JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

My Daughter’s Wedding by Gretel Killeen

Nora Fawn’s daughter, Hope, disappeared four years ago. Nora has never known why. Refusing to answer her mother’s calls, emails or texts, Hope maintained contact only with her big sister, Joy. Having once considered her mothering to be the greatest achievement of her life, Nora’s spent these Hope-less years searching, aching, mother-guilting, working for a famous yet talentless artist and avoiding her own emotionally repressed mother, Daphne.

But … last night Hope rang out of the blue to say, ‘I’m coming home, I’m getting married, the wedding is in three weeks and it’s your job to organise it.’ Desperate to prove her worth as a mother and regain her daughter’s love, Nora commits to the task – assisted by her own increasingly dementia’d mother and her two best friends, Soula (an amateur bikini-line waxer) and Thilma (whom they found in a cab in the 1980s).

Contemporary women’s fiction about three generations of mother-daughter love, Gretel Killeen’s My Daughter’s Wedding is a fast-paced exploration into the complex family dynamics between women, and how broken relationships can always be mended.

I liked the structure of the novel, and the premise. My Daughter’s Wedding is formatted as a diary entry, which feels instantly accessible. You’re placed right in the centre of the action, and you’re involved in the journey the entire way. The concept of the estranged daughter allows Nora to reflect on her past mistakes, and we also witness a lot of similarities between Nora and her own mother.

The book is filled with a large cast of eccentric characters, all with interesting backstories and tiny quirks that make them memorable. This definitely feels similar to Gretel’s other fictional works — all quite out-of-this-world, wacky tales.

“Yes, it was after all that, when I was looking for Hope’s birth certificate in preparation for registering her wedding, that I found you, Dear Diary. And it was then that I decided to quietly start writing in you over the forthcoming wedding week as evidence of how perfectly I’ve behaved should anything untoward come to pass and anyone/everyone try to blame me.”

Unfortunately, this book didn’t live up to its potential. Yes, it’s a unique, funky story. No doubt about it. But I felt that the characterisation and the growth that’s required in a novel — even a comedic one — just wasn’t present in this. I think Gretel was going for a mad cap adventure, but the main character is in her 50s and the readership are adults and I’m just not sure that it works. No spoilers, but the entire storyline/premise about Aspen was too over-the-top to be enjoyable.

“I didn’t know what to say. Mum has always been great at winning arguments with me but appalling at confronting what we’re actually arguing about. I can’t blame her, I’m guilty of this too. I obfuscate and pussyfoot and hedge around the subject, for fear in fact of exactly what happened just now, an argument that leaves Mum feeling victorious and me feeling violated.”

Admittedly, I just didn’t find this book as humorous as the blurb suggested. There were a few chuckles, but mainly, I found the voice to be quite impenetrable. Nora is supposed to be in her 50s but she reads like an adolescent — stream of consciousness, scatty, unfocused, and just a little too silly to be believable as a character.

Additionally, the plot gets more absurd as the book goes on. There are commendable moments of depth, and character development, but the absurdity of the storyline seemingly dilutes these profound, notable aspects in the book. And the pacing is so quick, there isn’t really enough time to get to the know the characters, and so you don’t really find yourself warming to them.

“It’s been said that a mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child. I know this to be true. When a woman becomes a mother she loses all emotional independence. And this can never be changed. The umbilical cord is never cut. The scissors just make it invisible.”

A very light read. Recommended as a beach read, or an airport purchase.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

My Daughter’s Wedding
Gretel Killeen
February 2021
Hachette Book Publishers

I Give My Marriage A Year by Holly Wainwright

Lou and Josh have been together for 14 years. They share two kids, a mortgage, careers and plenty of history. Now, after a particularly fraught Christmas, Lou is ready to ask herself: is this marriage worth hanging on to?

