Friday Recommends..

Friday again, and it's time for my choice of book for Friday recommends...

This is an exciting book blog hop that book bloggers can take part in once a week to share with their followers, the books that they most recommend reading!

The rules for Friday Recommends are:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.

Pick a book that you've read, and have enjoyed enough to recommend to other readers. It can be a book you've read recently, or a book you read years ago - it's up to you - but make sure you tell us why you love the book (like a mini review). You make the post as long or as short as you like.

Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Friday recommended read 

This Perfect World 

by

Susan Bugler

Pan November 2010 

My Review 5*****

I've come rather late to this book - it has been sitting on my shelf for at least a year, so I decided to make it my Just for Fun Read in June,  I enjoyed it so much, I wonder why it took me so long to get round to it !

Laura Hamley has everything - a perfect life, good husband, beautiful children and supportive friends, but old memories are reopened when she receives an unexpected phone call  from the mother of a girl she once bullied at school. Laura has managed to successfully block from her life all the unpleasantness which was associated with her unusual relationship with Heddy Partridge, but when Heddy's mother asks for Laura's help in getting Heddy released from hospital, Laura must face the hidden demons which have plagued her life for so long.

This is a strange book to enjoy, on the surface it's a rather unpleasant tale of abject misery brought about by the insecurities of life, and yet it is also one of those stories which compels you to keep reading 'just a little bit more'. The characterisation is excellent - I didn't like Laura, she is remarkably flawed, and yet there is an underlying insecurity which reveals itself as the story evolves. Heddy is a strange and enigmatic character,who lies in isolated splendour in a hospital bed, gloriously obese and incredibly vulnerable.

Mrs Partridge reminded me forcibly of the Dickens character Uriah Heep,on the surface meek and mild and yet creepily manipulative.

Piece by piece the story of Laura and Heddy's childhood relationship is explored, until long buried secrets are revealed.

Suzanne Bugler is a talented and skilful writer, I look forward to more of her books.

Published by Pan 5 January 2012