Book Review: Birds of a Feather by Tricia Stringer

 Birds of a Feather

by

Tricia Stringer

 

As one door closes another one opens

 

Publisher: Harlequin Australia

 

Imprint: HQ Fiction

 

Publication date: 29th September 2021

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 352

 

RRP: $ 32.99AUD 

Format read: Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

About the book

Eve has been a partner in a Wallaby Bay fishing fleet as long as she can remember. Now they want her to sell - but what would her life be without work? She lives alone, her role on the town committee has been spiked by malicious gossip and she is incapacitated after surgery. For the first time in her life she feels weak, vulnerable - old.

When her troubled god-daughter Julia arrives at Wallaby Bay, she seems to offer Eve a reprieve from her own concerns. But there is no such thing as plain sailing. Eve has another house guest, the abrasive Lucy, who is helping her recuperate and does not look kindly on Julia's desire for Eve's attention.

But Lucy, too, has demons to battle and as each woman struggles to overcome their loss of place in the world, they start to realise that there may be more that holds them together, than keeps them apart.

 

My review

 

Tricia Stringer once again manages to deliver a heartfelt story with characters that readers will resonate with. Their problems and concerns are highly relatable and dealt with in a manner that is believable as the navigate the areas of friendship, family, ageing and companionship.

Julia who has retained a close friendship with her mother's best friend Eve, after her mother has passed away returns home to Wallaby Bay when her life falls into a rut and she feels she needs a bit of a break. She naturally turns to Eve as she is like a second mother.

Eve is recovering from shoulder surgery and has employed ex-nurse Lucy to oversee her recuperation. Here the three women are brought together and as they work through a rocky start an unlikely friendship evolves.

Stringer explores themes of women in male dominated industries, forced retirement and its mental effects, mother guilt, small town gossip, coping as a single parent with a FIFO partner and on a smaller scale how the evolving Covid pandemic affected different people.

The three women were all abrupt and disgruntled, at a crossroads in their life, at the start of the book and I liked the dynamics of the characters and how they were being frostily polite to each other.  I enjoyed their growth as they embraced a new optimism and purpose. Each supporting and encouraging the other.

Tricia Stringer reinvents the meaning of family as Eve, Julia and Lucy navigate the ups and downs of life.

My rating 5 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

 

Tricia Stringer is a bestselling and award-winning author. Among others, her books include commercial fiction titles Table For Eight, The Model Wife and The Family Inheritance, the rural romances A Chance of Stormy Weather and Come Rain or Shine and historical sagas Heart of the Country, Dust on the Horizon and Jewel in the North. Tricia grew up on a farm in country South Australia and has spent most of her life in rural communities. She now lives in the beautiful Copper Coast region, often exploring Australia's diverse communities and landscapes, and shares this passion for the country and its people through her stories.

 

 

Challenges Entered: Australian Women Writers Challenge AWW2021

 

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