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The Stand-Up Mam by Kay Wilson

Georgie Chancellor has worked hard for her perfect life. She has a beautiful home, a loving husband and healthy teenage children. Everything she has ever dreamed of is hers, so she thinks she can forget about her troubled girlhood. But when her family enter her for a stand-up comedy competition, she realises that only the truth will do. Encouraged by her mentor Jaz, she riffs on how she really feels about her life. Audiences love it, and Georgie’s star begins to rise. Will stand-up success destroy everything she has created?
The theme of The Stand-Up Mam grabbed my attention right away. The idea of a middle-aged, middle-class woman wanting to be a stand-up comedian is so original it is almost unbelievable. But we do believe, because this novel is based on the real-life experiences of Tyneside debut author Kay Wilson, who was inspired to fulfil her own dream of doing stand-up after recovering from a brain haemorrhage.
The problems Georgie encounters - living up to her husband’s standards while nurturing teenagers - will be familiar to many women. What is striking about Georgie’s way of handling her frustrations is that she does it publicly. Instead of moaning to her mates, she gets up on stage and makes people laugh by complaining about her nearest and dearest. Most people would recognise this as a pathway to disaster, but Georgie acts on her handsome mentor’s advice to make it real.
The Stand-Up Mam is an entertaining read which will leave the reader with plenty to think about. Personally, I was puzzled by Georgie’s relationship with food. Although she craves the simple fare of her childhood, she comes across as an adventurous cook who enjoys creating impressive dishes. This is fair enough when she is entertaining her husband’s clients, but I did wonder why she goes so much trouble for her annoying teenagers. A few days of beans on toast would have done them no harm at all.
The Stand Up Mam: The perfect mother becomes a dark-comedy queen and finds her voice for the first time

A Novel Solution by Sue Clark

Trish’s self-esteem is at rock bottom in A Novel Solution, Sue Clark’s witty, satirical second novel. Her husband is unfaithful, her adult daughters are selfish and her boss underrates her. When Trish finds herself alone and out of a job, she decides to repair her shattered confidence by writing a best-selling book. As she has no idea how to go about this, she signs up for individual writing lessons. The tutor she chooses, Amanda Turner, is a self-styled celebrity author whose teaching method is to charge Trish a lot of money for being insulted. But Trish persists with the lessons, because she genuinely believes Amanda will teach her how to become a successful writer. After a few visits to her tutor’s gloomy mansion, Trish becomes convinced that Amanda is in danger from Pavel, her Eastern European live-in handyman. A persistent bad smell and a disused ochre pit in the woods contribute to this conclusion. Because she has begun to think of Amanda as a sort of friend, kind-hearted Trish sets out to save her from what she fears will be a horrid fate.
Sue Clark uses clever writing techniques to emphasise her main character’s inner conflicts. Trish’s inner voice is personified as Ivy, who comments on and appraises her efforts to better herself. As well as being very funny, Ivy helps to explain why Trish sticks like glue to the arrogant Amanda. Anyone who has been through the mill of overpriced creative writing courses will enjoy an extra level of humour. Clark also avoids stereotypes, which is difficult to do when writing a cosy thriller. From Trish’s cheating husband Gregory to Felicity the librarian, all of her characters are original and entertaining.
I also enjoyed Sue Clark’s beautifully written, relatable first novel Note to Boy. I heartily recommend both of her novels as pacy, entertaining reads which will make you giggle. To paraphrase Trish’s dream review – these are great books. Buy them!

