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The Twenty Dates by Ko Porteous #Review #EmptyNesters

It is good to return to The Empty Nesters series by Ko Porteous. The Twenty Dates was published by All Ways Publishing Ltd on October 8th. You can read my review of Book 1, The Freshman Parents   here The kids have left, assuming love endures. But can yours? Book #2 in The Empty Nesters Series   Claire’s marriage is in (total!) crisis. Her husband, Mark, is distracted, presumptuous, and utterly clueless - smart scales for their 19th wedding anniversary? Really? Perhaps she'd be better off alone. At least there'd be less laundry.   When Claire suggests separating, Mark panics. He asks for one last chance: twenty dates, one for each year of their marriage, to prove they're better off together than apart. What follows is a series of adventures Claire never saw coming - some mortifying, some exhilarating, and some that make her question everything she thought she knew. About Mark. About marriage. And about the woman she's quietly become while she wasn't payin...
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The Carer by Deborah Moggach #Review


Today I am delighted to feature Deborah Moggach's novel, The Carer. 

From the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Tulip Fever, a deliciously funny, poignant and wry novel, full of surprising twists and turns:

James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help. So Phoebe and Robert, his middle-aged offspring, employ Mandy, who seems willing to take him off their hands. But as James regales his family with tales of Mandy’s virtues, their shopping trips and the shared pleasure of their journeys to garden centres, Phoebe and Robert sense something is amiss.

Then something extraordinary happens which throws everything into new relief, changing all the stories of their childhood - and the father - that they thought they knew so well.

My Thoughts

This is a fabulous read. It led me up the garden path, right through the back garden and back again and I failed to pick up on its great surprise. Written in two parts, you see life through James' children's eyes and then in the latter part, realise what the true picture actually is.

    You realise in the end that it is an examination of human relationships and marriages, and the damage that people can inflict without thinking. Phoebe and Robert have to take a long hard look at themselves and re-evaluate everything they thought they knew. Full of quiet menace at the start, you find that there is a heart-warming side to the story. The characters are shown in subtle relief and relationships exposed. Class and intellectual snobbery are thrown into the mix, as well as ageing, treachery, betrayal and whether one should accept a bit less in life if it makes you happy.

In short: A social comedy to savour.

About the Author

 
Deborah Moggach, OBE is an English novelist and an award-winning screenwriter. She has written nineteen novels, including The Ex-Wives, Tulip Fever, These Foolish Thing, Heartbreak Hotel and Something to Hide. She lives in London.

You can follow Deborah here: Goodreads 

Book link: Amazon UK 

Thanks to Deborah Moggach and Tinder Press, and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours  for an advanced copy of the book and a place on the event.  

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