Book Review: The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth

The Mother-in-Law

by

Sally Hepworth

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia 
Publication Date: 29th January 2019
Pages: 352
RRP: $29.99
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

Someone once told me that you have two families in your life - the one you are born into and the one you choose. Yes, you may get to choose your partner, but you don't choose your mother-in-law. The cackling mercenaries of fate determine it all.

From the moment Lucy met Diana, she was kept at arm's length. Diana is exquisitely polite, but Lucy knows, even after marrying Oliver, that they'll never have the closeness she'd been hoping for.

But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice, the matriarch of a loving family. Lucy had wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

That was ten years ago. Now, Diana has been found dead, leaving a suicide note. But the autopsy reveals evidence of suffocation. And everyone in the family is hiding something...

 

In The Mother-in-Law Hepworth navigates the tricky in-law relationship fraught with misunderstandings and anguish.

I loved this story. It was a little depressing but also a fabulous read. Right from the onset we know Diana, the mother-in-law is dead. But did she commit suicide, a note was found, or was it murder? Hepworth keeps you guessing, jumping between the notion of suicide and murder. And if she was murdered, who would have the want to murder her? Everyone, so it seems.

The story is told in both Lucy and Diana’s POV which gives the perfect insight into both women. Lucy lost her mother when she was 13. She wanted nothing more than to be close to Diana. More like mother and daughter than MIL and DIL. However their relationship was strained. Diana and Tom were very well off however she believed that her children, Ollie and Nette, should not be given handouts, they should make their own way in life. This was quite often misunderstood as being mean spirited. Diana was an introvert and didn’t like to make a fuss and her actions were misinterpreted by Lucy.

Hepworth explores many themes beyond the in-law relationship such as being pregnant and single in the 70’s, the plight of refugees starting over in a new country, infertility and the age of entitlement.

The Mother-in-Law is a touching, moving and heartbreaking story of how an ordinary family can fall apart so easily. Hepworth imbues this family saga with mystery to make it a thoroughly compelling read.

My Rating  5/5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

*this review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

and book #9 in the Australian Women Writers challenge

Letter 'M' in the 2019 A-Z challenge

 

Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Midwives (2015), The Things We Keep (2016) and The Mother's Promise (2017), and The Family Next Door (Feb 2018). Sally's books have been labelled “enchanting” by The Herald Sun, “smart and engaging” by Publisher’s Weekly, and New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised Sally’s novels as “women’s fiction at its finest” and “totally absorbing”.

Sally's novels are available worldwide in English and have been translated into 15 languages.
​
Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children.

 

 

 

Author Interview: Jaclyn Moriarty

Today I would like to welcome author Jaclyn Moriarty to The Burgeoning Bookshelf.

About the author: 
  

Jaclyn Moriarty is an Australian writer of young adult literature.

She studied English at the University of Sydney, and law at Yale University and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD.
She currently lives in Sydney.

So let's get started and find out a little more about Jaci and her writing. 

Hello Jaclyn, thank you for joining us. Can you tell us a little about yourself and how many books you have had published?

Hello! Thanks for having me. I’m a former media and entertainment lawyer, and have published twelve books. Mostly, my books have been young adult fiction (both realistic/comedy fiction (the Ashbury series) and fantasy (the Colours of Madeleine trilogy). However, recently I have started a series of stand-alone ‘Kingdom and Empire’ books for 9 to 12-year-olds (the Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone, and the Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars), and I have just published a novel for adults, Gravity is the Thing. So I am not very consistent...

What inspires you to write? 

Walking up steep hills or flights of stairs (although that could just be because I want an excuse to stop walking up the steep hill or stairs), looking at the ocean or harbour, listening into other people’s conversations, music, and chocolate.

What is a typical writing day for you?

After I’ve driven my 12-year-old to the bus stop (or said goodbye to him at the door—he is supposed to walk to the bus stop, but I’m sympathetic because he has a very heavy schoolbag and it’s a steep hill…), I usually walk into Kirribilli, cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge, stare at the harbour for a while, come back, and go to a café where I write for a couple of hours. Then I come home, have lunch and write at the dining room table until my son comes home from school (he seems fine walking down the hill from the bus stop). When I say I ‘write at the dining room table,’ I mean I write for a few minutes then I get up to get more chocolate and tea, or to wander around the apartment in an aimless, restless way, and then I write for a few more minutes, and so on.

Where is your favourite place to write?

Coco Chocolate, a chocolate shop in Kirribilli which has one big table where you can sit and drink hot chocolate beneath a chandelier made of teacups, surrounded by shelves and shelves of chocolate.

This sounds like my perfect place to be. I might just pay it a visit myself!

Do you have any writing rituals or good luck charms?

I have a blue ceramic bowl that was given to me by my sister for my birthday years ago, and I always have it beside me, filled with fruit and chocolate, when I’m writing at home.  I also have to drink peppermint tea when I’m writing (although hot chocolate is permissible if I’m at Coco Chocolate).

