Donna Hay (2) (1960–)

Tess has brought up her disabled son Dan on her own for seventeen years, and doesn’t see why his dad should be involved now because he’d abandoned her when she was pregnant and had never even bothered to reply to her letters. But when Phil does show up, Dan worships him.

As a character, I thought Phil was horrible. He was nice and everything, but I thought it was a bit weird the way he just assumed that he was welcome and it seemed like he almost forced Tess to talk to him sometimes. Every time he turned up I just cringed and wished he would get lost!

Another character I didn’t like was Jack’s work colleague, Charlie. Charlie is desperate to go out with Jack and is always scheming to make him like her. But Jack has two daughters, and Charlie hates kids. She seems to think that he’s going to ditch his daughters to go out with her. She was a nasty piece of work.

My favourite character was Emily, Jack’s teenage daughter. She was a typical stroppy teenager, but she was really good at seeing through people like Charlie.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, even though it was slightly predictable.
I thought the story did a very good job of showing the relationships between single parents and their children.… (más)

I adored every minute of reading this book and I highly recommend it to anyone - especially women. The character was relatable even though I've never experienced what she did. There's something a little more exciting about a woman wanting to work in construction, being told not to and therefore lying to her father to cover it up, all the while loving her family and still being a woman over women who simply complain and victimize themselves. Finn is a rockstar! (There was also another woman in the story but after finishing the book awhile ago I forgot all about her)… (más)

I liked the premise of this book but it slid into stereotypes a little too often for me, and the happy endings were all a little too neat - particularly within barely a year.I did think Hay handled Eve's daughter, Georgia, reactions particularly well, in fact the reactions to grief in general from all of the characters. Ultimately though Eve's character was a bit messy and I couldn't sympathise a lot with Anna either. I think the set up of both Eve and Anna's characters before the death of Oliver weren't really overcome in the way the author perhaps intended.… (más)