A Novel Solution

Love in Provence by Jo Thomas

Jo Thomas writes romantic fiction set in appealing tourist destinations. Her stories are deliciously escapist with happy endings, but they show relationships in a realistic way. The path of love is twisty, plans fail and recipes go wrong. I recently read and reviewed Countdown to Christmas, Thomas’ novel set in Canada. Love in Provence, the sequel to Escape to the French Farmhouse, has a similar format.
The enchanting location is rich in sensory pleasures. Del is managing a lavender farm and cooking for the small restaurant she runs with her older friend Henri. Harvest is approaching and a new crew of pickers are due to arrive. Everything is in hand, until the devastating news of Henri’s death arrives, closely followed by a destructive mistral wind. When Del’s partner Fabien goes away for a few weeks, she loses the plot. Even her recipes escape her memory.
The natural world affects the plot line. The mistral brings down an ancient tree. Weather conditions affect the lavender crop, so it must be harvested at exactly the right moment. As well as struggling with her distress, Del has to contend with the climate. Time is also a factor, as negative elements invade the community initiative Henri set up.
Business drives events in the small town Del has made her own. Food startups are a significant part of the local economy, and they help people to improve their standard of living. When a Michelin trained chef arrives with plans to upgrade and gentrify the restaurant’s offering, lifestyles are threatened.
In spite of all her problems, kind-hearted Del tries to help everyone. The story’s inter-generational cast offers help in return. Love in Provence is the perfect holiday read. It will be even more enjoyable if you have read Escape to the French Farmhouse first.
Thanks to Penguin UK and Random Things Tours for giving me an ARC in return for an honest review.
Love in Provence

Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett

Breanna has been dating Ty for three months, and it’s going well. When he invites her to join him in Jersey City for a romantic getaway, she is thrilled. Ty rents a four-story row house with a view of the Manhattan skyline, arranges train tickets and organises a sightseeing itinerary. Bree could not be happier, but from the start of the holiday nothing goes right. Ty seems distracted, and groups of White residents huddled together on street corners make Bree feel uneasy. Worst of all, Ty prioritises work over their together time.
One dreadful morning, Bree wakes up to find missing dogwalker Janelle dead in the foyer of their Airbnb. Only Ty can help her – but he has vanished without a trace. With the police closing in, and a social media mob demanding #Justice4Janelle, Bree realises the only way to save herself is to find out what really happened on the night of the murder. The only person who can help her do this is her ex-best friend from back home. Adore is now a successful New York attorney – but can she and Bree get over their complicated past?
In Missing White Woman, Kellye Garrett brilliantly describes the scary experiences of a young Black woman, alone and under suspicion in a strange city. I enjoyed Garrett’s pacy narrative style, and her funny, perceptive observations. For example, Bree describes how she adopts a persona she calls ‘perky Black girl’ to get through to some White people. As well as being a great story, Missing White Woman has raised my awareness of how differently Black and White citizens are treated by criminal justice systems and the media.
Thank you, Simon Schuster UK and Random Things Tours, for giving me a copy of this novel in return for an honest review.
Missing White Woman

The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher

Tragedy strikes at Babbington Hall, where octogenarian wheelchair user Florence Butterfield has lived since a freak accident caused her to lose her left leg. Death is familiar in the warden-assisted group of dwellings, but it usually takes place peacefully, and indoors. When a comparative youngster in his mid-seventies falls in the garden, hits his head and dies, it is the violence of his passing which distresses Florrie. Afterwards other disturbing incidents take place, leading up to a second violent tragedy. Florrie is sure this one is no accident. While she struggles to uncover the truth, caring Florrie never loses her courage. She knows that ‘love, the proper, deep, extraordinary kind – is not about you’. The Night in Question is the story of Florrie’s life, and how she is living it.
Florrie is an intelligent, passionate woman who has known love and loss all over the world. She has experienced - among other things - swimming with turtles, sexual tension with an emerald prospector in Africa, and a sixty-seven year friendship which began with a broken pencil. The only door into her past which she is afraid to open is the one which leads to ‘the Hackney incident’. She bears the scars of this trauma in more ways than one. By solving the mystery enclosed in a discarded magenta envelope, she learns to accept what happened to her, and comes to terms with its implications.
Susan Fletcher’s lyrical prose carries the reader along in a stream of engaging detail and striking anecdote. The residents of Babbington Hall are an interesting bunch with entertaining quirks. The Night in Question was written to show that old people matter. This target has been achieved one hundred times over.
I was given a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
The Night in Question

