Book Review: Under the Apple Blossom by Kate Frost

Beneath the Apple Blossom

Series: Hopeful Years (Book 1)
Kate Frost
Paperback: 318 pages
Publisher: Lemon Tree Press (August 4, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0995478007
ISBN-13: 978-0995478008

BOOK BLURB

Four women, linked by blood ties, friendship, betrayal, loss and hope, struggle with the choices they’ve made and the hand that life’s dealt them.

All Pippa’s ever wanted is marriage and kids, but at thirty-four and about to embark on IVF, her dream of having a family is far from certain. Her younger sister Georgie has the opposite problem, juggling her career, her lover, a young daughter and a husband who wants baby number two.

Pippa’s best friend Sienna has a successful career in the film world, and despite her boyfriend pressuring her to settle down, a baby is the last thing she wants. Happily married Connie shares the trauma of fertility treatment with Pippa, but underestimates the impact being unable to conceive will have on her and her marriage.

As their lives collide in a way they could never have predicted, will any of them get to see their hopes realised?

REVIEW

It was quite interesting to read about these four women, each strong in her own way, and each life intersecting with the others. The alternating chapters, from different points of view, was a good way to let the reader see the innermost workings of the individual situations and how they became intertwined with the others.

Pippa’s journey through fertility treatments was a major part of the story, and her hopes and fears and disappointments were those that any women trying desperately to have a family can relate to. The blog posts she shared with an online support group really brought those feelings to light and were parts of the story I enjoyed a great deal.

It is through that support group that Pippa meets Connie, and the way the two women help each other through the struggles of the treatment protocols and how that challenges their family relationships was very well done. I had no trouble seeing them as real people and related to them more than I did with the other two women. That doesn’t mean that Sienna and Georgie were less real. They were just women with whom I personally could not totally connect. I’m sure other readers will have no trouble in that regard.

While the story started a little slow for me as the first three characters were introduced, the momentum picked up nicely after the first couple of chapters, and I became more absorbed in what was happening, eager to find out if Pippa’s hopes would be fulfilled. Would Connie hold her family together? What was going to happen with Sienna and her boyfriend, as well as with Georgie and her tumultuous relationship?

I always enjoy reading a book by a British author, appreciating the different style and use of language, and that is true for Kate Frost’s books. I can imagine myself at some little pub somewhere in England, listening to the chatter in that very British accent.

Back in 2013, I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Kate’s first novel The Butterfly Storm  when it was first released and liked it very much. You might want to check that one out, too.

APPLE BLOSSOM BUY LINK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Frost lives in Bristol with her husband, an energetic toddler who loves waking up before 5 in the morning, and their cute and chilled out Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. When she’s not yelling ‘slow down’ to said toddler, or being used as a climbing frame, Kate writes women’s and children’s fiction. Her debut novel, The Butterfly Storm, was published in 2013, her second contemporary women’s fiction novel, Beneath the Apple Blossom, has just been released, and her first children’s book, Time Shifters: Into the Past, an exciting time travel adventure, the first of a trilogy, will be published in October 2016.

Connect with Kate on her Website ** Twitter and Facebook

Kate will be my Wednesday’s Guest this week, so do try to come back. She will be interviewed by one of the characters in the book. Not telling who that is, as I thought it would be fun to keep the name a surprise for Wednesday.