Tag: contemporary fiction

Blog Tour/Book Review: This Is Me by Shari Low

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Shari Low’s latest book, This Is Me.   You can read my review below.  Thanks to Vicky at Aria for inviting me to participate in the tour and for my review copy.

ARIA_LOW_THIS IS ME_EAbout the Book

This is… Denise.

Married to Ray, her first and only love, Denise has never for one moment regretted putting the husband she idolised on a pedestal above everyone and everything else. But, after forty years of marriage, he is gone, leaving Denise to discover that their perfect marriage was fatally flawed. Now she faces a future alone, but first she must face the betrayals of the past.

This is… Claire.

The estranged daughter of Denise, the woman who put her husband before her children, Claire took the opposite path and devoted her life to raising her family, sacrificing her marriage along the way. With her teenage sons about to flee the nest, she realises she may have left it too late to find her own happy ever after.

This is the story of two women, both alone, both cautionary tales of one of motherhood’s biggest decisions.

Who is more important, your partner or your children? And what happens if you make the wrong choice?

Format: ebook, paperback (372 pp.)    Publisher: Aria Fiction
Published: 2nd May 2019    Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com | Kobo
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find This Is Me on Goodreads

My Review

The prologue reveals one death provoking two very different reactions from mother and daughter, Denise and Claire. The reasons why, and for their estrangement, will become apparent over the course of the book through a series of flashbacks.

Some characters from Shari Low’s book, One Day in December, make a return appearance in This Is Me and there are brief references to events in the earlier book. I particularly enjoyed becoming reacquainted with the irrepressible Val and Josie – all wine, wisecracks and wisdom. They, along with her best friend Jeanna, form part of Claire’s support network as she struggles with her ’empty nest’ feelings now her two sons have left home. Her friends also provide the pretext for Claire’s reminiscences about her troubled relationship with her mother and father, her first meeting with future but now ex-husband, Sam, and their early years together. Along the way, Claire learns a few unexpected secrets as well!

Denise has no such support network meaning, although I found her life decisions and choices a challenge to comprehend, I could sympathize with the lonely situation she finds herself in and her despair at the things she discovers.

There was one character in the book I definitely could not sympathize with; in fact, who I loathed with a vengeance. Selfish, manipulative and deceitful, I simply couldn’t understand how a person could inspire such devotion. On the other hand, Claire’s ex-husband Sam, seemed a positive paragon.

The book presents the choice the two women make – between putting their children or their partner first – in pretty black and white terms. I’d like to hope in real life there are shades in between.

This Is Me is an engaging, emotional story about motherhood, relationships and the choices we often face in our personal lives. In some respects a cautionary tale, it’s also a celebration of female friendship and the possibility of new beginnings and, just maybe, second chances.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Aria, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Heartfelt, emotional, engaging

Try something similar…One Day in December by Shari Low (read my review here)

ShariLowAbout the Author

Shari Low is the No.1 best-selling author of over 20 novels, including One Day In December, A Life Without You, The Story Of Our Life, With Or Without You and Another Day In Winter. And because she likes to over-share toe-curling moments and hapless disasters, she is also the shameless mother behind a collection of parenthood memories called Because Mummy Said So.

Once upon a time she met a guy, got engaged after a week, and twenty-something years later she lives near Glasgow with her husband, a labradoodle, and two teenagers who think she’s fairly embarrassing except when they need a lift.

Connect with Shari

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

 

 

Book Review: Louis & Louise by Julie Cohen

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louis & louiseAbout the Book

ONE LIFE. LIVED TWICE.

Louis and Louise are the same person born in two different lives. They are separated only by the sex announced by the doctor and a final ‘e’.

They have the same best friends, the same red hair, the same dream of being a writer, the same excellent whistle. They both suffer one catastrophic night, with life-changing consequences.

Thirteen years later, they are both coming home.

A tender, insightful and timely novel about the things that bring us together – and those which separate us, from the author of Richard & Judy recommended book Together

Format: Hardcover, ebook, (304 pp.)    Publisher: Orion
Published: 24th January 2019                Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Louis & Louise on Goodreads

My Review

Despite its clever concept, questions about gender identity came less to the fore than I was expecting. I found myself wondering how much of what happens to Louis/Louise in the book is actually a product of their gender and social stereotyping and how much (aside from things that have obvious biological limitations) might have happened to either of them anyway? Some key events, such as bereavement, happen to both of them, others to only one. It seemed to me that this determined what followed as much perhaps as the fact of their gender.

The author juxtaposes Louis and Louise who are two iterations of the same person with Allie and Benny, non-identical twins who nevertheless look alike. At times, I felt the story became more about Allie and Benny as it is they who propel many of the events.  Also, I did find it a little difficult at times to remember what happened in each life (especially as both characters are often referred to as ‘Lou’) and had to resort to drawing myself a chart.

In Casablanca, Maine, the reader gets an evocative portrait of small-town America. A place that has become slightly rundown over the years due to the impact of economic decline but where everyone knows everyone else and life is built around community events and small acts of neighbourliness. There were some clever touches such as the fact the book Louis writes is about a woman who posed as a man. I also really liked the depiction of the relationship between Louis’s mother and father. Even when separated there was a touching love and understanding between them.  And there were unexpected elements of melodrama between the subtle character studies that exemplify Julie Cohen’s writing.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Orion, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Intimate, character-driven, well-observed

Try something similar… Oliver Loving by Stefan Merrill Block (read my review here)

Julie CohenAbout the Author

Julie Cohen grew up in the western mountains of Maine. Her house was just up the hill from the library and she spent many hours walking back and forth, her nose in a book. She studied English Literature at Brown University and Cambridge University and is a popular speaker and teacher of creative writing, including classes for The Guardian and Literature Wales. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages and have sold nearly a million copies; Dear Thing was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Julie lives in Berkshire with her husband, son and a terrier of dubious origin. (Photo credit: Goodreads author page)

Connect with Julie

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ Goodreads