I am lucky enough to be a runner up in the competition to win a copy of the above-named book.
What an enticing title for someone like me who has been married 3 times!
I had found the book to be a slow starter. It is the old familiar story of a beautiful woman marrying a widower and taking on board his family, with all the joys, trials and tribulations therein.
It does pick up the pace, but is a long way from the insistent page-turner which I personally prefer if reading a novel. The author has gone to great lengths to describe her characters, and some of the situations in which the people find themselves make for good reading, but unfortunately half-way through a gripping scene one often finds a big fat paragraph full of description, which, although beautifully written, does interrupt the flow and therefore looses the thread.
This is somewhat reminiscent of a Maeve Binchy, whose books I sadly miss. And I can't help but compare this book to hers. I no longer read novels, frankly, so perhaps I'm not the best judge of this book. At my age of 72 I tend to go more for the "how-to" titles, as I love to learn.
The author has plainly gone to enormous lengths to make the tale well-written, honing her craft, and compared to thousands of modern novelists, it is. There are parts of it which I enjoy, and I am very conscious at the same time that it is not something to which I would naturally gravitate, given the choice, if I were to be let loose in Waterstones.
Having said all that, and being very picky, I suspect that other folk will find it enchanting.
To think that London, or anywhere else for that matter, does not belong to any one demographic
Another Tired Kicking For The Sick And Disabled By Rishi
Do you still have all your own teeth?
