POPULAR FICTION
AN UNSUITABLE MATCH by Joanna Trollope (Mantle £18.99) Trollope is the queen of lifestyle fiction, so good at posh detail that the houses in her novels are easily as interesting as the characters. This latest revolves around a luxury dwelling: divorcee rose’s Fitzrovia mews home. Should she sell it and move to the country now she’s been swept off her feet by old flame Tyler?
Her three children are divided down King lear lines; two have eyes on a lump sum while the other fears their mother is compromising her future security. Will rose see sense, or follow her heart? The plot, knitting all the couple’s children together in a web of mutual interest, is clever and has some unexpected outcomes. The scenes also abound with delicious contemporary tropes. An absorbing, slickly executed treat. COMING HOME by Fern Britton (Harper-Collins £12.99) Single mother Sennen ran away from Cornwall as a teenager, leaving her baby son and daughter to be brought up by her broken-hearted parents. Her father dies without ever seeing Sennen again and her son carries anger and rejection inside him for decades.
it’s quite a charge sheet; can our heroine ever redeem herself — both in her own eyes and those of the reader?
She’s helped enormously by the novel’s lush settings, from the sea-girt Cornish countryside to the rich colours and scents of the indian city of Agra, where Sennen has a whole new family with a handsome Sikh ( who is quite possibly the book’s best character).
And her daughter ella turns out to be the forgiving type, too — the novel culminates with some warm scenes at her boho-chic wedding.
it’s a moving read and the subject is sensitively handled. But i still felt dreadfully sorry for Sennen’s parents. SAIL AWAY by Celia Imrie (Bloomsbury £12.99) Celia imrie writes comic dramas about women of a certain age in sun- soaked locations. This latest is set mostly during a luxury cruise to new York.
passengers include former famous actress Suzy, who is working her passage in the ship’s theatre following the collapse of her latest play, and chaotic widow Amanda, who’s killing time before moving into a new london flat.
The best thing about this book is the hilarious insight, via resigned but resilient Suzy, into the actor’s precarious life.
Amanda’s experience as a mother of entitled and charmless children (a situation which seems to be shared by many in this week’s reviews) is also wonderfully well-observed.
The overcomplicated plot is less successful, however; tortured twists and turns culminate in the exposure of an evil con man. But there’s plenty of good-natured fun here for imrie fans.