Today I am joining the blog tour for the latest release by Sheila O’Flanagan – Her Husband’s Mistake. Many thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me to read this book and share my review. When I saw this blog tour pop up in my inbox I couldn’t wait to read the book as it sounded right up my street.
My Review
Roxy has just lost her father and has been running his chauffeur business whilst he was poorly to help keep it afloat in his absence. Just when she thinks life can’t deal her any more blows she catches her husband cheating on her with a neighbour and this story follows her as she goes from being in a carefree marriage to having the weight of the world on her shoulders.
A book full of family loyalty, love, trust and mistrust, Roxy has some big decisions to make – can she trust Dave again? afterall he was her childhood sweetheart but she is also aware she has two children to support and she is still grieving the loss of her Dad and trying to be there for her Mum.
I loved Roxy she was the shoulder for all of the family and as her character comes out as you keep reading you realise just how determined she is to be a success as she decides on the next steps in her life. She is passionate and driven and I love the demonstration of how the onus is often on Mum to keep all of the balls in the air when it comes to childcare and making sure that there is dinner on the table for everyone.
A book that I found gathered momentum the more I read and I found myself routing for Roxy as she looks to move forward with her life. A brilliant book that is easy to pick up and put down and oozing with brilliant strong female characters.
Book Blurb
Roxy’s marriage has always been rock solid.
After twenty years, and with two carefree kids, she and Dave are still the perfect couple.
Until the day she comes home unexpectedly, and finds Dave in bed with their attractive, single neighbour.
Suddenly Roxy isn’t sure about anything – her past, the business she’s taken over from her dad, or what her family’s future might be. She’s spent so long caring about everyone else that she’s forgotten what she actually wants. But something has changed. And Roxy has a decision to make.
Whether it’s with Dave, or without him, it’s time for Roxy to start living for herself…
Available to purchase here
About the Author
Ireland is famed for its writers, but for me growing up most of the novels were rural in both their settings and their points of view. I wanted to read books about people like me, who lived in the city and struggled with the chaotic bus timetable and had dreams and ambitions that had nothing to do with the farm. I also wanted to read novels in which the women were the heroes of their own stories and not simply there because they were someone’s wife, mother or daughter.
Although I was constantly writing, the idea of being a novelist was a bit of a pipe dream. I had to earn a living and so I got a job in finance. It was the complete opposite of anything I’d ever expected to do but – at least for a time – I enjoyed it and I did well.
But the dream wouldn’t go away and in my thirties I decided that I would make a real effort to write my novel. Eventually, after a couple of false starts, Dreaming of A Stranger was written and published and became an Irish bestseller.
Since then I’ve written more than 20 novels as well as 3 collections of short stories and 2 novels for children all of which have been bestsellers both in Ireland and overseas. They include The Hideaway, What Happened That Night, Isobel’s Wedding and Suddenly Single and my sales have topped 8 million around the world. My next book will be published on 30th May 2019 and is called Her Husband’s Mistake. In it, Roxy, my heroine, has to reassess her rock-solid marriage after a shattering discovery.
In most of my books, I put women in situations where they have to dig deep inside themselves to find their inner strength even though sometimes they struggle to realise it’s there. Readers often ask who my favourite characters are, but every one of the women in my books is as close to me as a member of my family. (For the time when I’m writing a book they’re even closer because they’re in my head 24/7. At least with the family I can put the phone down!)
Regardless of who my readers are, I always try to do three things when I’m writing:
Tell a good story
Make the reader feel like they know the characters
Make each book better than the last
I’ve been very lucky in having so many books published and hearing from readers all around the world. And I’m glad that, when times were tough, I remembered the quote that ‘a professional writer is an amateur who wouldn’t quit”
I’m a passionate avocate for increasing literacy and helping people who have come to reading late in life so that they can find the same pleasure in reading as I’ve had. I’ve taken part in a number of different televised projects to help people who’ve struggled with reading and writing and I’ve contributed to both the Quick Reads and Open Doors series of novellas for new readers. I’m also a board member of Fighting Words, the creative writing centre set up by Booker prize-winner Roddy Doyle where I’ve worked with teenagers to write their own published stories and retired people who are working on their memoirs.
Please keep following the blog tour and remember to like and share to help spread the book love!
Love the Smell of a Book 
Thanks for the blog tour support xx
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