Every month for a year, Lou sets a different test for their relationship – from daily sex to brutal honesty – to help her decide if she should stay or go. Secrets are exposed, old wounds reopened and a true-to-life suburban love story unfolds.

I Give My Marriage a Year paints a sharply accurate, often hilarious picture of a modern Australian marriage. Lou and Josh are a couple on the edge, and their efforts to bring their relationship back from the brink will resonate with anyone who has ever asked themselves: is this enough?

Whose side will you take? Who deserves a second chance? And will Josh and Lou stay together or split for good?

Holly Wainwright’s I Give My Marriage A Year is contemporary women’s fiction spanning twelve months. We meet Lou and Josh after they’ve been together for 14 years and are raising two daughters. Frustrated and exhausted, Lou is giving herself 12 months to decide if she wants to stay married to Josh.

Each month, Lou sets different tasks to help her determine the longevity of their relationship. Sex every day. Therapy. Fun. Positivity. Honesty. Etc. And at the end, she has to make a decision about the future of their relationship.

The novel is well-written, well-rounded, with brief but illuminating snapshots into Lou and Josh’s lives. Each chapter evokes sympathy and empathy for the characters, presenting alternate sides to the marriage and allowing the reader to delve into the foundation of their relationship.

“This was the kind of thought he used to share with Lou. Once, she would have laughed if he said that out loud to her. Looking towards the car, Josh could tell by the set of her shoulders that she would choose note to find that funny these days. Especially not now.”

Truthfully, the characters are wildly unlikable — Lou is probably the most unlikable. She’s bitter, unapologetic. And whilst her husband isn’t perfect, I couldn’t focus much on his character because I was so distracted by my own dislike of Lou. The only likeable character in the whole book was Lou’s best friend Gretchen.

And yet, I liked this book? I kept reading? I found myself incredibly invested in their marriage? I found myself recognising others in their relationship — in their fights, their arguments, their means of pushing through an uncomfortable moment. I don’t think you can write this kind of book with likeable people in mind. Relationships are messy and ugly, and your partner sees the worst in you. We’re seeing the worst in Lou and Josh.

“They used to talk about everything, the two of them, lying in bed. It was his favourite place to be in the world, on his side, looking at Lou, listening to her talk. He liked to play with her hair while she told him stories about the kids she was teaching, about her friends, about the news, and politics.”

Stylistically, the book is a bit overwhelming. Not only do we flick back and forth between Lou and Josh in the present, we also flick back and forth between Lou and Josh in the past. So essentially, it feels like there are four timelines working to construct the history of their relationship. Not every chapter felt necessary — not every chapter felt seamless.

It does feel like this is a unique addition to the contemporary women’s fiction genre. So many stories are written about the start of a relationship, or the end of one, but what about the middle? What about when it’s been fourteen years and you’re struggling to decide whether to stay or to go? Many readers, all at different stages of a relationship, will gravitate towards this novel.

“If Lou was curious about why Josh was suddenly making plans for them, after more than a decade of her being the one who made social arrangements, organised ‘date nights’ and controlled the calendar, she didn’t say so.”

The secondary characters contributed an added layer of depth to the story and its characters. Lou and Josh’s attitude towards love, relationships, and resolving conflict can be seen in their parents’ relationships as well.

Additionally, any readers pursuing some sort of creative career may recognise themselves in Josh. He was an aspiring musician but then took a job in carpentry to help Lou with bills, and building a family. Years later, he feels like he missed an opportunity to pursue a career he really wanted.

Absorbing and intoxicating. Readership skews female, 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I Give My Marriage A Year
Holly Wainwright
September 2020
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Confession by Jessie Burton

One winter’s afternoon on Hampstead Heath in 1980, Elise Morceau meets Constance Holden and quickly falls under her spell. Connie is bold and alluring, a successful writer whose novel is being turned into a major Hollywood film. Elise follows Connie to LA, a city of strange dreams and swimming pools and late-night gatherings of glamorous people. But whilst Connie thrives on the heat and electricity of this new world where everyone is reaching for the stars and no one is telling the truth, Elise finds herself floundering. When she overhears a conversation at a party that turns everything on its head, Elise makes an impulsive decision that will change her life forever.

