The Garnett Girls: The Sunday Times bestselling new debut novel and family drama of 2023 that everyone is falling in love with, for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid

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There are some interesting themes explored from love affairs, jealousy, secrets, disagreements, toxic relationships, abonnement, rivalries and alcoholism. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose.

Henrietta’s baby, Sophie, was born eight months later and within three weeks of the birth, Burgo was dead, aged only 28.I did like Rachel's storyline arc as it's a good example of how leaving the interpretation up to the reader can sometimes work well.

A family saga that breaks apart the intricacies of sisterly relationships, The Garnett Girls is a drama filled family chronicle. She is already hard at work on her second novel, buoyed by feedback from early readers: “Somebody told me that The Garnett Girls was ‘escapist but not sentimental’ and I thought if I was going to have a mantra for my writing going forward, that would be it. On vacation in Venice, where she (and her mother and sisters) expect William Bradbury will propose, Imogen Garnett finds their stay is not the idyllic one that she’s sure her parents had on their honeymoon. Even our surnames were almost identical as my maiden name was Garrett, only one letter different from Garnett. Margo left many years earlier for the love of her life Richard, but their marriage didn’t last as he loved drinking more.

We should probably be drinking negronis in the spirit of the novel, but settle instead for Earl Grey. As the lives of the women are firmly at the forefront of this novel, always present in the background are two things. It’s an easy holiday read, not at all taxing and overall quite pleasant, if not ground-breaking or thrilling.

For me, I am always intrigued by how even the most seemingly perfect family a can be a myriad of things not said, of words swallowed down to avoid upsetting people, and how refusing to acknowledge a shared trauma a family has been through, like the Garnett Girls, has such an unconscious and wide ranging impact on their lives and relationships. The story follows Margo and her daughters with most of the action taking place in London and the Isle of Wight. From a very young age at 16 Margo fell head over heels in love with Richard a young man a few years older and nothing was going to stop her from being with him despite what her parents said. Gabriel, who gets on famously with Margo, and runs the house while she works, also seems to be drifting from Rachel, and seems more interested in his phone than talking to her.This love tryst made a mark on Margo and her three daughters, who were left to fend for themselves following the demise of this relationship. The ever present house, Sandycove, which may be in need of some attention, but every single part of it contains the memories, shared experiences and the good and bad times of the Garnett family. Rachel, her eldest daughter, and her husband Gabriel, now live in Sandycove, the Garnett family home on the Isle of Wight, while Margo lives in a cottage nearby referred to as The Other Place. I'm not sure if I can pin it down to anything specific but I just couldn't really get into this one and didn't enjoy it much.

I felt as if I knew Margo and the girls and wanted to be friends with them and sip Negronis, I wanted to be at the parties in Sandcove and on the beach on Boxing day. Margo, the matriarch of the family, was in the main a forceful character, with her three daughters, Rachel, Imogen and Sasha all very different in temperament and circumstance. I wasn’t quite prepared next for the whirlwind that is Margo – she’s completely extra from the parties, to the men, to the drinking. Another new novel, Maame by Jessica George, explores how a parent’s absence can force a child to grow up too young.The Garnett Girls had a hold on me even though I wouldn't say the the cast of characters are extremely likeable people. Who doesn’t love a book with a sib squad of sisters, a betrayed mother and secrets that will rock the status quo? Her husband Phil is to be far too involved in her life and is controlling her world more and more, and Sasha is losing her sense of self at home, living for the times she can escape from her house and her marriage however briefly. They retreat to Sandcove their holiday home on the Isle of Wight, once the setting for joyful family holidays but now a comforting haven. She creates an atmosphere of brittle hedonism overlaying a murkier realism and vulnerability that I found incredibly affecting.