The Lying Game - Tess Stimson
Published: 23/05/13
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 290
I have never read any of Tess’ work before (slaps self on wrist) so I was extremely excited when the lovely Becky from Pan Macmillan asked me if I would like to review her latest book and interview Tess as well. I jumped at the chance and dived straight into the book when it arrived. (What a gorgeous cover!)
This book is pretty short, just shy of 300 pages, so I was interested to see how a story could grow and develop in such a short novel.
What would you do if you found out that the daughter you had been raising for years is not actually yours? In fact, your real daughter was given to someone else after birth so your real daughter has a mother of her own. Would you let it lie and just accept what happened? Or would you fight until you could hold your own daughter in your arms?
This is the dilemma facing Harriet. She is a rich, american woman who has never felt a true mother-daughter bond with her daughter Florence. Zoey, on the other hand, is a disorganised English woman who is trying desperately hard to bring up her daughter, Nell, on her own. Both Harriet and Zoey don’t know what has hit them when they each discover that their own daughter isn’t actually theirs.
We follow the two women on their journeys where, along the way, they discover the true meaning of family and work out what is really important in life.
The characters were extremely interesting to read about and I felt like I would have no idea what to do in their situation. The story is told through the eyes of the main five characters; the two mums, the two daughters and Harriet’s husband Oliver which makes for some great opportunities to get into the minds of all the characters.
One of the things that let me down was the overall length. It felt like some parts of the book were rushed and I would have loved to have stayed in this novel’s world for a lot longer and explored more of the dilemma. However, it was a book that you could easily devour is one sitting.
If you’ve read Tess’ work before then I am sure you will enjoy her latest novel and if you haven’t read any before then this could be a good place to start! I will definitely be looking out for her books in the future.
An interesting and frank look at what happens when everything is not quite as it seems.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 290
I have never read any of Tess’ work before (slaps self on wrist) so I was extremely excited when the lovely Becky from Pan Macmillan asked me if I would like to review her latest book and interview Tess as well. I jumped at the chance and dived straight into the book when it arrived. (What a gorgeous cover!)
This book is pretty short, just shy of 300 pages, so I was interested to see how a story could grow and develop in such a short novel.
What would you do if you found out that the daughter you had been raising for years is not actually yours? In fact, your real daughter was given to someone else after birth so your real daughter has a mother of her own. Would you let it lie and just accept what happened? Or would you fight until you could hold your own daughter in your arms?
This is the dilemma facing Harriet. She is a rich, american woman who has never felt a true mother-daughter bond with her daughter Florence. Zoey, on the other hand, is a disorganised English woman who is trying desperately hard to bring up her daughter, Nell, on her own. Both Harriet and Zoey don’t know what has hit them when they each discover that their own daughter isn’t actually theirs.
We follow the two women on their journeys where, along the way, they discover the true meaning of family and work out what is really important in life.
The characters were extremely interesting to read about and I felt like I would have no idea what to do in their situation. The story is told through the eyes of the main five characters; the two mums, the two daughters and Harriet’s husband Oliver which makes for some great opportunities to get into the minds of all the characters.
One of the things that let me down was the overall length. It felt like some parts of the book were rushed and I would have loved to have stayed in this novel’s world for a lot longer and explored more of the dilemma. However, it was a book that you could easily devour is one sitting.
If you’ve read Tess’ work before then I am sure you will enjoy her latest novel and if you haven’t read any before then this could be a good place to start! I will definitely be looking out for her books in the future.
An interesting and frank look at what happens when everything is not quite as it seems.
Laura