Stacey, Beth, Melissa and Gaby have been friends since university. All of them focused on finance and through the years they have remained friends as they climbed the ladder of success. When Stacey Grant, married and childless by choice, asks for flexible time on her demanding job to better care for her mother, who suffers from dementia, she is made redundant from her London equity firm.
This unexpected event throws Stacey into the depths of depression. Without her work to help take her mind off of her mother's declining health she questions her choices and her friendships. One friend, Melissa, a single mother, runs her own business and is content to raise her son Tom alone until Tom's father is suddenly back in the picture, complete with a new family for Tom to share in. Gaby, very successful and happily married with 3 children, is lucky to have a supportive husband but has no room in her organization for Stacey because she has hired the woman in Tom's father's life, keeping that fact a secret from the rest of the group. Beth is busy remolding her dream home with Claire, the love of her life, until Claire decides that there may be something better out there for her.
Joanna Trollope is an expert at examining the everyday lives of real people. There are no terrifying car chases, no dramatic murders, no wild sex scenes. These could be people who live next door. I think you have to have a particular mindset to enjoy Trollope's work because it's not so much escapism as ultra-reality. I like it so much that I just picked up another of her novels that I've never read. If you haven't read Trollope you might want to give her a try!
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