A standout book this month, a pretty good one and two stinkers.
I won’t be reviewing that last pair here – they have a connection in that they are just far too long. I don’t mind 600 pages when the story and characters are compelling but get bored when the writer takes ages to get to the point while all along the way trying to impress the reader with style over content.
I admit to having the attention span of a goldfish. The sweet spot for me is around the 300-page mark, but I’m not averse to an immersive, long novel, such as The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (771 pages), Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (560) and The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman (504).
How about you?
This month, as well as putting page length under each title, I’m taking a leaf out of the blog, Is This Mutton, by one of my oldest friends, and classifying the book according to genre.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for advance review copies of these novels.
I’m hoping for good things next month, with Elizabeth Strout, Colm Tobin and Ann Patchett on my to-be-read pile.
Love Lane by Patrick Gale ****
(Historical fiction, 284 pages. Expected publication 26 March 2026)
After reading A Place Called Winter several years ago, I wondered what might have happened to the central character, Harry Cane. He was the young man shunned by his family for his homosexuality and exiled to the Canadian prairies from Edwardian England to make a new life for himself.
Love Lane revisits Harry as an older man, who, cruelly, has to head back home after a lifetime in Canada and now, in effect, exiled to England.
You don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy this sequel but I think it probably helps.
Harry is now older and wiser and, back in England, meets his daughter, her husband and grandchildren.
Through their stories, we get to know more about life before and after the Second World War and the social hardships faced by the characters. Theirs are ordinary lives, but there is no such thing as ‘ordinary’, everyone has a story to tell, secrets to keep or confide in others.
Patrick Gale writes beautifully and Love Lane does not disappoint. This is a gentle story of heartbreak, horror, love and the bonds that bind families together.
Natural Disaster by Lisa Owens ***
(Contemporary fiction, adult, literary -208 pages. Publication date: 25 June 2026)
The novel centres around one day in the life of a young mother of two. But it’s not just any day – it’s the last one before she goes back to her job after maternity leave.
Our heroine decides to make it a special day for the children – precocious Felix, aged four, and his baby brother, Rudy. However, all is not sweetness and light and the day deteriorates almost as soon as it starts, especially as she finds a female ‘item’ in her husband’s bag which is not hers.
She battles through the day alone, because he is working away, and everything seems to go wrong. She wants it to be a lovely day for both of her children but reality strikes, over and over again.
Some very funny scenes in this novel, especially the struggles in a corner shop with a double buggy and storytime in the local library.
The book will appeal to all parents – especially to mothers of children who were born close together but are now perhaps a bit older and don’t require the constant supervision and stimulation needed for younger ones.
I think if you have children of this age, the frustration and difficulties could be too raw and just hit home a little too hard.
Well written, funny, with a likeable central character who bears the guilt of working mothers everywhere and trying to do the right thing for her children.
Maddie Grigg 