It’s a real pleasure today to be joining the blog tour and sharing my review of the latest book from Beth Moran, We Are Family: published by Boldwood Books on 15th June, it’s now available as an e-book (free via Kindle Unlimited), in paperback, and as an audiobook. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my advance e-copy (provided via netgalley). I really like the way Boldwood are picking up some of their authors’ back list books and introducing them to a whole new audience – this book was Beth’s second, originally published as I Hope You Dance.
I so enjoy Beth’s lovely books – my first was Take a Chance on Me (you’ll find my review here), then We Belong Together (review here), followed by the wonderful Just The Way You Are (you’ll find my review of that one here). And then there was the Christmas book everyone loved, Let It Snow (you’ll find my review here) – and later Always On My Mind, filled with warmth and love and hope, my new favourite, and most definitely one of my books of the year (review here). But in between the new releases, it’s lovely to see some of Beth’s pre-Boldwood books having a fresh lease of life. Because You Loved Me, previously released as Making Marion and perhaps just a little different from her newer books, was published in March (you’ll find my review here) – and today I’m delighted to share my thoughts on another…
Thirty-three-year-old Ruth Henderson and her daughter Maggie have some hard choices to make. Following the tragic death of Maggie’s father, they are left with a mountain of debt and broken hearts. So, despite her vow never to return home after the fall-out from her teenage pregnancy, Ruth can’t see any option other than for the two of them to move back in with her parents.
Going home means many things – finally confronting her estranged father, navigating her mother’s desperate need to make everything ok despite the wobbles in her own marriage, not to mention helping a still-grieving Maggie to settle into a new school, find new friends, and stop expressing her emotions through her ever-changing hair colour.
What Ruth needs are friends, but she abandoned her childhood ones when she left all those years ago. Luckily for Ruth, they haven’t abandoned her. Slowly she lets herself be embraced by a group of women who have always had her back – even when she didn’t know it. And as the grief and shock recede, Ruth can even begin to imagine sharing her life with someone other than just Maggie – if Maggie will let her.
After the death of her partner, the father of her teenage daughter Maggie, Ruth finds herself facing a mountain of debt she knew nothing about – and with little option but to return to the childhood home she left in her own teenage years. Her relationship with her father is a difficult one, but her bubbly mother – who glides and twirls as a lifelong ballroom dancer always should – is welcoming while steadfastly ignoring the problems in her own marriage, while her sisters are still as hostile as she remembers. Both Ruth and Maggie are hurting – while her mother copes by withdrawing under her duvet for a while, Maggie lashes out at everyone within reach and becomes increasingly out of control.
In an attempt to tackle her money problems and to try and restart her life, Ruth finds two jobs – one in the exclusive boutique owned by the woman she believes stole the love of her life, the other as a cleaner at the local community centre where individuals come for advice on life’s problems. But perhaps what most begins to change her life is rediscovering her childhood friendships – Lois, her second best friend, is now married to the much-changed childhood bully, both of them working for the church and providing a home for troubled youngsters. And finding her again brings a whole group of supportive (and wonderfully quirky) women into her life – something she really needs while coping with Maggie’s excesses, her current situation, and an obsessive admirer who brings an edge of real darkness to the story. And then there’s that former love – David, now a much-loved TV celebrity, also spending time now and then at his childhood home next door, still making her feel the way he always did. But it does seem that he’s already taken – and even if he wasn’t, Maggie has made it amply clear that she’s not ready for her mother to move on and start a new relationship.
I entirely loved this book – the wonderful characters and the way they were developed, but more than anything else the relationship between Ruth and Maggie that was so beautifully handled and felt particularly authentic. There’s plenty of laughter, and the whole book is filled with exceptional warmth – but there’s also a real chill you feel in your bones from those darker edges to the story, so very well done. The tentative rekindling of the childhood romance was something I really loved – and the repairing of the family relationships, however challenging that proves to be with such a legacy of hurt.
Every element of this book – and there are many I haven’t even mentioned – is an absolute delight. In fact, I think I must say that this book might just be my new favourite from this wonderful author – well, maybe until she writes another. Very highly recommended – and you might well love it as every bit as much as I did.
About the author
Beth Moran is the award winning author of ten contemporary fiction novels, including the top ten bestseller Just the Way You Are and #1 bestseller Let It Snow. Her books are set in and around Sherwood Forest, where she can be found most mornings walking with her spaniel Murphy. She has the privilege of also being a foster carer to teenagers, and enjoys nothing better than curling up with a pot of tea and a good story.
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