Set in a small rural town in England during the Second World War, a group of women each with their own secret lives come together under the pressure of war.
To begin with it was quite difficult to get a grip on the different characters. It took a good 100 pages before I really understood who was who and what was happening in their lives. Block did do a very good job of finding so many different stories for each character and really going into them.
One thing that did bug me though, was the inner monologue which kept popping up in italics. I just think it really didn't fit in with the writing style and made it feel a little disjointed at times. I do think the fact that Block is a scriptwriter affected the book negatively as you could tell it was not his usual form of writing.
There was a point in the middle of the book where I lost interest completely, but I did manage to finish the book and I am glad I did.
The book is based off a TV show and I do think had i watched that I would have gotten more out of it, but as a newbie to the village of Great Paxford I did still enjoy the story.
As for the characters there were some that I wasn't interested in like Erica and Frances. I did enjoy Pat's story more and wanted to know what happened.
Overall this was an solid read, but it hasn't climbed into my favourites shelf.
To begin with it was quite difficult to get a grip on the different characters. It took a good 100 pages before I really understood who was who and what was happening in their lives. Block did do a very good job of finding so many different stories for each character and really going into them.
One thing that did bug me though, was the inner monologue which kept popping up in italics. I just think it really didn't fit in with the writing style and made it feel a little disjointed at times. I do think the fact that Block is a scriptwriter affected the book negatively as you could tell it was not his usual form of writing.
There was a point in the middle of the book where I lost interest completely, but I did manage to finish the book and I am glad I did.
The book is based off a TV show and I do think had i watched that I would have gotten more out of it, but as a newbie to the village of Great Paxford I did still enjoy the story.
As for the characters there were some that I wasn't interested in like Erica and Frances. I did enjoy Pat's story more and wanted to know what happened.
Overall this was an solid read, but it hasn't climbed into my favourites shelf.