Old Friends

This story is the last in the series about the Yellow Brick Road gang, a group of women whose close friendship supports them as they search for spirituality and find men. After a rather mawkishly sentimental start (to this British reviewer at least) the story gets going. Claire is 43, a successful investment manager but someone who keeps men away following her experience of being abused by her stepbrother when a child. However when she runs into a man in the video shop she thinks she has picked up a stalker; but Michael is rather more than a man, he's in fact a being from another dimension, and he says he is there to help Claire through a important time in her life. The next day she discovers her stepfather has died and left her some money but also the responsibility of looking after her stepbrother's daughter who is also being abused. Claire finds her life turned completely upside down as she looks after Beth her step-niece, gives up her job and finds another significant event. The romantic element of this book was actually subsidiary to the story of Claire learning to forgive her parents for their appalling treatment of her as a child. There are some brief forays into discussions of spiritual issues in a rather indistinct and new-agey way but the bulk of the story is about Claire changing her life and confronting her past. Her lover, Michael, didn't actually feature in the book that much and I felt that was rather a weakness in the story. This was a reasonable read with important subject matter and an interesting take on the world but it felt also rather superficial in places, particularly with regard to the relationship between Claire and Michael, and I was rather surprised at Claire's step-niece's ability to cope with what life had thrown at her and to accept all Claire's help without too much difficulty. The ending of the book returned to the mawkish sentimentality at the beginning with a very predictable 'big event' during a friend's wedding. However it was an easy enough read and had a little more to it than many other stories in this genre. Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008