Book-Mad-Mum

California Summer by Anita Hughes My rating: 4 of 5 stars Rosie and Ben have been together for a decade, a young couple intent on hitting Hollywood and wowing the glitterati with their film making skills - he's a director and she's a producer. When Ben hits the big time, Rosie discovers that her lover, friend and colleague has been unfaithful to her, and the bottom falls out of her world. She decides to leave the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood Hills, and goes to stay with her friends parent's in their sprawling mansion in Montecito. In the little town, Rosie soon blends in and makes new friends with Rachel who owns the chocolate shop, Morris the butler, and Josh the surfer. Taking to the kitchen to cook her anxieties away, Rosie discovers it’s a place she feels happy and relaxed in, and when everyone raves over her fish tacos, the idea of opening her own shop grows from a seed of an idea to an actual thing! This is a novel about frien...

The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh My rating: 5 of 5 stars Sarah bumps into Eddie whilst out walking one day, and they go to the pub for a drink, which then turns into six glorious days together before Sarah has to return to her home in LA and Eddie has to go on holiday to Spain. They have fallen in love, and neither of them have been so certain of anything else in their lives. Eddie promises to call from the airport, but he doesn’t call, and all contact ends. Sarah’s friends told her to forget him and move on but she just can as she knows something must be wrong. Then Sarah discovers why Eddie didn’t call. This is an amazing book. All the way through it I thought I’d sussed out several different scenarios, and I was wrong about every single one!! It had more twists and turns than a roller coaster at Thorpe Park, but I still encountered a knot in my stomach, and on several occasions, I read pages and pages whilst holding my breath. Rush out a...

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan My rating: 1 of 5 stars What complete and utter drivel this book was! Believe me, I really tried to like it, but if I'm honest, the only bit I liked were the six pages at the end. We meet the two main characters of the book, Florence and Edward in their honeymoon suite at a hotel on Chesil Beach in Dorset. It is 1962, and the world is still innocent when it comes to sex. The book then centres on the next two hours of their lives. ...And that's it! Ian McEwan managed to eek two hours out into a 166 page novel with the last six pages crammed with the next two decades! In fact, I felt the last six pages should have been the start of the novel. I was really looking forward to this book, as I was keen to go and see the film, but having read the book, I certainly won't waste any more time going to see the movie. If you haven't got a paint patch to watch dry, then certainly pick up this book, but watching the pa...

The Single Mums' Mansion: For all fans of Motherland, Allison Pearson and Hurrah for Gin by Janet Hoggarth My rating: 4 of 5 stars Amanda and her husband Sam live with their three children under five in a large Victorian house in London which is in need to love and attention, but it would seem that the house is not the only thing in need of a bit of TLC, when Sam declares he’s “lost the love” and walks out. A few months later, while Amanda is nursing her broken heart, her heavily pregnant friend Abi crashes into the kitchen saying that her husband is about to do the same. Once the baby is born, and with no where to live, Ali moves into Amanda’s attic with baby Grace. When long lost friend Jacqui appears back on the scene, also a single mum, she pops in daily for updates and chats and now the house is complete. I had never read a book by Janet Hoggarth before, and I was hooked initially, relating to the story as I too was once a single mum, so I f...