Book Review - Happy Families by Janey Fraser

Title - Happy Families

Author - Janey Fraser

Publisher - Arrow - 28 March 2013

Purchase from Amazon UK // Waterstones // Book Depository

Another literary triumph from author Janey Fraser!
This book sucks you in right from the start. Whether you have children or not you won't fail to enjoy this book. A mixture of ups and downs, happy times and sad times, but also lots of laughs.

Centering around 3 main characters, Bobbie, Vanessa and Andy, you are fully immersed into the pit falls of parenthood; the worries; the trials and tribulations.

I love the way the author writes the book, with each chapter being centred around each of the main characters. Each chapter also often ends on a cliffhanger, leaving you waiting until that characters next chapter comes around again.

The book is full of humour. Especially with the children's characters which are wonderfully written, and they say the most amusing things. You can't help but love them, especially Daisy and Sunshine.

Many people come into contact with the varying characters as their lives unfold and I love the way the author, with her literary expertise, makes all their paths cross towards the end of the book. Whilst reading you think that somewhere along the lines the paths will cross but the book is so well written in that it's not at all predictable, which makes it all the more enjoyable.

I have also read The Au Pair and The Playgroup by the same author and I think this is the best so far, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the other two, especially as I'm normally and "Thrillers & Murder" kind of gal!

Even though some of the characters from The Au Pair are mentioned in this book, you don't have to have read them to enjoy this book as the stories are all new.Give it a go. Its a great book to chill on the sofa with, alongside a cup of coffee and a cookie.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janey Fraser is the pen name for journalist Jane Bidder who also writes as Sophie King. You might have read some of her previous novels such as THE SCHOOL RUN and THE WEDDING PARTY which was short listed for Love Story of the Year 2010. Her new book The Honeymoon is due out next year.

For many years, she was a journalist on women’s magazines and until recently, edited the family page of Woman. Now she writes ‘ MUM LIT’ novels about the ups and downs of family life.

 

OTHER BOOKS FROM JANEY FRASER

 

The Au Pair by Janey Fraser

 

Bonjour! Je m’appelle Antoinette Malfille and I am enormously excitable about becoming au pair! I have 19 years of age and have forever desired to visit Angleterre. My hobbies are clubbing and drinking. I tolerate children. I have (almost) forsaken smoking. I am available to work for you until Christmas as I do not pass my Baccalaureate. I await to meet you!

So starts the opening to THE AU PAIR, a romp through the world of foreign bodies and unsuspecting families. Jilly, a harassed mother of three, decides to set up an au pair agency around her kitchen table to help with family finances. Over the Channel, Marie-France signs up for Jilly’s agency in order to search for her English father who’d had a fling with her mother when she’d been an au pair, some twenty years earlier. Then there’s eight year old Lottie who is determined to drive away one au pair after another – until she meets her match. With a cast of characters drawn straight from real life, The Au Pair takes a hilarious look at what happens when an au pair takes over your family.

From the author of The Playgroup a hilarious book about families, au pairs, and the chaos that ensues when the two come together.

 

The Playgroup by Janey Fraser

 

Take three adults and mix them with a group of under-fives at Puddleducks Playgroup.

What do you get?

A steaming story about love, envy, laughter and tears. Gemma, the young acting playgroup leader has a secret which could wreck someone else’s life.

Nancy, a panicky first-time mum needs to save her child – and her marriage. Joe, the handsome, moody new head of Reception has to learn some lessons himself before he can pass them onto his class.

Then little Lily, the daughter of a celebrity singer, goes missing and Danny, her small friend is diagnosed with the kind of illness that every parent dreads.

Will they all pull through? All is revealed when Puddleducks Playgroup puts on its annual nativity Christmas play – with an unexpected ending.

There’s lots of fun, humour and romance but, as one reviewer said, ‘it will also make you hold your breath until the last page’.

 

Contact Janey Fraser here

 

I was given this book to review by the author. I was not paid for my review and it in no way influenced my review.

Author Interview with Janey Fraser - Author of The Au Pair

Janey Fraser's new book THE AU PAIR is published by Arrow (Random House) £6.99. Her previous book was THE PLAYGROUP. Before that, she wrote five novels as Sophie King for Hodder & Stoughton. She also writes short stories for women's magazines. Her background is in journalism.

Hello Janey. Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and chat with me.

When did you start writing?

I have always written! Telling stories to other people (and myself) has been my way of escape for years! I was apparently a very young reader too. My first published piece of work was a letter in a girl's comic at the age of eight. I still have it somewhere. I used to get very worried at school about what I would do because everyone kept telling me that it was very difficult to write as a career. But I was lucky enough to be chosen for a prestigious newspaper graduate entry scheme that led, eventually, to a job with Woman's Own magazine. After my children were born, I turned freelance and wrote regular columns for The Daily Telegraph, The Times and a host of women's mags. One of my editors sent me to interview a young actress who was delightful. We had a great lunch and girly chat together. The following week, her new film came out and she was being toasted everywhere! Her name was Julie Walters. Like many novelists, I wrote a few books before being published. Now I see that as my self-imposed training.  

