Having read Vanessa Carnevale’s My Life For Yours I just had to read A Child Of My Own. A Child Of My Own As I watch her walk away, an arm raised to her face as she wipes tears from her eyes, I wonder if I really can go through losing her again. Because if I do this, I might gain a child, but I’ll lose her in the process. Isla and Ben are devoted parents to their beloved daughter, Reese. She is their little miracle, the child they thought they’d never have until donors made her existence possible. But Isla has never told…

Many years ago I read Sunday’s Child, an autobiographical account written by Anne Lyken-Garner, of her difficult childhood in Guyana. In many ways, that book made the reading of The Far Away Girl a much richer experience. The Far Away Girl She dreamed of finding a new life… Georgetown, Guyana 1970. Seven-year-old Rita is running wild in her ramshackle white wooden house by the sea, under the indulgent eye of her absent-minded father. Surrounded by her army of stray pets, free to play where she likes and climb the oleander trees, she couldn’t feel more alive. But then her new stepmother Chandra arrives and the house empties of love…

I was drawn to read The French House because I realised that it was based on history of how some French women, including Veuve (‘widow’ in French) Clicquot, the heroine of this story, who lost their husbands at a young age are behind the world’s finest drink! The French House The vineyards stretched away in every direction as he plucked a perfect red grape, sparkling with dew. “Marry me,” he’d said. “We’ll run these vineyards together.” But now he is gone. There is no one to share the taste of the first fruit of the harvest. And her troubles are…