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A Very Accidental Love Story

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 233 ratings · 48 reviews

Eloise Elliot is one of the youngest newspaper editors in the country. Respected and revered by her peers, she’s at the top of her game.

But, on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, finding herself surrounded by some pathetic looking balloons and mangy sandwiches in The Daily Post’s conference room, Eloise is hit but a long sharp pang of loneliness.

Suddenly, and with dazzling...more

Paperback, 408 pages

Published September 27th 2012 by Avon (first published July 1st 2012)

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Jan 18, 2013 BestChickLit.com rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is the ultimate fairytale. Not only is it the classic boy meets girl, happy ever after with all the usual difficult obstacles to overcome, but it is also unbelievable. The plot was too far on the outrageous side to allow yourself to be fully sucked in. I enjoyed the way it was written, although predictable, it still left with you with bits to guess and I think Carroll has the hectic schedule and buzz of being a successful editor down to a tee. Jake is a very likeable character, you can...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Megan Readinginthesunshine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Eloise Elliot hits thirty – the big three zero, and is suddenly hit by a thought – What has she got to show for herself? Sure she’s good at her job, but when no one turns up to her birthday party Eloise knows there’s something missing. Suddenly she realises she wants someone to share her life with, and so off she goes to get it. Three years later – Eloise Elliot’s life is made up of work. Work, work, and more work. She works from 6am til perhaps midnight, and even Sunday’s which are her ‘mummy t...more Eloise Elliot hits thirty – the big three zero, and is suddenly hit by a thought – What has she got to show for herself? Sure she’s good at her job, but when no one turns up to her birthday party Eloise knows there’s something missing. Suddenly she realises she wants someone to share her life with, and so off she goes to get it. Three years later – Eloise Elliot’s life is made up of work. Work, work, and more work. She works from 6am til perhaps midnight, and even Sunday’s which are her ‘mummy time’ to spend the day with her beautiful three year old daughter, Lily, have to be cut short as she runs off to work, leaving Lily with the disastrous nanny. One day Eloise is met with the thing she dreaded most – Lily starts asking where her daddy is, and how can Eloise tell a three year old that she was created through artificial insemination? After Lily refuses to drop the subject, and with encouragement from Eloise’s sister Helen, Eloise embarks on a journey to find the man behind the carefully selected sperm.

I’d read novels by Claudia Carroll before so I was VERY very excited about this one, and I wasn’t disappointed. Straight from the first few pages I was drawn into the story and kept there, reading about how Eloise has a disastrous day that will set the ball rolling for everything else in her book. Within minutes I was cringing for Eloise and desperate to find out how she was going to deal with the curve-balls that were constantly being thrown at her.

A word to describe this book is splendid. It’s like a modern fairytale story with a twist. It’s sweet, it’s funny, and it has exactly the perfect level of drama to keep the reader gripped and turning the pages. And of course, where would a fairytale story be without a bit of romance? An accidental Love story was wonderful, it’s everything you could want in a book. I finished it in a day and a half, and even now I can’t stop telling my fiancé how much I REALLY loved the book!

The characters…well where do I begin with them? They were AMAZINGLY written! I feel as though each character was the PERFECT character for that role. Eloise is so likable right from the start, I found myself channelling her emotions, the terrifying feeling when she knows her job isn’t going well, and I was feeling giddy and giggly during the romance scenes, every word of the story struck me and stayed with me. Helen, Eloise’s sister was a fantastic addition, I genuinely liked her nature, personality, and I wish I had a friend like her. Lily is just a gorgeous little bundle of fun and I wanted to reach out and give her a hug. Jake…Oh gosh where do I start with him? Is he available in real life somewhere?! He is handsome, he’s funny, he’s sexy in a subtle way, and I fell head over heels for him! I only wish there was more of him in the story! The supporting characters were also well-written, the people at Eloise’s work such as Rachel and Marc were very realistic and I loved the small but valuable part that they played in the story.

A Very Accidental Love Story is officially one of my favourite books of the year! How do I sum this up? You MUST read this book! It’s funny, it’s romantic, it’s magical with a twist. Curling up with this book is an utterly perfect way to spend your day.
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Sep 24, 2012 Regina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit, favorites

I cannot believe I never read one of Carroll's books before. Because this one was just amazing, so funny and readable, it was just a joy to read it.