Have you ever done anything else as a career?

After my first marriage broke up, I needed to increase my income. So I applied for a job as a writer in residence of a high security male prison. I didn't really want the job at the time as I was quite scared. I knew nothing about prisons! But to my horror, I got it. Then I found that, from day one, I was hooked. I met all kinds of people there and it opened my eyes to another world. My contract was for two years but the governor extended it to three which was very flattering. At the same time, I was teaching adults to write at Oxford University's Continuing Development course. I would often go straight from the prison to Oxford but I can honestly say that the standard of writing was just as high with some of my 'students' in prison. There's a wealth of talent there - and writing can also help people to reform by expressing their emotions. I also invited famous authors to come in and talk, including Colin Dexter. Now I am one of the judges for the Koestler Trust, which runs a huge national competition for writers in prisons and mental institutions. 

Where do you get your ideas from?

Life; Snatches of conversation; Things that happen to me and others. THE AU PAIR

What book is on your bedside table?

I'm half-way through Lisa Jewell's The Making of Us which I am really enjoying. Like me, she writes from the perspective of different characters. I find this fascinating because, in real life, one person's actions affect what someone else does. So we need to show this in fiction too and one way of doing this is to write multi character viewpoint. I like to find a central stage (such as au pair land) and then people it with characters who all have an interest in that stage.

What are you working on next? 

It's the next novel for Arrow called Parent School and it's due out in March. However, I also write historicals for Italy and Germany. In fact, my last novel The Pearls was number eight in Italy. I write my historicals under my married name Jane Corry but they're not available in English yet. (My agent is still in discussion with various publishers.) You can read about it on www.janecorry.co.uk. My next historical is called THE RUBY RING and comes out in Italy this October.

Thank you Janey. I appreciate you taking some time out from your busy schedule to visit my blog and share your thoughts with us.

Janey can be found on the following websites:-

http://www.janeyfraser.co.uk/index.html
http://www.sophieking.info/
http://www.janecorry.co.uk/

Book Review - The Au Pair by Janey Fraser

Title - The Au Pair

Author - Janey Fraser

Publisher - Arrow Books

ISBN - 978 0 099 5818-7

Format - Paperback
e-book also available

Available from:-
Amazon UK | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

Blurb

Apparently anyone can set up an Au pair agency. So when money gets tight, Jilly does exactly that. But she hadn't reckoned on Marie-France, a sparky French girl, signing up in the hope of finding her father, twenty years after her own mother had been an Au pair in the same town.
Then there's Matthew, a confused widower, whose daughter has driven away a string of Au pairs. Can Jilly ever find him the perfect match?
And lets not forget the rest of the Au pair mafia, including Heidi, Fatima and Antoinette, who "likes children but not very much".

My review
This wouldn't normally have been my genre of choice, but this book has now definitely changed all of that. I absolutely loved it!

The story is about Jilly, who sets up an Au pair agency, and tries, sometimes unsuccessfully, to fit work in around her family life.

What I loved about this book was the amount of characters that were in it and how with the authors perfect descriptive writing, had made them such vibrant characters, all with their own tale to tell.

They were of varying nationalities, which led to some amusing moments when they were talking about their life in England, and often came up with words that were lost in translation. Such as one Au pair talking about how the mother in her family was on the "Cab Itch" diet.

The book had amusing parts throughout and I loved the sections interspersed between the chapters, where there were tips for Au pairs and their families in "Jillies Au Pair Agency : Guidelines for Au Pairs and Families". Explaining the meaning of phrases like "Not on your Nellie" "Egg on your Face" and other such phrases.

The storyline throughout the whole 582 pages takes you through several feelings of amusement;sadness;worry. Most of all this book is very fulfilling. I really didn't want it to end, as I had connected with so many of the characters as if I knew them personally.

At the end of the book, you're not left wondering about any of the characters involved and how their lives evolve, as the author finishes it with a series of newspaper cuttings, e-mails and postcards.

This is definitely a keeper for me and is a great holiday read. One of the best books I've read in a long time and I thoroughly recommend it.

I'm off now to by more books from this author.

This book was given to me by Random House Publishers, in exchange for a review. This in no way influenced my review and the words and thoughts are all my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR by herself

Janey Fraser is the pen name for journalist Jane Bidder who also writes as Sophie King. You might have read some of my previous novels such as THE SCHOOL RUN and THE WEDDING PARTY which was short listed for Love Story of the Year 2010.

For many years, I was a journalist on women’s magazines and until recently, edited the family page of Woman. Now I write ‘ MUM LIT’ novels about the ups and downs of family life.

I have plenty of experience with my own three – remind me to tell you, one day, about the time that my youngest gave his friend a pudding-basin haircut while my back was turned for three minutes or when my eldest bashed me on the head with an empty lemonade bottle while driving because of an over-heated car game.

If you’d like to find out about competitions or events, please sign up to my regular email newsletter.

http://www.janeyfraser.co.uk/index.htm.

Author interview to follow