And Now There's Zelda... by Carolyn Clarke - #bookreview

 

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Dealing with a controlling, manipulative, and self-absorbed mother-in-law can be a challenge. But when your child brings home a fiancé who's completely unworthy, and the shoe is suddenly on the other foot, do you take the high road, or get down and dirty?

It's been five years since Allison Montgomery's beloved father-in-law, George, passed away and her cantankerous mother-in-law, Margaret, moved in. After nearly killing each other during their initial adjustment period, Allie and Margaret have finally buried the hatchet and have even launched a thriving home staging business together.

Today, Allie is enjoying life. That is until her twenty-two-year-old son, Cameron, unexpectedly brings home Zelda, his new fiancé. The problem is, no one has ever met or even heard of her. And when Zelda's first impression raises more than a few red flags, Allie finds herself in unfamiliar territory.

Facing the prospect of becoming a mother-in-law far sooner than expected, and to someone unworthy of her darling baby boy, Allie's protective instinct kicks in. And who better to turn to for guidance and support than Margaret, her former nemesis and master of the mothers-in-law's dark arts.

Allie and Margaret launch Project Zelda, an intervention of sorts designed to show Cameron who Zelda really is and to prevent him from making a catastrophic mistake. However, with Zelda's ingratiating behavior, Margaret's occasional disappearances, and Allie's doubts about turning into her own mother-in-law, will Allie find a way to reconcile her protective instincts or will history repeat itself?

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Parenting is a funny old business. We devote eighteen years to raising a child to become an independent adult, and when they do, we wish they were little again! Yes, I was that mother who sobbed when each of my four sons left for university, and wished they were eight again and not eighteen.

Consequently, there was much I could identify with in And Now There’s Zelda. The main character is Allie, whose adult son Cameron, has come home with an unexpected fiancee in tow. Allie takes an instant dislike to Zelda, her maternal protective instincts are on full alert and she assumes that Zelda is not good enough for her beloved son.

The book follows on from the author’s previous novel, And Then There’s Margaret, which I really loved. You can read my review of it by clicking here. I should add that this book also works perfectly well as a standalone novel.

I have so enjoyed spending more time with the characters. Allie is in midlife. She lives with her husband and his mother, and both her son and daughter have flown the nest and are making lives of their own. 

The book focuses on a planned family holiday to Florida to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of Allies’s mother.  Allie has been looking forward to the four of them having a family holiday, just her, her husband and two children, but as with the best laid plans, it doesn’t go quite the way she had planned.

Allie is a tremendous character. I think most women will be able to identify with her need to keep so many balls in the air. Although it is fairly obvious that she will discover her assumptions regarding Zelda are incorrect, following the journey of how the relationship develops was fun to read.

And this is what Ms Clarke does best. She takes an ordinary situation and imbues it with both humour and plausibility. She also encourages the reader to sympathise with Allie. It was easy to identify and engage with Allie’s fears, and she is an enormously likeable character.

However, the secondary characters are also extremely well portrayed. The author understands people very well and really inhabits her characters, and in doing so has created an engaging and compelling book which was a joy to read.

Personally, I have been very fortunate. My four sons have all married lovely girls, and so, for me, I have definitely gained daughters and not lost sons.

This is a fabulously enjoyable and relatable novel which I highly recommend.

Carolyn will be here on the blog on the 14th May, so please do come back to hear from Carolyn herself about her book.

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About the Author:

Carolyn Clarke is the founder and curator of HenLit Central, a blog focused on 'life and lit' for women over 40. 

AND NOW THERE'S ZELDA is her second novel after AND THEN THERE'S MARGARET (2022).

She has been an ESL teacher for over sixteen years and has co-authored several articles and resources with Cambridge University Press, MacMillan Education and her award-winning blog ESL Made Easy.

She lives in Toronto, Canada with her partner, Tony, her two daughters and bulldog, Sophie.

(ARC and media courtesy of the author)

(all opinions are my own)

Newborn: Running Away, Breaking From the Past, Building a New Family by Kerry Hudson - #bookreview

 

When I go back into the bathroom there it is. No more than a whisper, a shadow of a second line. A life changed in a 1mm by 2mm blush of pink. I call Peter in and we stare, shining a phone torch light on it. I laugh and cry all at once...

***

In Newborn, prizewinning writer Kerry Hudson navigates trying to build a nourishing, safe and loving family - without a blueprint to work from

Kerry Hudson is celebrated for her emotionally and politically powerful writing about growing up in poverty. Her books and journalism have changed the conversation and touched countless lives.

In this new book she asks: what next, after a childhood like hers? What hope is there of creating a different life for herself, let alone future generations? We see how Kerry found love, what it took to decide to start a family of her own and how fragile every step of the journey towards parenthood was. All along the way, she faces obstacles that would test the strongest foundations, from struggles with fertility to being locked down in a Prague maternity hospital to a marriage in crisis. But over and over again, her love, hope, fight -- and determination to break patterns and give her son a different life -- win through and light her path.

