Nadine Dorries

Coming Home to the Four Streets by Nadine Dorries is the 4th book in The Four Streets series. Eric, the local milkman, looks forward to having a morning cuppa with Maggie Trott each day. It gives them a chance to be close and flirt. After all, Eric is married to the acerbic Gladys. Eric just hopes that word never gets back to Gladys. Peggy Nolan is not doing well since Maura Doherty departed for Ireland. Maura kept Peggy on a schedule and made sure that Peggy and her family had food to eat. Paddy Nolan rarely heads to the docks to pick up work preferring to spend his time at the local pub spending what little money he has earned. Maura and Tommy miss the Four Streets. Life is Ireland is not what they expected. It is a hard life running Talk of the Town with little profit. Maura misses her friends, and she is worried about her son, Harry who is being ill-treated by the local schoolteacher. Callum is staying out of trouble, but his twin is getting out of jail soon. His mother, Annie sees only the best in Jimmy, but Callum worries that Jimmy will cause more trouble upon his release. Some people are betting that Jimmy will be back in jail before a week is out. The neighborhood looks forward to the carnival each year which is in a few weeks, and they rely on Captain Conor’s ship to supply some needed items. Unfortunately, there has been no word on the ship and supplies are running low. I found this historical novel easy to read with a cast of realistic characters. I thought the author captured the time-period and the locale. We get to see the hardscrabble life the dock workers and their families experience. They may not have many physical luxuries, but the people in Four Streets have each other. They help each other out when in need. The book does contain foul language and intimate situations. The Four Streets series does need to be read in order because information that is needed is not included in Coming Home to the Four Streets. Coming Home to the Four Streets has a good ending that will make readers of the series smile. If you enjoy dramatic historical sagas, then you will like reading Coming Home to the Four Streets.… (meer)

It's a long time since I've read what I call a 'Mammy's book' (aka family saga) so I was quite surprised at how much I did actually enjoy Ruby Flynn. I really enjoyed the linguistic style of Nadine's writing as I could almost hear the Irish or Scouse accents of the characters in my head. As expected, it was an easy read with a slightly predictable ending but there were some events in the book that were quite unexpected, to say the least.

The book starts as a young Ruby is found during the 'great storm' with her dead parents and taken to the local convent. On her arrival at the convent there is an incident with a precious vase so we are under no illusion that Ruby is a strong feisty character and not a poor little orphan as you might have expected. I thought that there might have been more interaction with the nun characters as they are usually normally wicked or hilarious but they seem to play a very small part in the story. As Ruby gets older she is chosen to go to work in the nursery of Ballyford, which I imagined to look a bit like Downton Abbey. There are, however, no children in the nursery at Ballyford, allegedly due to the legendary curse. This was such a terribly sad story in itself as the lady of the house refuses to leave the empty nursery.

The master of the house, Charles FitzDeane, decides to set up a shipping business with Rory Doyle, the local bad guy who he thinks of as a friend, and needs little excuse to spend more and more time in Liverpool. It is no surprise that Charles ends up leading a double life to escape the sadness that awaits him back home. Then on a visit back to Ballyford he is captivated by the red hair and green eyes belonging to Ruby, and finds it easier to spend more time in Ireland. Charles and Ruby share a past that Ruby is completely unaware of and it was intriguing to watch the story of the past unfold.

It has the usual tried and tested successful formula of the rich man in the big house and the poor servant girl but what sets this apart are the unexpected, and sometimes tragic, twists and turns that the book takes us on. It's well worth a read for those who enjoyed Nadine Dorries' Four Streets Trilogy or if you're partial to a good old Catherine Cookson style family saga.

I received this e-book from the publisher, Head of Zeus, in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)