What are you currently reading?

Cocaine Blues, the first Phryne Fisher mystery, by Kerry Greenwood. I am loving it.

You are well known for your Young Adult novels. What inspired your move to the Contemporary Fiction genre?

I am usually writing a novel for grownups at the same time as I’m writing books for younger people.  Sometimes it’s because I want to explore an adult character more closely than I can in younger fiction, and sometimes it’s because I want to express thoughts and ideas about life in the grownup world that would be of no particular interest to younger readers…

Your latest book, Gravity is the Thing was released on 26th March, how did you come up with the idea for Gravity is the Thing?

I often feel like I’m not very good at being a person.  I am very absent-minded and seem to miss rules about life that other people have figured out—such as how often you should go to the dentist and when you should start moisturising your face and how long you should stay in a relationship with somebody who is very pleasant but a bit of a bore.  So for a long time I had this fantasy that there should be an external committee providing everyone with regular, tailored updates, explaining exactly how their life should be lived.  This led me to the idea of the character named Abigail, who starts receiving chapters from The Guidebook, a self-help book, in the mail when she is fifteen years old, and continues to receive them until she is 35.  At that point, she is invited to an all-expenses paid retreat on an island to learn the ‘truth’ about The Guidebook.

Also, my young adult book, A Corner of White, had a teenage character whose father had gone missing, and I researched the field of missing persons for that book, so that I could try to understand how my character would feel.  I felt deeply moved by the suffering of people who have to live with the ambiguous loss of a missing family member or friend.  Abigail’s brother, Robert, went missing in the same year that she started receiving chapters from the Guidebook, and her search for the truth about what happened to him becomes entangled with her search for the truth about life, and how it should be led.

What would you like readers to get out of Gravity is the Thing?

I hope it makes them happy!  

Judging by the glowing reviews already coming through you have achieved your goal.

What's next for Jaclyn Moriarty? Do you have a new WIP? 

I am in the middle of a new middle grade fiction (with the working title, The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst) and am researching and writing notes for a new novel for grownups about time travel. 

I'm a recent convert to Time Travel novels so I'm excited to read your novel when it's finished.

Thank you for stopping by and spending some time with us on The Burgeoning Bookshelf.

Thanks for having me!  

Gravity is the thing is out now and should be hitting bookshops shelves all over the country.

 

  Blurb
Abigail Sorensen has spent her life trying to unwrap the events of 1990.

It was the year she started receiving random chapters from a self-help book called The Guidebook in the post.

It was also the year Robert, her brother, disappeared on the eve of her sixteenth birthday.

She believes the absurdity of The Guidebook and the mystery of her brother's disappearance must be connected.

Now thirty-five, owner of The Happiness Café and mother of four-year-old Oscar, Abigail has been invited to learn the truth behind The Guidebook at an all-expenses-paid retreat.

What she finds will be unexpected, life-affirming, and heartbreaking.

A story with extraordinary heart, warmth and wisdom.

 

 

Mailbox Monday - April 1st

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog. Head over and check out other books received during the last week. 


This week I didn't receive any books for review. I didn't win any books and I didn't buy any books. (I was very restrained). 
But the lack of new additions to my 'to be read' pile gives me a good chance to catch up on some of my outstanding reads.

 During the last week we celebrated both mine and my granddaughter's birthdays so it's been a busy week of cakes, celebrations and dinners out with family and friends. 

 













I finished reading 'The Mother-in-Law' by Sally Hepworth (review to be posted in the next few days) and started reading 'The Chocolate Maker's Wife' by Karen Brooks, it's quite a chunkster at 589 pages.

What Books did your postman deliver this week?

Post a link to your Mailbox Monday or simply list your books in the comments below.

 

 

 

Winner of The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence announced

A big thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for a copy of The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence. The giveaway closed on 29th March and the winner was randomly selected from all correct entries. 
Congratulations to....
 


                                     

                                       PammieS

 

You will receive an email shortly and have 7 days to provide a mailing address. I hope you enjoy your prize.

Please see my Giveaway tab for more chances to win great books.

Book Bingo - Round 7 #BookBingo2019

Book Bingo is a reading challenge hosted by Theresa Smith Writes , Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse. Every second Saturday, book bingo participants reveal which bingo category they have read and what book they chose. 

This week I have chosen the category 'Written by an Australian Male'.

Written by an Australian male:

The Secrets She Keeps by Michael Robotham. Robotham's foray into the contemporary women's fiction market  didn't really hit the mark with me. It is a story of obsession. A woman starts to stalk a stranger because she seems to have the perfect life, the life she has always wanted. She soon befriends her and everything spirals out of control, in both their lives, from here.   
I have enjoyed Robotham's previous books and one of my favourites was Bombproof, a humorous satire about a young guy who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and how a situation can spiral out of control so quickly. 

You can read my review of The Secrets She Keeps  here

#BookBingo2019