‘No one gets to the heart of human relationships quite so perceptively as Brookfield.’ The Mirror
On a normal day, in a normal house, on a normal street, wife and mother Fran has had enough. She packs a case, leaves a note for her bullying husband Pete, and one for her beloved twenty-year-old son Harry, and heads to the airport – and freedom.
In another house, on another street, Helena is desperately baiting her husband Jack into a fight.
These days it feels like the only way to get Jack to take notice of her. Passionate, volatile, increasingly fragile, Helena is fast running out of hope.
What Helena and Fran don’t know, is that soon their lives are going to come crashing together in ways neither expect nor understand. And if Fran and Helena are going to change their own futures, then first they will have to change each other’s.
Amanda Brookfield is back with a triumphant, crackling story about love, marriage, lies and fate,
and how our destinies can be changed by the smallest decisions. Perfect for fans of Sheila O’Flanagan, Jane Fallon and Jane Green.
Amanda Brookfield is the bestselling author of many novels including Good Girls, Relative Love and Before I Knew You, and a memoir, For the Love of a Dog starring her Golden Doodle Mabel.
She lives in London.
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My thoughts:
What starts out as a seemingly normal affair gone awry slowly folds out into the full horrors of living with human monsters fuelled by anger and addiction. Both Fran and Jack are running from the spouses they hate when they meet – they both find something in each other that’s lacking in their marriages.
But things aren’t going the way they want and soon Fran has to make some serious decisions about her life. Jack’s wife Helena has to do the same if she wants her husband back.
Two women with their happiness at stake need to find the strength to get what they really want out of life.
Enjoyable and at times shocking, there was a moment when I genuinely gasped with horror, this ultimately redemptive novel is a great read and Fran a strong and courageous character.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