Three decades later, Rose Simmons is seeking answers about her mother, who disappeared when she was a baby. Having learned that the last person to see her was Constance Holden, a reclusive novelist who withdrew from public life at the peak of her fame, Rose is drawn to the door of Connie’s imposing house in search of a confession …

The Confession by Jessie Burton is an intimate, moving novel about the power of women, and their relationship with each other. In a letter accompanying the book, Jessie acknowledges that the book is about the physical, psychological and spiritual autonomy of women —it explores love, sex, friendship, family and work, and how these things are vital to a woman’s self-esteem and sense of self. The Confession, in many ways, is an exploration of female identity.

The book follows a dual timeline, switching back and forth between 1980s, when Elise and Connie’s paths cross, to decades later in 2017, when Elise’s daughter Rose is on a desperate search to find her mother.

Elise is beautiful, young and naive — too trusting, but also desperate for love and connection. She meets the much older Constance Holden, who is bold and confident, sure of herself and charismatic. Constance is a writer whose novel is about to be turned into a Hollywood film, and when the two being a relationship, Elise follows Connie to Los Angeles.

“Elise closed her eyes and thought about how, at dinner parties, there are always other conversations not being shared. Matt and Shara and their unseen baby, lost like a ghost inside their marriage. Elise wondered whether there was any pain left in Shara’s body now, or whether it was just in her head, an occasional guest who led her down a staircase that only she could tread.”

Elise is easily overwhelmed once she moves to Los Angeles. Connie grows a bit distant and their relationship grows strained. Soon, Elise is finding comfort in someone else’s arms — someone she shouldn’t be pursuing.

In present day 2017, Rose wants to track down her missing mother. Elise abandoned Rose and her father when she was very little, and no one has heard from her since. Does Connie know? Rose creates an alias and takes a job as Connie’s assistant, working quickly to find out what happened to Elise all those years ago.

“Connie’s eyes were moist, her gnarled fingers resting on either arm of the chair as if it was a throne. She’d spoken so much, unpacking herself, and she looked exhausted. I watched as her face folded slowly into a picture of sadness. I wanted to go to her, to comfort her, to tell her that my mother was in this room, an old love, an invisible thread, trying together the ones she’d left behind.”

The three women are incredibly complex — we meet them all intimately over the course of the novel. We see them in private moments, when they’re scared or challenged. We witness their weakest moments and their strongest.

Characterisation is one of the strengths of the novel, taking us deep inside the minds and motivations of Elise, Connie and Rose. They’re all so unique and their voices so distinct — Jessie has done an exceptional job of capturing each of their personalities so vividly.

“An electric sense of my skin, my hands and feet. I did not feel triumphant. But I did, in an interesting way, feel more free. To be always waiting and wanting had been my most natural state to be. To be yearning for something, rather than having the guts to make it real.”

The Confession is a fabulous, luminous read, tackling friendship, women, motherhood, parenting and the complexities of relationships. Fans of literary fiction, women’s fiction, and the importance of strong, female-led stories will love this. I haven’t yet read Jessie Burton’s previous works but now I plan to go out and buy her books. Her writing is seamless and evocative — her sentences structure flawless.

Highly recommend.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Confession
Jessie Burton
October 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Matters of the Heart by Fiona Palmer

A classic love story about manners, men and modern romance.

Western Australia, 2019: The Bennets are a farming family struggling to make ends meet. Lizzy, passionate about working the land, is determined to save the farm. Spirited and independent, she has little patience for her mother’s focus on finding a suitable man for each of her five daughters.