A Very Accidental Love Story tells the story of Eloise Elliot a thirty- something woman that is a workaholic. She just has no time to visit friends and family. But on the day of her 30th birthday, Eloise, realises that she wants more than just her career. She wants to be a mother, and to be so, she has artificial insemination. However, when her daug...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Leah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-2012, for-review

Claudia Carroll is an author that is rapidly climbing my favourite authors lists. I didn’t get on much with her debut novel, but her last two books (Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?) have been excellent rom-coms. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? particularly blew me away and I loved Annie’s tale. So after hearing Claudia’s new book A Very Accidental Love Story was about a woman who had a child through artificial insemination and then decides she needs t...more Claudia Carroll is an author that is rapidly climbing my favourite authors lists. I didn’t get on much with her debut novel, but her last two books (Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?) have been excellent rom-coms. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? particularly blew me away and I loved Annie’s tale. So after hearing Claudia’s new book A Very Accidental Love Story was about a woman who had a child through artificial insemination and then decides she needs to find out who he is just in case her daughter Lily ever decides to track him down, well, I was intrigued. Especially when Claudia revealed in our interview last year that Lily’s father is in prison, no less, and Eloise turns him into her pet project, in a bid to make him a much better prospect for her beautiful daughter.

I found A Very Accidental Love Story to be one that gave me varying opinions. On the one hand, I liked the novel. The idea (the plot is ingenious and it makes a change for a woman to have a baby sans a man), most of the characters (Ryan. Ryan. Ryan.), the writing was great – Claudia is a brilliant writer. But, I had bad bits. Eloise was a bit irritating at times. She’s a bit of a snob. Ryan as he was wasn’t good enough for Eloise (the prison bit, fair enough, but I just felt she tried to change him too much).

Also the writing was a bit repetitive in the early pages. Eloise kept saying how Lily wasn’t yet three years old, about five times in three pages, and I just wasn’t ever going to forget poor Lily wasn’t yet three. There was a couple of bits like that – also when she was first searching for Ryan and how she wanted him to be this and that and the other. It was little things like that. I also thought the third-person Prologue was odd. I’d have written it in first-person personally. However, the third person worked well when we were introduced to Ryan. I liked the switch from Eloise’s perspective to third-person so we could learn more about Ryan.

I liked the novel overall. Carroll knows her audiences and is one of the most accomplished Chick Lit writers. None of her novels are ever the same and with A Very Accidental Love Story, she’s written another novel no author has ever thought of writing and it was really good. I can’t wait to see what Carroll comes up with next. You just never know! I liked how that Eloise was uptight to begin with but as she and Ryan start a friendship, she starts to loosen up more and realise work isn’t all. (I actually felt sorry for poor Lily with no dad and a pretty much absent mum, though I understand that obviosuly Eloise had to work.) I’d very much recommend the novel, Claudia Carroll is such an accomplished Chick Lit author and I can’t wait for her next novel, she’s very much on my pre-order list.(less)

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Oct 04, 2012 Zanna Mackenzie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This a strange book. I read the intro and wanted to read more. I then started on the first part of the main book and swapped to hating the heroine - all she did was complain about how many hours she had to work and how stressed she was. At this point I almost gave up.

Then things got very interesting indeed and I was totally hooked. I almost skipped to the last chapter (something I never do!) so badly did I want to know how things turned out but I managed to resist and just kept reading and read...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Swati rated it 5 of 5 stars

Eloise Elliot is in her early thirties with powerful position of editor-in-chief of Post in one hand and nearly a three year old daughter Lily in another. She is fairly a perfect woman, dressed up in black head to toe, running up the entire newspaper literally singlehandedly and playing the role of single parent.

Her usual day starts at unusual hours and she spent eighteen hours in running in and out of the conference room dealing with evil Seth Coleman and impressing T.Rexes while her daughter s...more Eloise Elliot is in her early thirties with powerful position of editor-in-chief of Post in one hand and nearly a three year old daughter Lily in another. She is fairly a perfect woman, dressed up in black head to toe, running up the entire newspaper literally singlehandedly and playing the role of single parent.

Her usual day starts at unusual hours and she spent eighteen hours in running in and out of the conference room dealing with evil Seth Coleman and impressing T.Rexes while her daughter spent her days with not-so-perfect nanny. Despite of the guilt of not being able to spend enough time with the only joy in her life, her daughter, Eloise considers her life happy and family complete sans any man .

