled, but she’s also quite anxious about being a mother. Her own mother was always rather distant, and Sam feels that she doesn’t know how to be maternal.

Then there’s Ginger, who works for a newspaper and is single. She’s never had a real relationship and is overweight, usually hiding beneath baggy dark coloured clothes. We meet her when she is the chief bridesmaid at her best friend Liza’s wedding. Liza and the other bridesmaid are thin and glamorous, but Ginger is wearing a dress that does not suit her, and which is much more revealing than she is comfortable with. Liza’s cousin is making up to her, and Ginger is considering going to bed with him… then she overhears a conversation which makes her feel betrayed and deeply upset.

After the first chapters introducing the three, the plot goes back a month; this fills us in on the different backgrounds of each of them, and introduces some of their family members. Callie and Jason have a 14-year-old daughter Poppy, whom Callie feels is becoming spoilt. She has lost touch with her mother and brother. 

Sam is very close to her younger sister Joanne, who has three children already, and she’s very fond of her dad. But she doesn’t feel as if she has any real relationship with her mother. As for Ginger, she has two brothers and a father, as well as a somewhat wacky great aunt, but her mother died when she was small.

The book switches viewpoint throughout, following each of these women in turn; the chapters are headed with the relevant name. I was tempted to read all Callie’s story first, then Sam’s, then Ginger’s, but as I had assumed they would meet or connect in some way by at least half way through I thought it best not to do that.

The writing is good, and it’s an easy read once I had established in my mind who was whom. I muddled some of the minor characters a few times but they were mostly realistic and easy to distinguish. I found myself sympathising with Callie, to some extent; there’s quite an emotional scene once she has decided what she’s going to do. Poppy matures in unexpected ways, and I rather liked her. I liked Ginger, too; she and Callie have both been victims in their different ways, and have to move beyond it, though their circumstances are entirely different. Ginger has terrible self-esteem and I liked the way that she gradually learned to take control of her life.

I found Sam’s situation less realistic, however. She spends a lot of her time worrying about whether she will be a good mother, and while I know that’s a problem many new mothers face, she becomes quite introspective about it, not sharing her worries with anyone. She also seems to get very little help in the hospital when she’s struggling to feed her baby. I found it shocking how little support she had. Nor was there any mention of a nurse visiting her at home, or relevant support groups.

And while Sam gradually realises that she’s not her mother, she seems quite un-maternal, to the extent of leaving the baby with her mother-in-law when she takes on a work assignment just six months later, rather than taking the baby with her. Then at the end, when (inevitably) the three women who eventually met decide to have a shared birthday celebration, there’s no mention at all of the fact that it’s Sam and Ted’s baby’s first birthday too.

Still, it’s a sign of a realistic character when they get under the skin, even if the main feeling is irritation, wanting to reach out and help or advise. More concerning is that it could be rather discouraging to a women in a similar situation. On the other hand, issues such as weight shaming and drug usage were, I thought, well covered with sensitivity.

All in all, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes light-weight women’s fiction set in Ireland.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews

Past Secrets (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I very much liked the books I read by Cathy Kelly in the past year. So when I saw a couple of her books inexpensively at a church sale, it was an easy decision to buy them. I’ve just finished reading ‘Past Secrets’, quite a tome at over 600 pages. And whereas I can sometimes finish a book of that length in just two or three days, it’s taken me over a week to finish this one.

It starts well. Cathy Kelly’s novels sometimes remind me, in their settings (and sometimes their storylines) of Maeve Binchy’s books. This one is set mainly in Ireland too, in a street called Summer Street. The first few chapters introduce us to the viewpoint characters, and although it didn’t grab me at first, and took me a little while to get into it, I thought there was the potential for an excellent story.

Cathy is probably the most interesting character in the novel. She’s an art teacher, mostly quite laid-back. She’s wise and intuitive, sometimes ‘seeing’ things about people, or having a strong sense of disquiet that usually turns out to be justified. She’s happily married to the likeable (though rather two-dimensional) James, and they have two married sons. But she has a bad feeling, and clearly has something in her past which she has been trying to forget.

