This book by Kirsty Crawford looks closely at women, and their relationships. It features three women, all very different. The woman widowed at an early age with young children now wondering where she went wrong and why they'd rather talk to anyone but her about their problems, the woman married to a man who can keep her in the lifestyle she wants but who has the unwanted baggage of a teenage daughter, and the woman happily married with children but about to be uprooted for her husband's dream existence. Their lives become inextricably linked, but who will come out still smiling by the end of it?
The three women in question are Jane, Sam and Bella respectively. Whilst to the outsider each looks highly content in their own situation, each woman is hugely unhappy. Jane has had to sell off half of her family home in order to try and save the rest of it for her children - Sam and her husband Ben along with his daughter Emma now occupy the other half of the house. Jane had hoped for friendship with these very close neighbours, but the glamorous Sam doesn't want anything to do with Jane - a woman who seems horribly old and frumpy. When Jane sells the lodge at the end of her property to Bella and her husband Iain she hopes beyond hope that they may be more friendly. Sam soon has her claws into Bella, the only other relatively young woman in the area, but Bella is determined to enter fully into the idylic lifestyle that Iain uprooted them for.
This book follows the women, and their friends and familes, through holidays, illnesses, family troubles, and a whole host of romantic liasions - many of them forbidden.
Whilst the book aims to be careful in it's examination of the women, at times it sadly falls short. It doesn't quite reach the heady heights it aims for, but is definitely well on its way. The characters are in general well created, but the plot is a little patchy in places. Luckily this doesn't detract too much from the overall novel and as a debut this is definitely worth a look.
Like this? Try 'Notes on a Scandal' by Zoe Heller.
