Book-Mad-Mum

  Anna Wilson travels the world as a professional housesitter – stepping into other people’s lives - caring for their homes, pets and sometimes even neighbours. Living vicariously.   All Anna has ever really wanted is a home of her own – a proper one, filled with family and love and happy memories. If only she knew where to start.   Growing up in foster care, she always envied her friends their secure and carefree lives, their certainty and confidence. And, while those same friends may have become her family of choice, Anna is still stuck in that nomadic cycle, looking for answers, trying to find the courage to put down roots and find a place to call home.   I will be completely honest here – I originally started this book a few weeks ago and put it aside as I didn’t think it was for me. Then I read some of the reviews with people saying how great it was, and so I picked it up and started again, and am I glad I did!! This book tells the story of Anna, a woman...

  Tara Tremain has worked hard to leave the controlling grasp of her extremely affluent family far behind. Building a life in medicine as a junior doctor she meets Alex Carter and together they build an intense relationship. However Alex isn’t all that he seems. Fast forward ten years and Tara is now an Intensive Care Consultant and together with her friends and family she travels to Costa Rica where she is called upon to help a local boy who is desperately ill. His treatment will mean that Tara has to travel deep in the perilous jungle in order to help him, but then she discovers that she needs the help of the man who betrayed her and destroyed her life ten years ago. I loved this book, although Tara was a very wealthy young woman (I’m not!) I could still relate to her and I loved her friend Holly who kept her grounded although they were from completely different backgrounds. The book is set amongst the hustle and bustle of London, but also the more laid back, tranquil, white ...

  The day before Izzie’s 13 th birthday, her mother walks out on the family following an argument with their father, and so it falls to Izzy then take responsibility for her younger sister Linda.     But when a handsome Italian chef moves to Worthing and offers Izzie a job in his cafe, she is forced to choose between her responsibilities and her desires. Then her mother resurfaces, and Izzie discovers there’s more to her abandonment than meets the eye.     Will Izzie be able to come to terms with the past in order to pursue the future she deserves? This was a lovely story, and although I’ve never been to Worthing the places were described in such a way that I can imagine myself walking through the streets, along onto the sea front and sipping coffee in Giacomo’s café that Giacomo. With regards to the characters, Izzy seemed to take the weight of the world on her shoulders, whereas Linda was a wily little minx who needed someone to tell her a f...