Tuesday 5 May 2020

Book Review - Family For Beginners by Sarah Morgan

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Title: Family For Beginners
Author: Sarah Morgan
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: HQ
Publication Date: 26th March 2020
Rating: 5 Stars

Who says you can’t choose your family?
When Flora falls in love with Jack, suddenly she’s not only handling a very cranky teenager, but she’s also living in the shadow of Jack’s perfect, immortalised wife, Becca. Every summer, Becca and Jack would holiday with Becca’s oldest friends and Jack wants to continue the tradition, so now Flora must face a summer trying to live up to Becca’s memory, with not only Jack’s daughter looking on, but with Becca’s best friends judging her every move…

The more Flora tries to impress everyone, the more things go horribly wrong…but as the summer unfolds, Flora begins pushing her own boundaries, and finding herself in a way that she never thought she needed to.

And she soon learns that families come in all shapes and sizes.

Wonderful story about love and family relationships. 

Another absolutely cracking read from Sarah Morgan, I still don't think I've read a book by her that I haven't loved, and this is cream of the crop. 

I read the prologue just before I went to bed, and it definitely had me intrigued, and keen to read more once I was more awake.  And then the next time I picked up the book the following lunchtime, I read about half in one sitting which should give an indicator on how absorbed I was in the writing, that I really didn't want to put the book down. 

The story is told from two, well occasionally three perspectives, the main ones being Flora and Izzy.   

Flora has fallen for Jack, who was widowed less than a year ago and has two children, 7 year old Molly and 17 year old Izzy. She didn't mean to fall for him but she has, but can she compete with the dead wife who appears perfect, and will the kids accept her. 

It's Izzy's point of view that I found fabulous, she clearly was hiding things, and feeling things very deeply, is trying to be the perfect older sister to Molly, and felt like she was in ways old before her years. Yet as the story progresses you see many sides to this complicated character. 

The first half of the book is set in New York, just setting the scene, the dynamics etc.. and then the second half is in Jack's family's regular holiday spot in the Lake District that sounded incredibly scenic.It is also with his dead wife's best friend Clare, and her family, and they are all family friends;  It was interesting to see how they all coped with their first holiday without Becca, but with Flora, and its where the book kicked up another notch. 

With assorted hidden secrets to be revealed, nothing is as simple as it seems. 

This is a story of new relationships, for Flora to learn how to be part of a family, about friendships and its just an incredibly heartwarming book. 

 Thank you to Netgalley and HQ for this copy which i have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm just reading One Summer in Paris by Sarah Morgan and thoroughly enjoying it - good luck Sarah with Family for Beginners.

    ReplyDelete

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