Sharon Griffiths

I am a sucker for a time travel story, with whatever other genre it crosses over, and this book's description as "Life on Mars meets It's a Wonderful Life" prompted me to download this. Rosie Harford is a young journalist on a local newspaper who is assigned a story to cover a new reality TV series, The 1950s House, to be filmed in in a house on a local housing estate first built in that decade where one of the original inhabitants still lives. When she gets there, she has some sort of show more fainting fit and when she comes to is taken aback by the level of detail in the reality TV construction - of course, as the title says, there is much more to it than a TV show. Rosie gradually gets used to life in the 1950s, again as a reporter on the local newspaper, but in a much more misogynistic age. The details of 1950s life are contrasted very sharply with those of Rosie's life in the 2000s, though she does have a habit in the early part of the story of making rather crass and foolish remarks that land in her trouble. The ending when she returns to the present is ambiguous and was initially disappointing, but eventually became more satisfyingly mysterious (no spoilers here) and Rosie resolves the emotional uncertainties in her own life with a romantic conclusion. show less

Good fun for the most part; light-hearted and amusing. Was disappointed in the reveal towards the end though. Lost interest and didn't read the last 20 or so pages.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a nice easy read and I liked the ending.

La periodista Rosie Hartford está viviendo un día muy extraño. Tras una gran pelea con Will, su novio y compañero de trabajo, sale a cumplir -a regañadientes- con su último reportaje: una entrevista a uno de los residentes de The Meadows, una mansión cutre del lugar que está a punto de convertirse en el plato de un importante reality show televisivo, La casa de los años cincuenta.Pero al entrar por la puerta principal, Rosie se encuentra con que todo es gris y monótono: la comida, show more la ropa, la tele… Al principio cree que la han incluido en el show sin consultarla, pero pronto se da cuenta de ha viajado en el tiempo y está realmente en los años cincuenta. Will también está allí, sólo que ahora lo llaman Billy y está casado con su mejor amiga. Tras reponerse del susto, Rosie no tiene más remedio que adaptarse al estilo de vida cotidiano de esos años. Pero ella es una chica de nuestra época, y sigue enamorada de Will…« show less