Since Loveday left care at the age of fifteen, she has been working in Archie's secondhand bookshop in York. Her life as she knew it ended one night when she was ten, and since then she has carefully wrapped herself up tight into an impenetrable shell. This book tells her story in three distinct strands - the events leading up to the fateful night that effectively ended her childhood, the recent past when she lowered her defences enough to get close to a man and the present.
In Loveday, Stephanie Butland has created a complex and interesting character. Spiky, no-nonsense, anti-social and very definitely damaged, her story is sometimes very sad and is sensitively and intelligently told.
I put off reading this for a while because the cover and in particular the quotes used gave me the impression that this was going to be sugary and twee chic lit. In fact it's nothing of the sort. Yes, it's firmly in the feel-good life-affirming story category, but there's a lot more to it than the cover implies.
Recommended if you don't believe that books can cure all ills, but you know that they definitely make a good place to hide out when the real world is going down the pan.
In Loveday, Stephanie Butland has created a complex and interesting character. Spiky, no-nonsense, anti-social and very definitely damaged, her story is sometimes very sad and is sensitively and intelligently told.
I put off reading this for a while because the cover and in particular the quotes used gave me the impression that this was going to be sugary and twee chic lit. In fact it's nothing of the sort. Yes, it's firmly in the feel-good life-affirming story category, but there's a lot more to it than the cover implies.
Recommended if you don't believe that books can cure all ills, but you know that they definitely make a good place to hide out when the real world is going down the pan.