A Labour of Love

by Anne Baker

Its 1980s Merseyside and teenage cousins Sophie and Charlie are at a turning point in each of their lives. Sophie, seventeen years old and stunning, falls in love with Darrell, the school caretaker, who has plans to make it big with his rock band. But when Sophie discovers that shes pregnant, her relationship with Darrell comes to an end. Though happiness is on the horizon for Sophie, it will take her time to realise who she is destined to be with. Charlie, eighteen and having struggled at school, is unhappy in his job as a chef. With Sophies help, Charlie joins the family business with surprising results

Genres: Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2008

About the author

Anne Baker trained as a nurse in England, but after her marriage lived in Libya and Nigeria before returning to Birkenhead, where she worked as a health visitor. She now lives with her husband in Merseyside.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual this was another great read from Anne Baker although it threw me a little bit as it's set in the 1980's whereas all the many others I have read have been set during the second world war. Can't wait to get started on another.

[Vicki Anne Searle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read! Absolutely wonderful!

Could not put this book down!
Full of unexpected twists and turns.
Totally enthralling. Loved it!
Hope there is more like that to come!

[heather mcgrath · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book thoroughly enjoyed it

Wee bit slow at times but still enjoy this authors writing . Great characters and a vast insight into modern day issues

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another great family saga from Anne Baker.

This book is set in the 1980’s and it had a lot of characters in it and you get to know quite a lot about each of them and they all have a story to tell.

There is Nora and her husband Tom, Nora’s daughter’s Hillary and Isabel and their families. Hillary is married to Ben and they have twins Andy and Charlie as well as Jamie. Isabel is married to Sebastian and they have Sophie and Daisy. Ben’s twin aunt’s Pru and Primrose get to tell a bit of their story too. There is also Stella who works in Ben’s business and her 2 sons along with Sophie’s school friend Judith Salter and her brother Ross.

When Sophie is 16 she falls in love with Darryl Marchbank who works as the grounds person at her school, when she is 17 she falls pregnant to him but it does not work out. Andy and Charlie suffer from dyslexia and have a lot of trouble with school work. Andy works harder than Charlie though so gets along better with his school work. Charlie is a bit of a rebel who gets himself into a lot of scrapes, which leads him to drinking too much and taking drugs.

There is so much in this story but a lot of it was very interesting and you get to love some of people. I like a happy ending and it has one.