BUT one bright day she was snapped out her always-working world when her daughter asked her the most basic question “Where is my daddy”? Eloise knows no way to make a little girl understand that how and why Eloise opted for artificial insemination on the loneliest night of her thirtieth birthday. So after the insistence of her not-so-close sister Helen, Eloise finally decided to fulfil the wish of her little girl and embarked on the journey of hunting down the man whom 'those' sperms belonged to. When she started her journey, little did she know that she is looking for a man who is an ex-con and not some reputable businessman or national player of some sort which she so wanted to be true. When Eloise found drop-dead gorgeous Jack Keane she mustered all her guts and transformed him into a complete gentleman and when it was nearly a time to reunite her little girl with her nearly perfect daddy, everything fell apart.

Earlier I read Claudia Carroll’s ‘Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmother’ and was totally charmed by it. So when I got the opportunity to review ‘A Very Accidental Love Story’, I jumped at it. Everything about this book is gorgeous from cover to characters to story. This book is fast, upbeat and totally mesmerizing. Personally I completely loved Eloise and sometimes even felt sympathetic for her, one poor soul and so much to do. This book by far is the best book I have read in 2012.

Bottom Line: This Book is 10/10.
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Sep 16, 2012 Amanda rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit, garbage

0.5/5

Just utterly boring. I was surprised at how much I disliked this book. I thought Personally I Blame My Fairy Godmotherand Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?were okay.

A typical "want it all mother" with a high flying career has a spoiled child with a clichéd lisp that she doesn't give a damn about.

Child stamps her foot about not having a daddy. Mummy jumps to make it happen by lying to an ex-con who she ends up with.

If it all sounds too familiar, its because it's been done to death.

Avoid this...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely love the cover on this book and the synopsis really intrigued me so I couldn’t wait to get reading.

It starts with Eloise’s disastrous thirtieth birthday, being thirty is bad enough (I have that dreaded pleasure coming up in a few months) but the lack of friendly faces at the party makes her realise just how alone in life she really is. There and then she decides to change things and three years later it seems she has done just that by having Lily.

My first impression of Eloise was th...more I absolutely love the cover on this book and the synopsis really intrigued me so I couldn’t wait to get reading.

It starts with Eloise’s disastrous thirtieth birthday, being thirty is bad enough (I have that dreaded pleasure coming up in a few months) but the lack of friendly faces at the party makes her realise just how alone in life she really is. There and then she decides to change things and three years later it seems she has done just that by having Lily.

My first impression of Eloise was that she was very strong and if she put her mind to something it would get done. As the book progressed I began to see chinks in her armour, I actually enjoyed these moments that showed her to be a more sensitive character.

I love Claudia’s comfortable style of writing, whenever I read one of her books it feels familiar, almost like I’m chatting with an old friend. The humour in this book (and her other books) is also very much my thing, in particular the hilarious insults, I found myself laughing out loud many times throughout the story.

Eloise was a newspaper editor and I enjoyed the interesting insight into that crazy and busy world. It certainly seemed like a cut-throat business especially with Seth hanging around waiting for Eloise to make a mistake – he played the villain of the story perfectly.

I adored Lily, I could imagine her speaking in that cute little toddler voice and wrapping everyone around her finger. I particularly enjoyed following Eloise as she tried to track down Lily’s father, I had my fingers crossed hoping she would be able to find him.

Jake was lovely, even though his life had been very different to Eloise’s they connected beautifully and really seemed to have a good effect on each other.

The real nail-biting moment for me came during an eventful work weekend away, after Shania’s funny ‘pearls of wishdom’ (that’s not a spelling mistake, you’ll understand if you read the book) things went downhill rapidly and Eloise had a lot of explaining to do.

I loved the idea for the story, it was a joy to read and definitely a page turner – I finished the book with a big grin on my face.

