Faith Hogan

Feel good story with a touch of magic.

The allure of the Irish coast beckons as several people work out life challenges in the picturesque town of Ballycove.
Author Dan decides to leave Dublin and take time out to write a novel, and to investigate a question he’s wondered about most of his life.
Elizabeth, wife of the village doctor, finds herself left with huge debts when her husband dies. As she faces the future she also faces the boundaries of her married life.
Jo, a close friend of show more Elizabeth’s, persuades her divorced daughter and coincidentally a doctor to takeover the surgery until Elizabeth can move forward. Lucy’s son Niall accompanies her into what he views as a fresh new hell. He’s busting to join his father in Australia,
Jo talks Elizabeth into joining her for late night swims—refreshing and releasing. Magical!
A story with a nicely woven plot and some wonderful highlights—the ladies swimming in the altogether at midnight is a vision of warm friendship and individual courage.
I saw the writing on the wall for one subplot from early on in the novel, making it all too neat, but then I thought, Why Not?
A tight knit story, with occasional lapses where some happenings are maybe a tad too fortuitous. But then this is a novel of hope and stretching oneself, so again, Why Not?
A very enjoyable and warm read!

An Aria & Aries ARC via NetGalley show less

The Girl I Used to Know is the most apt title for this book. It applies to both main characters, Amanda King and Tess Cuffe. Tess is the sitting tenant in the basement flat of Amanda's swanky Georgian townhouse and she won't leave. She's lonely and she remembers her first months in Dublin, away from home for the first time. Maybe that was the last time she was happy, but that was 48 years ago. Amanda is a trophy wife now, pandering to the every whim of her hotshot husband, Richard, but she's show more also lost sight of who she used to be. She's a lady who lunches now but is she really happy?

I have to say that it took me probably to about the half way mark to really settle into this book and I think it was because the characters were largely unlikeable. That's not usually a problem for me, but maybe I wanted to like them. Then wham bam, all of a sudden things changed, the characters started to redeem themselves, I gained a real understanding of their feelings, their lives and why they behaved as they did and I got right into it.

I'd been meaning to read a Faith Hogan book for some time and this book proved the perfect introduction to her writing. She portrays so well the hard persona that people can adopt when they are lonely or sad, to keep people away when what they really need is to draw people into their lives. I grew to really like Tess and Amanda, and also the supporting characters, the gardener and the doctor in particular (I won't say anything else about them so as not to spoil the story).

I ended up shutting the book (ok, I read it on my Kindle so it's more like pressing the button for the last time) with a smile on my face and a real sense of satisfaction. It's about going through bad times and coming out the other end stronger and happier, redemption, acceptance, friendship, love, family. Just lovely, it was a pleasure to read. show less

I admit to being a huge Faith Hogan fan so I couldn't wait to get my hands on her new book; she writes such emotive and compelling fiction with strong female characters who you think of as friends as the book goes on. The Girl I Used to Know is so perfectly named as it describes the journey our two main characters are on. In this case, both women must shed the masks they have worn for so long in order to find their very own girl they used to know.

Amanda lives in a beautiful Georgian house show more and her life revolves around her husband and children. Amanda gets quite a wake up call when she catches sight of her reflection in a window and doesn't recognise the person she sees. With her husband spending more and more time 'at work', Amanda can spend some time reconnecting with the girl buried beneath the excess pounds.

Tess is a sitting tenant in Amanda's basement and the pair can barely say a civil word to each other. Amanda always imagined that she would include the basement as part of her home but Tess has no intention of moving out. With Tess getting older, she has no intention of popping her clogs too soon and making it easy for Amanda to get her hands on the basement flat.

When fate plays a hand and the two women find themselves spending time with each other, they find that the other isn't the person they thought she was. Amanda appears to have had an easy life, being given everything she ever wanted and dreamed of, whereas life has not been kind to Tess leaving her bitter and unhappy. They are each other's perfect medicine, along with a drop of whiskey and Matt the cat, of course.

I do love dual storyline books as you unravel the threads of a person's life to find out why and how they are the person they are now. As prickly as she was, I warmed to Tess straight away and was pinning my colours to her mast in the fight with Amanda, who I found to be one of those personality-free women...at first, I hasten to add. Then I started to feel so sorry for Amanda as she hadn't done anything to deserve what she was going through, but my pity turned to triumph as Amanda the beautiful butterfly emerged from her comfy old chrysalis.

This is another amazing book by Faith Hogan, one that leaves your heart fit to burst but is actually so thought-provoking that you can't help but examine your own life to see if you can reveal your happier true self from years ago. Pick it up today and maybe you will find the girl YOU used to know.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. show less

Faith Hogan has done it again! The Place We Call Home is another outstanding book from this amazingly talented Irish author (she writes crime now too, don't you know!). Faith Hogan's books always draw me in completely and make me feel like I'm part of the family, and never more so than in this family saga of the Corrigans of Ballycove.

It's like a complete family history as we meet the present day owner of Corrigan Mills, septuagenarian Miranda Corrigan, and flash back to her childhood when show more the mills were owned by local landowners, The Blairs. Miranda and Richard Blair become close friends one long hot summer and there's a definite spark between them that suggests they could become more than friends, but fate has other plans in store for Miranda.

Now you would think that Miranda became owner of the mills due to her relationship with Richard Blair, but it's a much more interesting and emotional story than that. Faith Hogan writes so vividly and emotively that I felt as if I was looking at Ballycove through Miranda's eyes and feeling every emotion that she felt. The characters are so full of life that I had to keep reminding myself that they weren't real people and I didn't really know them as well as I felt I did.

I don't want to spoil the story by giving away any of the plot so all I'll really say is that it is a family drama that puts Coronation Street writers to shame. There's jealousy and envy, unrequited love, money troubles and family secrets just waiting to be spilled; more than enough drama without needing to have a body buried under the patio. Even with so much going on, the pacing is very gentle; like waves lapping against the shore but each time the tide goes out, a little more of the family history is revealed.

The Place We Call Home is a book filled with love; first love, mother's love and some love from Faith, as undoubtedly a little piece of Faith Hogan's heart has been woven into the very pages of this beautiful heartwarming book.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. show less