When the dashing Charles Bingley, looking to expand his farm holdings, buys the neighbouring property of Netherfield Park, Mrs Bennet and the entire district of Coodardy are atwitter with gossip and speculation. Will he attend the local dance and is he single? These questions are soon answered when he and Lizzy’s sister Jane form an instant connection on the night. But it is Charlie’s best friend, farming magnate Will Darcy, who leaves a lasting impression when he slights Lizzy, setting her against him.

Can Lizzy and Will put judgements and pride aside to each see the other for who they really are? Or in an age where appearance and social media rule, will prejudice prevail?

Matters of the Heart by Fiona Palmer is a modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, set in farmlands in rural Western Australia.

Lizzy Bennet’s family have owned and run Longbourn for decades, and they’re not about to let a few rough years of drought force them to sell up and leave the town.

Charles Bingley, his sister Caroline Bingley, and his best friend Will Darcy soon arrive to the area after Charles buys the expensive neighbouring property Netherfield. If you’re familiar with Pride and Prejudice, you’ll know what comes next.

Despite the twenty-first century Australian setting, Matters of the Heart follows Pride and Prejudice pretty similarly. There are a few slight tweaks to the storyline, and some accelerations in pacing, but other than that, it’s pretty loyal to the original story. Any devoted fan of Pride and Prejudice – like me – will enjoy another fresh retelling of the classic tale.

“Ken Collins was shorter than Lizzy by half a head, and his hair was thick and black, resembling that of a Lego-man. He wore a leather belt with a shiny buckle as if he’d been a rodeo champ in his day. If you let him talk long enough he’d tell you about the time he rode a bucking bronco.”

The rural Australian setting was a nice touch to the story, and allowed us to see the Bennet family as a struggling but stoic unit. They’re supportive, compassionate, and they bond over the tough times they’ve had on the farm in previous years. The sisters are all vastly different – like in Pride and Prejudice – but they support one another and the older girls are a positive influence on the younger ones.

I did wonder if more creative liberties could’ve been taken, and if the storyline could’ve drifted a bit more from the original source. I love Pride and Prejudice, but I felt like I knew exactly where the story was going and so I didn’t feel a huge range of emotions when reading the book. I would’ve like a bit more of a difference between the book, and its source.

“You can’t save them all, her dad had said when she was six and saw her first mauled lamb. It’s nature; that lamb has fed a family of birds. It was a rough way to learn about the cycle of life, but in farming there was no shying away from it.”

This book showcases strong, independent women. Lizzie plans to take over Longbourn from her father and she is already running a lot of the operations on the farm. She’s capable, confident and she’s incredibly smart.

Lizzie is used to men assuming she doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s used to being questioned about who will run the farm after her father passes. But she’s sure of herself, and she doesn’t let others sway her opinion. She’s feisty and she’s fun, and her romance with Will Darcy is really heartwarming. I enjoyed reading about their blossoming romance — their quirks and their clashes, and their respect for each other.

There are moments of humour scattered throughout the book. Ken Collins is ridiculous and clueless, just like his inspiration. Kitty and Lydia are overdramatic and self-centred, but they bring a smile to your face, and Will and Lizzie have incredible chemistry on the page that you can’t help but adore.

“The top envelope was addressed to Jane and Lizzy. The invitation was fancy, handmade with care, but Lizzy couldn’t imagine Charlie or Caroline making them. Probably paid someone to do them. Across the top it read Bingley Barbecue.”

I recommend this to Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen fans, although be aware the story doesn’t venture outside the original plot-lines quite like I’d expected.

Fans of romance will enjoy this, as will any Australian reader interested in rural settings or books set amongst farmland. Matters of the Heart reminded me of McLeod’s Daughters — strong women showing men how capable they can be on their own.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Matters of the Heart
Fiona Palmer
September 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle by Sophie Green

It’s 1982 in Australia. The Man from Snowy River is a box office hit and Paul Hogan is on the TV.