Newborn is a beautiful, empowering memoir about creating a family in the midst of chaos, and learning new ways to find happiness. It continues the journey Kerry started in her bestselling memoir Lowborn, illuminating her experiences of becoming a mother, reshaping her future and reclaiming her identity.

***

I have not read the author's previous book, Lowborn, but there was sufficient reference to it during this book for me to pick up the gist. Having now read Newborn I would definitely like to go back and read her earlier work.

Kerry Hudson is a remarkable woman who has overcome great difficulties in her life. This is a brilliantly honest memoir. Not many of us would be brave enough to share our vulnerabilities in the way that she has and she is to be admired for it.

In Newborn, she has written a candid and authentic account of the challenges of pregnancy and new motherhood whilst trying to deal with personal illness in a foreign country. In fact, her descriptions of living in Prague are vibrant and imbue the book with life and colour. The difficulties of living as an expat whilst pregnant and during the pandemic were not insignificant as Ms. Hudson describes her experience extremely well.

She is an excellent writer and has honed her skill as a journalist. She tells her story succinctly and without sentimentality. She writes with intelligence and integrity and I highly recommend this book.

ISBN:  978 1784744991

Publisher:  Chatto & Windus

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages:  272 (hardback)

About the Author:

Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen. Her first novel, TONY HOGAN BOUGHT ME AN ICE-CREAM FLOAT BEFORE HE STOLE MY MA was published in 2012 by Chatto & Windus (Penguin Random House) and was the winner of the Scottish First Book Award while also being shortlisted for the Southbank Sky Arts Literature Award, Guardian First Book Award, Green Carnation Prize, Author’s Club First Novel Prize and the Polari First Book Award. Kerry’s second novel, THIRST, was published in 2014 by Chatto & Windus and won France’s most prestigious award for foreign fiction the Prix Femina Étranger. It was also shortlisted for the European Premio Strega in Italy. Her books are also available in the US (Penguin), France (Editions Philippe Rey), Italy (Minimum Fax) and Turkey.

Her book and memoir, LOWBORN, takes her back to the towns of her childhood as she investigates her own past and what it means to be poor in Britain today. It was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, a Guardian and Independent Book of the Year. It was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and Portico Prize and shortlisted in the National Book Token, Books Are My Bag Reader’s Awards and the Saltire Scottish Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

(book courtesy of the publisher)

(all opinions are my own)

Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr - #bookreview

 

She couldn't think about the voicemail. Katherine inhaled sharply. The muscles in her neck clenched. She took another deep breath, willing herself to relax. She wouldn't think about it. Not today. Instead, she thought of Patrick. Patrick, who managed to get to work on time, who kept perfect records for his clients, who never forgot a friend's birthday, but could not, no matter how much she emphasized the importance of it, put the keys in the bowl by the front door.

They needed a second set. They'd had a second set, of course, but Patrick had lost it.

***

TWO WOMEN. ONE BABY. A FIGHT LIKE NO OTHER.

Katherine has everything under control.

After years of struggling to conceive with her partner, Patrick, she finally gives birth to Rose, her IVF miracle child. But she's afraid that Rose may not be her daughter, her pale skin not matching Katherine's own.

pTess never got her happy ending.

Just like Katherine, she was also a hopeful IVF mother, but her daughter, Hanna, was stillborn. Now divorced, broke and stuck in a dead-end job, she's beginning to lose all hope.

But when Rose is ten months old, both women get a call from the fertility clinic. There was a mistake: their eggs were switched.

It will take a custody battle like no other to decide who will get to be Rose's mother – a battle that will push them both to the brink...

This is a story about what it means to be a mother, and the lengths we go to for the people we love.

***

I have not read anything quite like this before and I was absolutely gripped by it.

The babies switched at birth and given to the wrong parents is a familiar trope. However, the author takes this premise but has the eggs switched prior to uterine implantation at a fertility clinic. This was a very interesting take and it forces the reader to consider their own reaction if they were in a similar position.

It also provides for an interesting peek into the world of IVF, and I learnt much about the process in this book.  It made for a fascinating read with the chapters moving from the perspectives of Katherine, the birth mother, and Tess, the biological mother. Their viewpoints were emotional and my heart broke for both of them.

It is a heart-rending and thought provoking novel which has been well written and deals with issues concerning ethics, race and moral dilemma. There is much to unpack in this book and it would lend itself very well to book group discussion.

I highly recommend this excellent novel.

ISBN: 978 1802793321

Publisher:  Welbeck

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages:  432

About the Author:

Bestselling Women's Fiction and Contemporary author Charlene Carr is the youngest of four children and the only girl. Living in a house full of boys taught her to fight for what she wants and to always reach higher (you have to when everyone in your family towers above you).

She spent much of her childhood creating elaborate, multi-faceted storylines for her dolls and reading under the blankets with a flashlight when she was supposed to be asleep.

A bit of a nomad, she’s lived in four countries and seven Canadian provinces. After travelling the globe for several years and working an array of mostly writing related jobs, she decided the time had come to focus exclusively on her true love—crafting stories.

Charlene is a novelist and stay-at-home mom: her two dream jobs. She lives in Nova Scotia, Canada and loves exploring the coastline of her harbour town with her husband and young daughter.