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Annie Fairhurst is an obese social misfit who is addicted to self help books. The narrator Annie is unreliable and gifted with an amazing ability to distort reality to suit her wishes. She is calculating, delusional and most certainly insane. However, the read is delicious and I could not put it down. Fortunately, it was my day off. Please someone read it and let me know if you enjoyed it as much as I did. Amazingly another debut I cannot wait for Ashworth’s next book.
This is a most enjoyable debut novel. It is about the evacuation of children from London to a country estate at the start of World War ll so that they would not be present for the blitz. It is also a love story involving many different kinds of love----the author does a good job of creating the atmosphere of the time period both at the Yorkshire estate and in London. Toward the end the author wraps up the story quickly and I found the ending a bit questionable but it is still worth the time to read it.
This book grabs your attention from page one. It is a story about a troubled military family in the 1970’s. The father is very focused on his career and the mother is depressed and self absorbed so the family is neglected. The story is told by Tillie the daughter and most of it takes place while Tillie and her brother are growing up. These were children in need of sane parenting. The father did try but was not successful. Neither the mother or father should have been a parent---however, I liked the father better but am sure many of you feel the mother was a sympathetic character.
This book is a page turner from the beginning. Annie O’Sullivan has been a golden girl that things went well for-----however, her life turns horrifically wrong when she is abducted from an open house she is conducting in her capacity as a top realtor. She is held hostage in a remote cabin by a freaky monster. She lives through a dreadful year and finally breaks free. In the aftermath of her ordeal and with much counseling she realizes that the old Annie is still ‘missing’.
This novel is set in mid century Hong Kong. The ‘piano teacher ‘ is an English woman who has moved to Hong Kong with her husband. She gets a job with a wealthy family, becoming the piano teacher to their daughter. She soon starts an affair with the chauffeur. How it all ends up I cannot tell you since I read it awhile ago---I remember loving it and wanting to include it since it was a debut. I have looked at reviews on Amazon to refresh my memory of the story and found it had mixed reviews----I loved it ----
This is a story of secrets and misunderstandings that affect every character in the novel. It begins with the release of Allison Glenn to a halfway house after serving five years in prison. We are not told what the crime was but we do know it causes Allison to be rejected by all-even members of her own family. Upon arrival at the halfway house Allison tries without success to get in touch with her sister Brynn to help her come to terms with her past and reestablish a sibling relationship. 
The story starts with a car accident on a fogbound back road. April and Isabelle collide and Isabelle loses her life. April leaves behind a grieving husband and a nine year old boy. Isabelle is not responsible for the accident but does have intense guilt. Charlie, her grieving husband, spends the rest of the book trying to piece together reasons why April was leaving and where she was going on the fateful day. While the story was compelling it lacked character development and had many inconsistencies. However, it was a good read and I raced through it.