Mum in the Middle by Jane Wenham-JonesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Tess has left the former marital home in London and bought a run-down house in a rural village where her BFF lives. Now her three children are adults in work or at university she is looking forwards to spending time with friends and not having the smell of take-away food permeating every room of the house.
What she finds is rather different to the idyll she imagined. First, a former TV star lives next door and is renovating a glorious old house in order to run it as a B&B. Second, her mother appears increasingly out-of-sorts and has had a 'turn' necessitating a visit to the hospital and various scans. Third, although they may have lives of her own her three children appear to believe that dropping in and staying for long weekends (or longer) along with their friends and dirty washing is okay. Fourth, there may be someone in the village with a grudge against DFLs (Down From London-ers) buying property and raising prices in the village. Add in dodgy plumbing and a suave architect Tess is beginning to think it's not all sheep and meadows in the country!
This was absolutely perfect beach reading. I laughed along with Tess at the cluelessness of her children and her ex-husband (who thinks its okay to come and stay when his second wife is 'having a turn' AKA had enough of him), sympathised at the dodgy drainage in the downstairs loo and loved the way everything got solved by a bottle of merlot (or chablis or frascati etc).
Recommended for women with teenagers, women who don't have kids, women with elderly parents or just women doing the best they can.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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