In a seaside suburb, housewife Theresa takes up swimming. She wants to get fit; she also wants a few precious minutes to herself. So at sunrise each day she strikes out past the waves.

From the same beach, the widowed Marie swims. With her husband gone, bathing is the one constant in her new life.

After finding herself in a desperate situation, 25-year-old Leanne only has herself to rely on. She became a nurse to help others, even as she resists help herself.

Elaine has recently moved from England. Far from home and without her adult sons, her closest friend is a gin bottle.

In the waters of Shelly Bay, these four women find each other. They will survive bluebottle stings and heartbreak; they will laugh so hard they swallow water, and they will plunge their tears into the ocean’s salt. They will find solace and companionship, and learn that love takes many forms. Most of all, they will cherish their friendship, each and every day.

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle is the latest novel from Australian author Sophie Green, this time introducing us to a fantastic group of women who bond over their love of the water.

The book is set in 1980s NSW, but there is so much about these women and their lives that can be understood by readers who may not have memories of the 1980s. These four women confront loss, grief, relationships, family, adultery, friendships, addictions, and mental health. Sophie Green explores these issues with sensitivity and compassion. You don’t need to live in a certain time period to understand these things — all readers will be able to understand or relate to a least a couple of the themes present in the book, and the discussions that are had between the women.

Swimming brings these four women together at a time when they’re all in need of friends. Theresa is married to a philandering, arrogant man and takes on the majority of the household responsibilities. Andrew doesn’t help out with the two kids, and Theresa is at a loss.

Marie is still mourning the death of her husband five years ago, and her best friend has recently moved quite some distance away — Marie is lonely.

Leanne recently moved to Shelly Bay and is a paediatric nurse at the local hospital. But, she finds it hard to connect with people. She’s distanced from her parents and her family, and she has quite a few skeletons in her closet that she struggles to talk about. She certainly struggles connecting with men, and hasn’t ever had a boyfriend.

Elaine is an alcoholic whose husband works all the time. She’s new to the country — having recently moved here from England — and she’s missing her sons. She turns to the bottle to comfort her loneliness.

“She really doesn’t want to play with them again, but she hasn’t managed to find another group activity that suits her, and if she doesn’t play tennis she will have absolutely no one to talk to apart from James, who works all day and half the night.”
ELAINE

Sophie Green is a really skilled writer, bringing these women to life and making the reader fall in love with each of them. The book switches POV between the four women, and despite the fact these women are all different ages and at different stages in their lives and their careers, their voices and stories are all so unique that you never grow tired of the plot, or of the writing.

Friendship is the dominant theme in the book, and is executed incredibly well. Women in particular will be able to relate to the close connections that these women form with each other over the course of the novel. The four women become a support network for each other, helping the others overcome the emotional and physical hurdles that they’re facing in their lives.

“Today is the day. After her lessons, and Matt’s reassurances that her freestyle is ‘coming along nicely’, Leanne is ready to swim in the ocean. With Theresa and her friends.”

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle shows us that we shouldn’t bury our pain or hide our struggles — we should learn to trust in others, and confront what it is that’s causing our pain. The book also highlights the importance of having quality friends, and that it’s never too late to build friendships and relationships with others.

Theresa, Marie, Leanne and Elaine share a lot of heartache in the book, but they also share a lot of laughs and tender moments. They grow over the course of the novel — not just their relationships with others, but their relationships with themselves.

“They’re always like this on the nights when Andrew doesn’t arrive home in time for dinner. They never say anything about him not being there, yet they cling harder to her. They want all of her time, and they’ll fight sleep to get it.”
THERESA

The setting of the novel is captured really strongly in the pages, and readers will easily be able to imagine the picturesque Shelly Bay location — even if they’ve never been to Sydney or Shelly Bay.

Sophie Green’s latest novel is just as satisfying as The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club — readers who like historical fiction, romance, and family sagas will enjoy this book.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle
Sophie Green
August 2019
Hachette Book Publishers