The Book of Witty Women

The Book of Witty Women is a good read, especially if you aspire to be a witty woman yourself. All of the stories are clever and well written, and smart one-liners and hilarious throwaway lines appear throughout the book. I am saying this at the start because the rest of my comments may seem negative, even though they are intended as constructive criticism. My defence is - I was given a copy of the book in return for an honest review.
Labelling this anthology of humorous stories by women writers as ‘laugh-out-loud’ has done it a serious disservice, because one person’s ‘laugh-out-loud’ moment is another person’s moment of boredom. For example, I cannot abide slapstick, but my partner thinks Home Alone is the funniest film ever. On the other hand, I giggle all through Have I Got News For You, while he watches it stony-faced. The Book of Witty Women contains 15 stories written by 15 very different personalities, in 15 very different styles. There is no way on earth all of them could make everyone laugh out loud.
That said, I laughed a bit at most of these stories, and a lot at some of them. Even the ones which did not make me laugh caused me to crack a wry smile. I briefly laughed out loud at You Can’t Get There From Here by J.Y.Saville and Glue by Clare Shaw, because I found the situations relatable. The only story I can honestly describe as joyful is Care Home Capers by Wendy Hood. Of the others, I preferred the stories where a slow pace builds up to a strong punch line or a big reveal. Several stories, such as Ways With Mince by Kathryn Simmonds, contain very funny incidents but have an underlying sadness. Perhaps women’s humour is a defence against sorrows which men do not experience.
I am a big fan of Comedy Women in Print, and I look forward to their future endeavours.
The Book of Witty Women

The Ha-Ha by Tom Shakespeare

A country house, a pig with personality and quirky characters who get into scrapes are the hallmarks of P. G Wodehouse. Author Tom Shakespeare inserts these motifs into his humorous novel The Ha-Ha as a tribute to Wodehouse - but he does not imitate his writing style. Instead, Shakespeare displays a witty and engaging personal style. Fred, a charming Norwich solicitor who uses a wheelchair, has rented Threepwood Hall as the venue for his fortieth birthday party. As well as his politician brother Roddy and columnist sister-in-law Charlotte, he has invited his oldest friends and their partners to the bash. Among them is Heather, Fred’s university crush, who is now a high-flying television reporter. Sadly, although Fred is attracted to women he has a traumatic reaction to nakedness – a freak result of the accident which caused him to lose the use of his legs, twenty years earlier. When Heather learns that Fred has written a memoir which could ruin her career, she is secretly determined to move heaven and earth to stop it being published. Her actions destroy any hope of Fred’s birthday celebration being a jolly weekend in the country. Instead, it becomes an entertaining story of marriage, friendship, sex, hallucinogenic drugs and moving on from the past.
Fred’s eclectic group of friends include Sonia, his lovelorn literary agent, Hugh, an old school chum who lives in a van, and Polly, a stressed bisexual social worker who brings along her adventurous seven-year-old daughter Freya. One unknown quantity is Alberto, the dessert-obsessed Costa Rican boyfriend of Fred’s former housemate Robin. To quote, ‘He had filled the Hall with people who had almost nothing in common, except him.’ The characters are well drawn and entertaining, and I enjoyed watching them try to figure how to interact positively with each other. It was good to see the needs of a wheelchair user placed front and centre in the plot, and in true Wodehouse style there is a very satisfying happy ending for all concerned.
I was given an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Stopping to Rain by Mike Kernan

Although Stopping to Rain is the sequel to Mike Kernan’s excellent debut novel The Fenian, it works well as a stand-alone. Both books are set in the 1970s and have their roots in a Scottish ‘new town’ called Cumbride. I loved The Fenian, so I have been looking forward to learning the fate of the star-crossed teenage lovers separated by a religious divide. I was not disappointed. The two stories meet in an arresting conclusion, and Kernan recounts the experiences of Fred, Trish, Greg and Ricky as sensitively as he treated Lorna and Robert in The Fenian. I also enjoyed the other aspects the two novels share - the playlist, the 70s and 80s cultural references, and Kernan’s exploration of the attitudes of the time.
In Stopping to Rain a new generation of teenagers has taken over the bus shelter where the gang from The Fenian used to hang out, but their banter and coming-of-age antics are just as outrageous. By switching the action between time periods, Kernan tracks the life-changing effects of a drunken prank in March 77 to an unpredictable outcome in April 03. The lives of the four friends are very different, but they all face the same question. Will confronting the dark secrets of the past redeem them or destroy them?
Stopping to Rain follows Fred and his schoolmates into a harsh adult world where terrible things happen, but it also celebrates the lasting power of friendship. Kernan’s journalistic style brings to life the fun of teenage life in Cumbride, and the horror of domestic violence, with equal success. Through it all, the love and loyalty formed in their schooldays supports the bus shelter gang.
I recommend Mike Kernan’s novels for realism, humour and nostalgia.
Stopping To Rain: Secrets, love and bad grammar