Faye is a bit of an oddity; it’s clear from the start that she’s created a persona that does everything very precisely, keeping herself to herself. Her whole life revolves around her 17-year-old daughter Amber, who is a talented art student (in a class that Cathy teaches). But Faye has kept something from Amber, believing that if she protects and shelters her, Amber won’t make any bad mistakes. However, Amber has fallen in love… and we first meet her when she’s bunking off school to meet her boyfriend.

Then there’s Maggie, a librarian who has been living away from her home town with a lecturer called Grey. She doesn’t have much self-esteem but he’s been a good influence on her… until she catches him with another woman. Conveniently her mother Una, who lives in Summer Street, has broken a leg, and her parents ask Maggie if she’s willing to return home for a few days.

So it starts well, and while I didn’t find any of the characters very three-dimensional, it didn’t take me long to remember who was whom. It seemed a bit odd that none of them really knew each other until Una’s accident, at which point they all become friendly. But nothing much happens after that. We already know the gist of all three secrets: Cathy did something she regrets with a Polish artist, decades earlier; Maggie was bullied in school; Faye has a wilder past than her daughter could imagine, and wasn’t widowed (as she had pretended). They each have something that they’re ashamed of, something we learn later in the book - but by the time they’re revealed, they no longer seem surprising.

There’s a lot of repetitive introspection in the novel - yes, Maggie has poor self-esteem, and Christie is worried about her past catching up with her, and Faye wishes she had been more honest with her daughter. But I didn’t need quite so many reminders of these things. And, worse, they all seem to change character without any real reason. 

Amber and Faye’s interactions never feel realistic, and while Christie is mostly likeable and mature, the way she lets her husband know about her ‘secret’ is so awful I had to suspend reality for a while. Then, although it’s a minor issue, the extensive use of over-dramatic speech tags became irritating after awhile. It felt in many places as if the book had missed out on the editing process.

Still, it’s not a bad story. There are some interesting subplots, such as a campaign to keep a local park open. I kept reading, even if I didn’t pick it up every spare moment to find out what was happening. The ending was all a bit predictable but satisfactory.

Worth reading if you find it inexpensively, as I did; but I wouldn't particularly recommend it. Cathy Kelly has written some much better books.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews

Best of Friends (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve read three books by Cathy Kelly in the past year, and liked them all. She writes saga-style novels, mostly based in Ireland, about different women. So when I saw some of her books inexpensively at a church bookstall, I decided to buy two or three of them.

I have just finished reading ‘Best of Friends’. As with the other books by Cathy Kelly, there is rather a large cast of characters, and I found the first few chapters quite confusing. It wasn’t until I was almost half-way through the book that I had the main characters straight in my mind. They all live in or near an Irish village called Dunmore.

There’s an almost perfect married couple called Sally and Steve, who have two young sons. Sally works in a beauty salon. Then there’s a slightly older couple called Abby and Tom, who have a teenage daughter called Jess. Tom is a deputy headmaster, and Abby works as a de-cluttering expert. She has recently discovered fame, rather reluctantly, in her own TV show. Abby regularly pops into Sally’s salon for a facial or manicure.

Another important character is Lizzie, who works as the receptionist at the local GP surgery. Lizzie, at almost fifty, is the oldest of the main characters. She has two adult children, and is divorced. We learn something of her back-story through the book. Her daughter Debra is getting married soon, and the expenses keep mounting… it’s evident that Debra is extremely selfish, and also very spoiled (in the worst sense of the word) by both her parents.

Finally there are Erin and Greg, a young couple who have been living in the United States. They move to Ireland for Greg’s work, and they both have Irish roots. Erin has lost contact entirely with her family, and it was evidently very traumatic when she left home. She is quite certain she doesn’t want children...

