Member Reviews

My Thoughts

The premise of this book, as stated in the synopsis, ‘Is an inheritance a privilege or a right?’, is an interesting thought to ponder, especially for the Jamieson family in this particular situation. You put yourself in their shoes - are you simply entitled to the family inheritance? Should it be distributed evenly? Fairly based on recognition? What if you disagreed with the will? How far would you go to contest what you rightly thought was your entitlement?

“That it doesn’t change the fact that you made a life-altering decision without discussing it with me?”

With so much to consider from varying viewpoints, this became a long story. Perhaps a tad too long for my liking, as I felt some sections could have been shortened. Undoubtedly it is well written with a strong cast of characters who provide a most thought provoking family saga - the key word there would be provoking and I will get to that in a moment. Of course, families do not get along all the time, at the best of times, and many will relish this confronting and at times, difficult drama filled situations. In many ways it held potential as some situations or characters had recognisable dilemmas.

‘After all, who in their mid-forties, sandwiched between teenage children and ageing parents and with so many people making demands on them, didn’t crave time on their own?’

Apart from the hefty size of the tale, I struggled with a couple of other things. Firstly, these people were at times downright brutal to each other. Early on it did not sit comfortably with me but towards the end I did not enjoy how rude and confrontational they were to each other. There are some really unlikable characters here. The second thing I found difficult was the array of issues - everything from spousal affairs and vasectomies, to homosexuality and sexual abuse - just to name the main ones. It was just too many and too much and became overwhelming and ridiculously drama filled.

Overall I enjoyed some of the story and some of the characters - I had a lot of respect for Ellie and how her part played out and would have loved to learn more about the father, Kevin. But on the whole, there was just too much bitterness for me to swallow and many characters were too difficult to connect with as their infighting went to a whole new level.




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

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Where do I start this book has left me speechless it is so good, from start to finish the characters come alive on the pages, the setting is fabulous and I got so invested in their lives that I was almost yelling at them as well as cheering some of them on, MS Lowe you rock with your fabulous words, I practically inhaled this story and my advice to other readers is clear your calendar for the day so as you can just read this one.

I don’t want to give too much away in this one, this is a story of a family, the Jamieson’s a privileged family in wealth and status but underneath there is a lot that is going on and has gone on in the past and now things are starting to come out, secrets are being uncovered and brother and sisters are disputing and arguing about the way things are being done and what should happen with the property and money.

Matriarch Margaret who has always held the power over her children Sarah, Cameron and Ellie is failing in health and this is starting to show in the family as it starts to break down not that they were always very close. Sarah is having marital problems has always been at her mother’s beck and call even though she has always known she is not the favourite, Cameron is married to Anita and is the favourite child and knows it and Elle the black sheep the one that was always in trouble, but can they work together or will break further apart with what is uncovered.

This is such a great story I finished it last night and I can’t stop going over what Sarah and Elle went through and Cameron’s behaviour throughout the story and the strength that Anita shows and Margaret what can I say other than I highly recommend that you pick this one up and fall into it like I did, thank you so much MS Lowe for a story that had me hooked from page one, awesome story. I have to say the epilogue is perfect I loves how everything turned out.

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