I’d like to thank Claudia Carroll and HarperCollins for sending me this paperback book to read and give an honest review.(less)

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May 02, 2013 Huda Sarkowi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: family-drama, romantic, parenthood, career-woman

The first few chapters were such a drag for me that I have to drag myself to read it. But then came Jake and everything else fell neatly at the right places. Probably because Eloise though I respect her for being an alpha-female, career driven single mother, was such a whiny character. A total witch that I came to love as the story progress and delved deeper when Jake came. Instead of Eloise changing Jake, it was Jake who changed Eloise. A symbiotic couple in a chic lit that I actually rooted fo...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Book-shelf Shelf rated it 4 of 5 stars

At first this book really annoyed me as it seemed Eloise had no time for the child she so desperately wanted, it was a bit like have your cake, eat it and then grab every one else's n make them eat theirs. But then add in Jake and the world levels out a bit and we get to a brilliant story, with a touch of a fairy story, which as much as we all think we have grown out of, we love anyway.
I was impressed that the single mother issue was touched on and the fact Eloise was a working mom, along with...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Aoife rated it 3 of 5 stars

I do enjoy Claudia Carrolls writing but I definitely enjoyed Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow better than this one. And I think the main problem is because of Lily...

I know what you're thinking, the whole storyline is about Lily's dad blad de blah..and I know, I get it but I'm not a major children person in life anyways so I find them distasteful in books and I just HATE HATE HATE this obsession authors have about writing the way children speak...the 'pwease' instead of 'please' and pwomise and g...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Nikki Bywater rated it 5 of 5 stars

Eloise Elliot is a successful, intelligent and independent woman. She has worked hard in her career and is now the youngest senior editor at the Daily Post newspaper. She has reached the very top in her career. However on her thirtieth birthday Eloise realises just how alone she really is, no friends, no significant other. Office colleagues who do not want to spend time with her and an extended family she hardly ever sees. Eloise had become a workaholic, married to her job with no social life. F...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Abbey Liddle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourite-chick-lit-reads

I'v read other books by Claudia Carroll and i loved them so very much so I knew I would enjoy this story just as much too. When I first saw the book i loved the cover very much its very bright and colourful and just so ready for me to pick up and read.

It's a story about Eloise Elliot a woman who is one of the youngest newspaper editors in the country. Very respected by her staff members. On the night of her 30th Birthday in the daily post's conference room with rubbish party food and awful looki...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Rea Sinfield rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Very Accidental Love Affair is the first book I have read by Claudia Carroll, after hearing so many good things about this author I was looking forward to finally getting on board and trying out one of her novels.

With Eloise Elliot it was all work and no play and it wasn’t until her 30th birthday party when hardly anyone turned up that she realised that she was lonely as her whole life revolves around work she has no friends no partner and hardly any contact with her family.

After three years t...more A Very Accidental Love Affair is the first book I have read by Claudia Carroll, after hearing so many good things about this author I was looking forward to finally getting on board and trying out one of her novels.

With Eloise Elliot it was all work and no play and it wasn’t until her 30th birthday party when hardly anyone turned up that she realised that she was lonely as her whole life revolves around work she has no friends no partner and hardly any contact with her family.

After three years things have changed somewhat for Eloise as she is now a mother to a beautiful little girl but one thing still has yet to change and that is to get some kind of balance between work and social balance. It is when little Lily starts questioning about her Daddy that Eloise has no option but to slow down at work and try to find Lily’s Daddy she longs to meet.

The first thing I have to say is that I love the cover of this book it gives a kind of fairytale feel to it, and is definitely one that would catch my eye on the book shelf.

Our main character Eloise was quite a hard character to warm to at first and that is because her character is cold and hard. The only thing to her personality is that she is a workaholic but that is as far as her personality goes. When the book then fast forwards to three years later when she has become a mum she still doesn’t seem to have developed at all and that is when I began to worry about this book as the most important thing to me in a book is that I can either relate to the character or at least like the character.

It is Jake who saves the day in this book because as soon as Eloise meets him she starts to blossom as a character and he is a lovely male character too. By the time Eloise finds Jake the pages seemed to be turning themselves and I found myself getting lost in the storyline wanting to see how it pans out but as I got closer to the end it was a little sad to find it was nearly finished!

It seemed as though Eloise’s daughter Lily had her mum wrapped around her little finger which was quite funny to see that this hard woman could have her hard exterior broken down by this adorable little girl. I was surprised that my feelings towards the main character turned full circle by the end of the book and I actually really liked her character and was only hoping for the best for her.