To Kill a Shadow by Julia Castleton

Journalist Julia is at a low point in her career, after losing her job at a prestigious London newspaper. At first, the reader of To Kill a Shadow wonders what this courageous single mother can have done to deserve the sack, but it soon becomes clear Julia is willing to take terrifying risks to get to the heart of a story. Julia’s personal life is also challenging, partly because she is recovering from a mental health crisis. When the story begins, Julia is running her own news website while caring for her adored five-year-old son Alex. Life as a dedicated newshound does not go well with school gate motherhood, so Julia is often forced to call on her sister Emilia for support. The huge contrast between the lifestyles of Julia and her beautiful, conventional sister, whose husband is outrageously wealthy, means that Julia is constantly torn between wanting to be independent, and being grateful for Emilia’s generosity.

Into the middle of Julia’s troubled and insecure existence steps former soldier Michael Willmore, who is desperate to expose a terrible war crime. After Willmore is assassinated in front of her eyes, Julia resolves to expose the evildoers who are willing to commit murder to protect their horrific secret. As a result, she breaks Willmore’s story on her website without fact-checking it. This results in further damage to her reputation and a deluge of online abuse. Distressed but not discouraged, Julia continues her investigation to its shocking conclusion.

I like the way author Julia Castleton combines fast-paced drama with everyday problems. For example, Julia is chronically short of cash, so while she chases leads across England with her private detective sidekick Joe, she is worrying about how to keep her website sponsors happy. The descriptions of the people Julia meets, and the locations she visits in her pursuit of the truth, make To Kill a Shadow a real page turner.

I was given a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Time of Her Life by Tracy Bloom

Chirpy hairdresser Kim Jacobs loves everything about life with Richard, her stuffy intellectual husband. For his fiftieth birthday, which falls the day before son Harry leaves their home in Lancaster to go to university in Nottingham, Kim throws a big surprise party. She makes a long speech praising Richard and tells their friends and relations she cannot wait to spend all his future birthdays with him. She is understandably devastated when, after the party is over, Richard announces he is leaving her for the woman next door.
Kim drives Harry to Nottingham, insisting that Richard stays at home to deal with ‘congealed dip and hardened birthday cake’. In Harry’s student house there is a spare room where Kim stays while she sorts her life out. After certain house rules are put in place Kim is accepted by Harry’s housemates, who learn to appreciate her practical skills. The descriptions of Kim’s efforts to keep the kitchen and bathroom clean, in a house occupied by man-babies, are realistic. As the first term wears on Kim’s natural talent for counselling helps her young flatmates to negotiate problems with love affairs, studies – and hairstyles.
Sonny, who is eccentric and sweet-natured, persuades the others to let Kim stay. He cannot see having a mate’s mother living in his student house as anything other than a good thing. Posh Angus, who Kim thinks has lovely manners, appreciates her housekeeping abilities, even though she keeps drinking his wine. Predictably it is Harry who has a problem with his Mum’s presence. Max and Annie, Kim’s colleagues when she gets a job at the local chip shop, add a real-world element to the academic atmosphere.
I really like author Tracy Bloom’s funny and original premise for The Time of Her Life. It will resonate with those mothers who feel jealous when their teenagers head off to university, but all mothers of young adults beginning to make their way in life will enjoy this novel.
The Time of Her Life