Book Review: Ninepins by Rosy Thornton

Title: Ninepins by Rosy Thornton

Sandstone Press Ltd (2012), Paperback, 320 pages
Genre: fiction
Source: review copy from the author
Rating: 4.5/5

About the book: Laura Blackwood is a divorced mother of a preteen, 12-year-old Beth, both living in a house outside of Cambridge, England where Laura is a university researcher.  Though Beth is asthmatic, they live in the fens - low marshland that has been drained but which sits on surface water, is almost always soggy, and easily flooded. Laura is called on by a social welfare worker to take in a roomer, 17-year-old Willow, who is a ward of the state, so to speak, with specific problems of her own.

How Laura copes with two somewhat unpredictable young people, one physically and the other emotionally, in a physical environment that is also unpredictable, is the main theme of the novel, as I see it.

 My comments: The book is set in the fens in Eastern England, an area that's not familiar to me, so the setting of the book, in a house above a dike or ditch with deep water, and on wetland reclaimed from marsh, is part of the intrigue of the book. There is danger all around for Laura, and I became invested in the outcome of her story. Her daughter is asthmatic, which means the wet fens is not an ideal place for them to live. The house is also on the outskirts of Cambridge, relatively isolated. Her daughter Beth has to be driven to or from school or has to take the bus and return home after dark in winter, walking a good way alone from the bus stop to the house.

On top of that, their new boarder or roomer, Willow, is an unknown teenager who had to be taken from her mother and placed in foster care while she was growing up. Now seventeen, Willow rents from Laura a former pump house which has been made into a separate and independent apartment below the house. There is heavy rain, flooding during the course of the novel. Willow's former life comes back to haunt her, or haunt Laura, the adult in the home.

So many things happen, including tensions between Laura and her ex-husband, Beth's father, who has a second wife and three young sons. Beth also demands more independence from her parents as she heads towards her teenage years.

 I began to really care about Laura and how she would handle and cope with the different situations that crop up, some of them pretty dangerous. I soon began to worry about Beth and Willow as well and thank heaven for the help of Willow's social worker, Vince.

 The mark of good writing - the reader begins to really care about the characters, as if they were real and as if they know them personally. With good descriptions of place, people, personalities, and social situations, I found the book very engaging and almost didn't want it to end. That's maybe why I thought the book ended a little abruptly, and felt readers needed more time to see how the four people would adapt to the outcome. Otherwise, an excellent book that I highly recommend.

Book Review: The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton

The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing (October 14, 2010)
Genre: Women's fiction, romance
Source: Review copy provided by the author

Product description: A rural idyll: that's what Catherine is seeking when she sells her house in England and moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cévennes mountains. With her divorce in the past and her children grown, she is free to make a new start, and her dream is to set up in business as a seamstress. But this is a harsh and lonely place when you're no longer just here on holiday. There is French bureaucracy to contend with, not to mention the mountain weather, and the reserve of her neighbors, including the intriguing Patrick Castagnol. And that's before the arrival of Catherine's sister, Bryony.
 
My comments: I was delighted by the book, the description of the Cevennes in rural France, the story of a woman remaking her life in a new country after a divorce and after raising two children, now grown and independent. It's easy to cheer Catherine on with her plans, her new home in a tiny hamlet, and her new possible love interest, an intriguing and somewhat mysterious Frenchman, Patrick, a neighbor and another retiree.

Catherine finds a way to make a living with her interior decorating advice and her sewing for the people in the nearby farms and countryside. Work though is thwarted by French bureaucracy and the extended visits of her younger sister Bryony, which begins to blur the status of her friendship with Patrick. Overall, this a delightful novel for those who like travel, romance, and women's fiction.

About the author: Rosy Thornton is the author of three other novels, including Crossed Wires. She is a professor in Cambridge, England.

Objective rating: 4.5 out of 5

Book Review: Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton

Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton

A romance slowly develops between Mina, a single mother who works at an insurance company call center in Cambridge, England, and Peter, a Cambridge professor and a widower with two children. They meet by phone when Peter calls in to the insurance center to report an accident he has been in. The two continue to communicate by phone. In between their finally getting together and meeting each other's families in person, we have detailed accounts of their separate lives.

From the publisher's description:

" This is a story about the small joys and tribulations of parenthood, about one-ness and two-ness, about symmetry and coincidence, about the things that separate us and the things that bring us together."

For those who don't live in the U.K., the best thing about the book is following Mina and Peter's separate family lives and getting a close view of a section of daily living in Britain.

For the romance, however, I would have preferred a more stream lined approach, as the novel has material for at least two separate books, I thought. The extensive detail of family life detracts somewhat from the very clever romantic plot.

Nevertheless, I heartily recommend Crossed Wires for a nice romance and especially for a good look at two families in Cambridge and the ups and downs of parenting!

Book received from the author for review.