Kerry Fisher

What an amazing story! I thought I was picking up a summer/beach read but this has to have the best opening page to a romance-style novel EVER!! I thought I was reading the wrong book, so bravo Kerry Fisher!

Octavia and Roberta are best friends who have married unsuitable men. Octavia's husband, Jonathan, is anal and pernickety whilst Roberta's husband, Scott, is a controlling selfish bully. The story is therefore two-fold with Roberta and Octavia being the subject of alternative show more chapters.

Roberta, not surprisingly, leaves Scott and has to adjust to single life and find somewhere to live with their teenage daughter, Alicia. Roberta eventually dabbles her toe in the shark-infested waters of internet dating and meets the lovely Jake. Of course Scott is still hanging around in the wings like a pantomime villain trying to spoil her Happy Ever After.

Octavia's marriage has clearly gone stale, although she has three beautiful children. Jonathan loses his job but eventually gets offered a position in Sardinia. He is reluctant for Octavia to visit him (we can guess why, the snake!) but she eventually does. As Jonathan has no spare time to spend with her she takes the ferry over to Corsica where she revisits the haunts of her teenage travels and the homeland of her first love, Xavi. Will fate intervene and bring them together again?

Do not mistake this for a no-brainer chick-lit book. This is an engaging story of two best friends and their quest for happiness, with a sprinkling of humour along the way. It is beautifully written, it made me laugh and almost made me cry, especially with the line "maybe hands were like memory foam mattresses, carrying the imprint of people they've loved forever." Food for thought, indeed.

If you think I've overdone the exclamation marks, go read the book yourself - you won't be disappointed!!!

I received this e-book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

This was such a riveting story and a very close examination of Lydia and Mark's marriage. My heart went out to Lydia as she tried to keep her secrets buried, and Mark is so lovely that I kept yelling 'tell him' but completely understand that the longer you take to tell somebody something, the harder it is. Lydia is so troubled with her burden that it isn't any wonder that she makes reckless decisions that put her marriage in further jeopardy.

We all know that secrets don't stay buried for show more long, and it's so typical that Sean McAllister, the one person Lydia never wanted to see again ended up living in her village and she was unable to avoid him. I could feel the tension crackling through the pages every time Lydia came into contact with Sean. It was no surprise that she started to take her angst out on her husband and two children. It is so true that we always hurt the ones we love.

After the Lie certainly highlighted the dangers of our 'snap your fingers and it's all over the internet' day and age we live in. If Lydia had been a teenager in present times, she wouldn't have a secret to keep buried as the whole world would know about it!

Whilst all of this tension and drama is going one, we have some laugh out loud moments to lighten the mood courtesy of the family dog, Mabel and Lydia's busybody mother, Dorothy. Mabel had me in absolute kinks of laughter as she virtually sprang to life out of the page - the inspiration for Mabel was Kerry Fisher's own naughty dog, Poppy, who I'm sure could provide enough entertainment for a whole book! Lydia's mother was so funny how she still treated 40-odd year old Lydia as a child, trying to tell her what clothes to buy and how to live her life. Her heart is in the right place but Lydia's exasperation is completely understandable and it's heartening to see what a close and strong family unit they have.

Having now read two of Kerry Fisher's books (see also The Island Escape that I named as one of my top reads of 2015), I am becoming quite a fan. Kerry's books are so true to life that you feel as if you are one of the family, I find that I care about the characters and I relive moments from the book long after I have turned the final page.

After the Lie is a thought-provoking, poignant and funny book that doesn't disappoint. The eye-opening comparison between then and now of a moment that should have remained private was simply marvellous.

I received this e-book from the publisher, Bookouture, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

The Island Escape had one of the best openings of any chic-lit type book I've ever read. Having absolutely adored Kerry Fisher's After the Lie, I knew immediately I was in for another winner, but I was still expecting a humorous, light-hearted chic-lit beach-type romance story. Don't get me wrong, there is lots of humor in Kerry Fisher's writing, but the plot was a lot deeper and more serious than I had anticipated. In fact, nearly halfway through the book, I was still wondering when the show more promised feel-good factor would appear. I found a lot of this story quite heartbreaking and went back and forth between feeling sorry for some of the characters and getting angry with them. Definitely a very engaging and emotional read!
Despite the title, two-thirds of the plot actually take place in Surrey, England.
Told in alternating chapters from Octavia's and Roberta's points of view, we are privy to the disintegration of their marriages. Octavia and Roberta have been best friends since their school days though they could hardly be more different. Their friendship was lovely to follow, as they were always there for each other even if they didn't always agree. In Roberta's words, "Octavia was like family, just nicer".
Roberta fell pregnant whilst at university and did the 'responsible' thing and married reliable, parsimonious Jonathan, the father of the baby. Sixteen years later, she is the busy mother of three kids, runs her own nursery school, has a predictable marriage, and is wondering what happened to the free-spirited girl who was going to travel the world. But she just gets on with her mundane life.
Octavia rebelled against her parents and married the 'love of her life', but her marriage didn't turn out as she had expected. Having completely lost her own identity and self-confidence over the years, Octavia is a shell of the person she once was. I hated her husband Scott with a vengeance.
In case you're wondering, the feel-good was there after all and I couldn't put down the last third of the book and finished it with a great, big smile. Kerry Fisher has a real talent for creating believable characters and putting them through poignant and convincing situations, all delivered in an amusing and charming style. She now has a firm place on my must-read author list. 4.5 stars.
My sincere thanks to Bookouture for my copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

You know, sometimes you read only a page or two, and you know you're going to love the book? That's what happened when I glanced at the prologue of After The Lie. I simply fell in love with the writing style. I'm really OC about reading my NetGalley books in order of publication date but once I saw the prologue that system of mine went out the window. I put away my other book and devoured this one in a day.
Lydia and her parents have been keeping a secret for thirty years. Lydia never told show more her husband, Mark, or her children or any friend. Actually, it's hard to have friends if you're keeping a secret. And then one day, the fact that you have kept secrets and have lied to your loved ones becomes more destructive than the original secret ever would have been.
This happens to Lydia when she is suddenly confronted with her buried past at her children's posh private school.
I thought I knew where this story was going to go at that stage, but the author took a totally different route. It was utterly brilliant. I never expected the whole Tomaso debacle.
After The Lie was unpredictable, it was extremely witty, and it was heartbreaking as well as heartwarming. I went through a lot of emotions reading this.
The characters were wonderfully realistic and relatable. I loved Jamie's teenage talk. Lydia was a fantastic character, so likeable, and I enjoyed all her sharp observations. It was incredibly easy to become fully immersed in her life. Don't even get me started on Mabel, the dog. And as for Mark, if there was an award for book-husband of the year, he'd have my vote. I'm afraid I didn't feel any sympathy for Lydia's mother, though.
After The Lie is a very poignant story about family relationships, parenting, life pre-Internet versus social-media-ruled life, delivered with flawless prose which contained some delightfully creative metaphors. To say Kerry Fisher has a way with words is an understatement. The ending was perfect even for someone as cynical as me.
This was an easy 5-star read. Needless to say, I'm hoping to read more by Kerry Fisher soon.
Many thanks to Bookouture for my copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. show less