I enjoyed Claudia’s writing style which flowed so effortlessly I am looking forward to picking up some of the authors previous books after reading this one.(less)

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Jan 13, 2013 IronyOnHighHeels rated it 4 of 5 stars

I try not to do the thing where you can't put aside a book, it is getting late and you read the last page, so you feel it is okay to go to sleep.
Which left me reading until 5.30 am in the morning, and only realized it when I heard the first train running.
Never mind the fact that I could predict the ending, I wanted to know how the characters got there. And I wasn't disappointed.

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Feb 01, 2013 M1ssb3rry rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book, I am the type of person that loves mushy stories and this didnt disappoint, I was hooked from page 1 and even when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I will definitely look for more of Claudia's books.
The story was sweet and though it was pretty predictable how it would end, I was still smiling form ear to ear before I got to the last page.

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Mar 12, 2013 Kishel Ramirez rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-read-roll

The plot has so much potential, actually it spills with potential. It could have been multi-faceted from family, two star crossed lovers, wanting etc etc. Too bad it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It stayed just in the line, not under nor beyond. Its cutesy though on some degree but well, dragging, I daresay.

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Oct 23, 2012 Di rated it 4 of 5 stars

At first this book really annoyed me as it seemed Eloise had no time for the child she so desperately wanted, it was a bit like have your cake, eat it and then grab every one else's n make them eat theirs. But then add in Jake and the world levels out a bit and we get to a brilliant story, with a touch of a fairy story, which as much as we all think we have grown out of, we love anyway. I was impressed that the single mother issue was touched on and the fact Eloise was a working mom, along with...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Lizzie rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was one of those books when I just felt like reading so picked it out of the store. At first I wasn't sure of the book because the blurb wasn't the best but after getting into the book it was amazing and I am now convincing my mum to read it as it is so cool!!!!

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Aug 06, 2012 Siobhán Cullen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was very lucky to receive an early copy of this book which I enjoyed. Many times the sperm donor is forgotten and this is what happens when they meet and lives start to unravel. A good summer read

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Feb 24, 2013 Gillian rated it 3 of 5 stars

An enjoyable book. Took me a few chapters to get into the story. It started to get more interesting when she found out the identity of her sperm donor. Not as good as "Will you still love me tomorrow" but still a good read.

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Dec 19, 2012 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book (it was also funny). It is a slight shame that there were so many spelling mistakes, words missing and grammatical mistakes, but the story was great!

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Nov 30, 2012 Kim Hawkins rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book! It was very hectic at the beginning & Eloise was a little annoying... but you definitely grew to love her! a very easy read...nice & girly! cant go wrong with a book like this.

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Mar 12, 2013 Jayne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: real-books-i-own

A funny and heart warming read. I loved that this book took a completely different angle on the general romance/ chick lit stories out there.

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Jan 19, 2013 Louise rated it 4 of 5 stars

Easy going book which hard to put down but made you worry as to what the main character was going to happen to her or d next.

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Nov 14, 2012 Rachel Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Having previously enjoyed will you still love me tomorrow I decided to try this one. Classic chick-lit, a happy and romantic page turner.

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Sep 19, 2012 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Claudia Carroll is one of my favourite writers so when I saw she had a new book out I was really pleased, especially pleased when I got an early copy from the writer herself to review.

This was a really good book, with great characters, especially Helen who is Eloise's sister. I think she was warm and caring and always happy to help out when she could. I was interested to see what the outcome would be for Eloise and her daughter and I was shocked at the crazy ways in which Eloise went about to f...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Dua'a Behbehani rated it 4 of 5 stars

Now that was a fresh story! Her writing style was a bit boring at times but I liked the book :)

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Jan 07, 2013 Ananda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit, read-in-2013, my-rrrc-2013-books

A great feel-good read!!! (view spoiler) Easy to read, totally predictable..but who cares, a book with HEA is exactly what I needed.

Mind you, Eloise is not a character you will like from the start. I really disliked her at the beginning, no friends, no time for her daughter,no time to enjoy life. At times she seemed snobbish too. But as I continued reading, she started to grow on...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Debbie Glen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dragged on a bit when you knew what was going to happen never the less enjoyed it anyway!!.

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About Claudia Carroll

Claudia was born in Dublin and is a graduate of UCD, the College of Music and of the Gaiety School of Acting. Since then she has worked extensively as an actress on the Irish stage, but is probably best known for her role as TV’s Nicola Prendergast in the long running Dublin soap opera, ‘Fair City.’

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