Author: marian keyes

Thick books about families are always a favourite. In this case the family consists of three brothers, their wives, their children and their exes.

Johnny and Jessie were work partners before they married. They have loads of money (it would seem) and happily spend it on lavish events and vacations for everyone. Ed and Cara struggle to keep up with their bills but are very happily married until an eating disorder threatens everything. Liam and Nell are newlyweds after Liam’s divorce from his first wife; Nell is much younger than Liam but they seem happy. As Johnny’s 49th birthday approaches all hell is going to break loose.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: J.T. Ellison

Mindy and her parents, Jasper and Lauren, appear to be the perfect family. They live in a skiing town and Mindy is about to make the US Olympic Ski Team. When a terrible accident on the slopes breaks her leg Mindy is out of the competition for the moment. But as doctors are repairing her leg they find she has an aggressive form of leukaemia. As the search for a stem cell donor begins the secrets Lauren has been hiding start to be revealed. She is trying desperately to keep it all together but will she succeed?

I stayed up until after midnight last night so I could finish the book, not because it needed to be back at the library but because I had to know how it was going to turn out.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Tarryn Fisher

Thursday (yes, that’s her real name) is involved in a polygamist marriage. The wives don’t live together and they’ve never met but they know about each other. Seth, their husband, splits his time between the three women, spending one night with Thursday (on Thursday as it happens). Thursday has agreed to this arrangement because she’s afraid of losing Seth if she doesn’t. But Thursday wants to find out about the over wives, even knowing that she risks everything should Seth find out.

The interesting turn the book takes was very unexpected.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Ashley Audrain

Blythe is hesitant about becoming a mother but it is something her husband really wants. But when Violet is born her motherly instincts don’t kick in and she has trouble bonding with her child. She watches Violet as she grows and has concerns about what she sees in her daughter’s behaviour but her husband says she is imagining things. When their son is born it is a completely different feeling. Blythe dotes on Sam and Sam dotes on her. Until a terrible accident takes Sam’s life. But was it really an accident?

In the beginning I didn’t like the format of the book; very short chapters, often only two or three pages. But since each chapter was so short it was easy to read “just one more” and the book was finished in no time.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *