Review: Births, Deaths and Marriages

Births, Deaths and Marriages by Laura Barnett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Six people meet at university - specifically at the funeral for a man/boy who was killed in a car accident just a few weeks into term. They spend the next few years inseparable, several of them share a house, and as is perhaps inevitable with young people away from home, there is a lot of secret hooking up, being in love with someone who's in love with someone else, etc, etc.

Fast forward twenty years. Zoe and Rob got pregnant while still at university, got married but subsequently divorced when their son Gabe was five years old. Rancour over, Rob is soon to be married for a second time to a wealthy architect, Rob is a teacher and Zoe is a midwife in Herne Bay, Kent.

Yas, the working class girl with a single mother is now an NHS surgeon.

Al, who was in love with Zoe at university was married, but his wife Estelle died, following which he gave up his job and started working at the family undertakers in Beckenham, Kent.

Indie, who was in love with Al at university, has created a successful coffee business, she is married to Xavier (not one of the university six), who was a successful chef until COVID, when his restaurant went bust.

Finally Rachel, who is married with two small boys. Her husband Mark runs a successful gym business.

Over the past twenty years the tight knit group have drifted apart, particularly after Estelle's funeral, but the invite to Rob's engagement party brings them all back together. In a year there will be a baby, a wedding, a death, a divorce, and other upheavals.

This is described as Four Weddings and a Funeral meets One Day and I can sort of see why, it's also a lot like Cold Feet. After a rocky start, the introductory chapter was quite turgid and I didn't have a clue about anyone, this quickly became a great read - I think it would be even better as a film or a TV series. Laura Barnett did a good job of keeping the characters separate (after the first chapter) which is not easy to do when there is a main cast of six plus spouses/children to remember.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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