Liz Loves Books.Com.

Publication Date: Available Now from Tinder Press.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy via Bookbridgr.

They say you know instinctively who to trust.
Alice is normal; she’d never do anything rash. But when she sees her husband one day with a younger girl, she knows at once that he’s having an affair. And it must be stopped.
Vic loves her friend Michael, more than he knows. He wants happiness, and thinks he’s found it with the magnetic Estella. But Vic feels sure she can’t be trusted – and she needs to make Michael see that too.
They don’t know Kaya; her life is tougher than they can imagine. But Kaya’s a survivor, and she’s determined to find a way out of her miserable world.

So, Strange Girls and Ordinary Women which involved a bit of both – and admittedly I was a little bit up and down on this one. After a fairly slow burn, a little way through it suddenly kicked in big time for me and I was hooked. Then it has to be said, I felt a little let down by the ending – offering as it did closure on some things but not on others and also, for me, being very abrupt. Overall though these are small downsides in what was a very compelling tale.

We follow along through a period of the lives of three women – Alice, Vic and Kaya – who become linked through a series of events, affecting all of them in different ways. The prose is beautiful, almost musical, and carries you along as each of the characters face very different hurdles, yet all are caught up in the same small whirlpool of time. They are all easy to relate to in different ways and the main magic of this for me was actually in their very differing personalities and ways of approaching things. The majority of the story was totally enthralling, as we go from one to the next and see things unravel for each of them.

There is a lot to love here – the strong female protagonists who also show very human weakness, the layers of plot exquisitely placed to offer both questions and answers and the examination of how women view themselves and each other. It is intelligent and well written and I was often enchanted.

Yes ok, personally I wish that the final denouement was more solid and that perhaps the start was a little more full on, but that is a purely subjective viewpoint – overall this is a wonderful book with some enigmatic and enthralling characters, and some wonderful settings -  I definitely want to read more from this author.

Happy Reading Folks!