The story takes place over a few months as the characters get to know each other, and we learn that they all have different problems. Sally hasn’t been very well; Erin hasn’t been feeling great, either. Abby’s husband Tom is not happy that she earns more than he does, and their daughter Jess is stressed by various things at her school. Erin is persuaded that she should try to get in contact with her long-lost family. Lizzie decides she wants to make her life more interesting…

It’s character-based, so there’s not a great deal of plot. There’s a tragic event in the middle of the book, but it’s foreshadowed for some time, and is no surprise when it happens. It draws some of the characters closer together, although hardly in the sense of their becoming the ‘Best of Friends’, as the blurb on the back suggests. However, they do pull together to consider some fund-raising, and try to support each other, not taking what they have for granted.

It’s not a difficult or stressful read, though I found myself increasingly irritated with Lizzie, who seems to have no clue how to handle her unbelievably self-centred daughter. I also found Abby’s over-protectiveness towards her daughter to be rather annoying; Jess is a very likeable, caring person with a lot of self-confidence. But Abby wants to know where she is and what she’s doing - yet she doesn’t listen, and is unaware of the many stresses that Jess is suffering at school.

It’s a sign of good characterisation when I find myself irritated with people in books; it means I expect more of them, and want to give them advice. So I was glad that one of these problems essentially solved itself, although I found it hard to swallow the sudden change in Debra’s character after a few angry words exchanged with her aunt.

But the most unlikely scenario is that of Abby who does something unbelievably stupid and out of character. It happens fairly early in the book and has repercussions that continue until nearly the end when another rather-too-dramatic event makes both Abby and Tom rethink their priorities.

The pace of the book works well, and the writing is good, if a bit rambling in places. I felt there was too much internal reflection; characters would have a conversation, or learn something new, and then the author would recount their thoughts, which essentially repeated what had just been said or discovered. I also found the constant references to appearances and beauty treatments to be a bit tedious and I was unimpressed that there’s one sordid scene with too much intimate detail.

But at the same time it was a very readable book, and I found myself caring about some of the characters - particularly Jess and Erin. The ending is nicely done, with most of the threads tidily resolved, and the future encouraging and hopeful for most of the people.

‘Best of Friends’ would make a good holiday read for anyone who likes character-based women’s fiction.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews

Between Sisters (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I very much liked the two novels I read previously by Cathy Kelly, so was looking forward to reading ‘Between Sisters’. I was given this for Christmas, after adding several of this author’s books to my wish-list. She writes warm contemporary women’s fiction, mostly set in Ireland.

‘Between Sisters’ opens with a prologue set in London, however. A woman called Elsa is involved in a popular TV show, but is worried about her health. The action then switches to Dublin, and it wasn’t until I was over half-way through the book that I realised no further reference had been made to Elsa.

The bulk of the book is about Cassie and Coco, sisters in their thirties. Cassie is married with two teenage daughters, and Coco is single but very involved with her sister’s life. We quickly learn that they were brought up by their grandmother after being abandoned by their mother when Cassie was seven and Coco was just a year old.

The two sisters seem to be doing well in their adult lives, on the whole. Coco runs a vintage clothing shop, which she loves, and Cassie works for a business, juggling home and work life apparently with easy. Yet both of them find it almost impossible to talk about their mother. And it’s gradually becomes clear that they both have a deep-down fear of being left by someone else. So much so that Coco broke off an engagement four years earlier, to the only man she has ever really loved, because she was afraid he would leave her.

Their grandmother Pearl, who brought them up, is a lively lady of 79. They tend to drop in on her when they have problems, or just need a hug, and are clearly very close to her. It’s a picture of a contented family, albeit with one generation missing. For Cassie and Coco’s father (Pearl’s son) apparently never recovered from his wife leaving, and died some years earlier.

There are many other characters in the book, rather too many for me to keep in mind, but even the minor ones are quite well developed. I wondered at first how the very diverse people gradually introduced were going to meet and impact each other’s lives. But it works well.

