(7.5)Once again this author captures the dilemmas of modern life and its impact on family relationships. It was a little slow to grab my interest but it settled in to an engaging read. Just what I needed when there are too many life distractions. ( )

‘Balancing Act’ is a novel about a family of strong-minded women. The dynamic founder of a successful craft company has raised three very different daughters who all work for her, and who, in different ways, want things to change.

Each relationship in the book, between family members and their spouses, is simmering under low-key tension. It doesn’t take much of a catalyst to lead to some outspoken confrontations. The catalyst is a delightful elderly hippy who invades one daughter's space, and makes cracks in her mother’s need for control over her life and family.

There isn’t much plot. It’s a character-based novel, and flits from person to person, home to home, with plenty left up to the reader’s imagination. While I felt that too much background was given in the early chapters, some of it turned out to be relevant later on.

My biggest problem with the book is that most of the characters are rather flat, perhaps because none of them has a sole viewpoint and we don't see much into anybody's mind. Still, I liked one of the husbands, who is filled with good humour and empathy, and I was also very taken with a realistic three-year-old who is going through a defiant stage but needs a great deal of love and understanding.

The writing is good, although it could have done with a bit of proof-reading; not to correct grammar, but an annoying phrase that was used too often. Still, that’s a minor quibble. On the whole I thought it a relaxing read. There’s no real emotional depth to the novel, but nothing unpleasant about it either and the ending is encouraging.

Not recommended if you want a good plot, or indeed a story with high drama, but if you enjoy light women’s fiction with diverse characters, this would probably would make good holiday reading.
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British pottery tycoon Susie Maron is threatened by the skills and progressive thinking of her three daughters who have joined the business and made it even more successful. The father who abandoned her at birth has returned, and her husband and reformed his band from the 70's. A beautifully written book about relationships, conflicts and growth and how one balances work and family life. ( )

A pleasant enough story about a family business. The mother Susie has established it neglecting her marriage and her children in the process. the grown up children are flexing their muscles and want to have a larger say in the running of the business. And then to top it all off Susies father,, who left with his wife when she was a baby so that she was brought up by her grandmother, returns and throws a spanner in the works as everyone tries to relate to him. ( )