Part of my problem with remembering who was who is that there are names which look similar: Adriana and Antoinette don’t sound alike, but when reading they look similar lengths, and I regularly confused these two, both of whom caused problems to one or other of the sisters. I was even more confused by Mari and Myra. One of them does not appear until near the end of the book and is quite a significant person for a while, when the action moves - at last - back to London. Then when the other is mentioned a chapter or two later, I was totally confused until I looked back and reminded myself, yet again, who was whom.

It’s a minor gripe, not helped by the fact that, at least in my edition, there was at least one place (possibly two) where the wrong name was given; but that’s an editorial error. My other small criticism is that the author tends to explain things rather too thoroughly. Important events in the past are mentioned more than once; literary references are followed by an explanation; the revelation of how Elsa, in the first chapter, comes into the story is spelled out in far too much detail. I got the point immediately.

There are some other important issues covered in the book. As well as the theme of abandonment (and it recurs in both the sisters’ lives) there are storylines related to addictions. I thought these very well done, with some useful dialogue, and a lack of any kind of judgmentalism or indeed sentimentality.

Overall, I thought ‘Between Sisters’ an excellent book. I read the last 100 or so pages at one sitting, wanting to know how everything would be resolved. Some of the later scenes in the book are very moving. The ending is entirely satisfactory in my view, with most of the threads nicely tied up in a positive way.

Definitely recommended to anyone who enjoys character-based women’s fiction with a bit of a bite.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews

Homecoming (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

I read one of Cathy Kelly’s novels a few months ago, and liked it so much that I put more of them on my wishlist. I was given ‘Homecoming’ for Christmas, and started it a couple of weeks ago. It’s taken me this long to finish it, not because it was uninteresting, but because we’ve had a very busy period with little opportunity to read.

As with ‘The House on Willow Street’, which I read last September, this novel is set mostly in an Irish community, and is about four very different women. The first one we meet is Eleanor, an elderly woman who has recently lost her husband. We quickly learn that she and her mother left Ireland when she was just eleven, and she has never been back. She wants to visit the house they lived in, but is not yet ready to do so. So she takes a flat in an area called ‘Golden Square’, in Dublin.

We next meet Megan, a young and beautiful actress who has committed a serious indiscretion. She’s being hounded by the media, shunned by many of her friends. So she decides to escape for a while, and stay with her aunt Nora, who also lives in Golden Square.

Then there’s Connie, a tall and big-hearted school teacher, who is still grieving a broken romance from many years earlier. She has not yet met a man who could match up to her former love, and has a long list of criteria for any potential suitor. She’s approaching forty, and feels she should be fulfilled in her single life, but it’s not that easy. And her rather younger, much prettier sister Nicky is going to get married.

Finally, there’s Rae. She is a very generous, community-minded person, married to the wonderful Will. She runs a tea-shop where everybody gathers to chat, and she also volunteers regularly at a local community centre. She is much admired, and respected. But she also has a deep-rooted secret, which she can no longer keep hidden…

The novel switches perspective in each chapter, sometimes following these main protagonists, sometimes writing from the viewpoint of more minor characters. Inevitably they meet, and get to know and like each other; there are no ‘bad’ people in this book, other than a few shadowy ones from people’s pasts. As they interact, they inevitably learn more about each other and themselves. Eleanor, who used to work as a counsellor in the United States, is the catalyst for a lot of discovery and growth in the others - and becomes more open herself.

Each chapter begins with an excerpt from a diary Eleanor is reading. It was written by her mother intended to pass on recipes and general household hints. It gives some interesting insights into life seventy years earlier, and some of the hardships people experienced in farms, and during the depression years. Each short diary entry relates in some way to the chapter that follows, though it took me a while to realise this. But although interesting, these sections don't really add anything to the story as such.

As with the other novel I read by Cathy Kelly, I was reminded forcibly of Maeve Binchy several times. It’s partly the setting, partly the slight dialect in people’s speech, and partly in the general warmth of the situations and people.

My one problem with the book is that I found it hard to remember who was whom if I didn’t pick it up for a couple of days - and that happened more than once. I could recall the main characters, but found I had to check back to find out who was being referred to a couple of times, as I had not managed to make any real connection. Perhaps too many viewpoints were considered, making it hard to empathise fully with anyone.

Still, I liked the people very much, particularly Connie, whom I found very sympathetic. I found Rae a bit difficult to envisage, and she felt a bit more two-dimensional, although her flashbacks to the past are quite traumatic at times. I liked Eleanor too, and the way she is so good at listening to people, but I thought Megan was a bit irritating and thoughtless; this is explained partly by her upbringing, and she does mature through the book.

Overall, I enjoyed ‘Homecoming’ very much. I would recommend it to anyone who likes books of the Maeve Binchy genre. It’s quite slow-moving at times and mostly gentle, despite some quite gritty themes, and would make excellent holiday reading.

Review by Sue F copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews

The house on Willow Street (by Cathy Kelly)

(Amazon UK link)

For perhaps a year or more, Amazon had been recommending that I read books by Cathy Kelly, based on my ratings and the books I had on my wishlist. So I finally put one of her novels on my list, and was given it for my birthday a few months ago. I picked up ‘The house on Willow Street’ to read a few days ago, and have just finished it.

The novel is based in a village in Ireland, and the prologue had me almost mesmerised. We meet Danae, postmistress of Avalon, and recipient of many secrets. Danae herself is a quiet, undemonstrative person, presumably middle-aged. I couldn’t keep track of all the people she meets in a typical week, but that didn’t matter. The writing style felt like that of Maeve Binchy, and I knew that this would be a gentle, character-based book set in a community I would love to visit, if only it were real.

The novel is in fact a bit more gritty than Binchy’s, and covers some difficult topics. There are four main characters, all women: Danae’s niece Mara is feeling traumatised by the break-up of what she thought was a long-lasting relationship and decides to visit her aunt rather than her more extraverted family. Mara is unconventional, and domesticated, and does what she can to break through Danae’s very private shell.

The other two main characters are the sisters Tess and Suki. They grew up in a crumbling ancestral home with no money to repair it, or even heat it. It was sold before the novel begins, but Tess still feels nostalgic towards it. We meet Tess in the throes of relationship trauma too; she and her husband Kevin are having a trial separation. She’s very close to her teenage son Zach and younger daughter Kitty, and they can’t understand why their dad isn’t living with them any longer. Then he meets someone else…

As for Suki, she’s living in the United States to start with. She clearly has quite a chequered past; she was married for a while to a very wealthy man, and there’s evidently a secret in her past that led to their divorce. She then lived with a rock star, and had a very unhealthy lifestyle before they split up; and now she’s writing a book, living with rather an uncouth man who does nothing to help.

The other people in the village are of less significance, but their appearance helps to round it out as a realistic community. Some of them are rather larger than life, but stereotyped minor characters don’t really matter; it’s easier to tell them apart. The four main women are three-dimensional and believable, even if Suki’s life is about as far removed from my own as I could imagine.

The main part of the novel starts with a section labelled ‘Autumn’, which sees the start of some changes in the main characters’ lives. The longest section, taking over half the book, is called ‘Winter’. As well as seeing colder weather, and Christmas, this section has some things ending, and the revealing of Danae’s secret. The final, very short section, is ‘Spring’, heralding some positive changes for the future.

The writing is good, paced just right for me to read it at bedtime, and then - sometimes - pick it up for half an hour in the day. I didn’t always remember who some of the minor characters were, but that didn’t matter too much. I found Suki’s ‘secret’ rather shocking, but was a tad disappointed when Tess’s ‘secret’ is finally unpacked - it didn’t seem to warrant the antagonism or heart searching that both she and the other related character had been suffering.

All in all, though, I enjoyed this very much. As soon as I had finished, I checked some reviews on Amazon and added a few more Cathy Kelly novels to my wishlist. Definitely recommended if you like warm character-based women’s fiction with some important issues included.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's Book Reviews