This was an excellent family drama, and I highly enjoyed it! Looking forward to reading more by this author. This story is very realistic and is not hard to connect with. I recommend it for anyone who loves women's fiction/drama.

This book is written fantastically
The characters were so realistic and I was drawn into the story
A stunning family drama

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book so I am able to give an honest review.
This book didn't 'pull me in' and I wasn't eager to pick it up as much as I'd have liked. The story line was okay, but I just didn't really care if I finished it or not. It may be one of those books that you read a second time and appreciate more.

I loved This book. It was a beautiful family drama that kept me interested the entire read. The author developed characters were engaging and believable and an excellent plot. I really can’t recommend it enough!

**SPOILER ALERT**

I don’t even know where to start with this one. I have never given a 1 star rating before and I feel bad doing it but I hated this book. I apologize that my review has spoilers (that’s another thing I NEVER do but I felt I had to explain why this book was so bad to me).

First off I try to find something positive in every book I read so I can say one thing I liked about this book...I liked the storyline with Fred. The older gentleman that Anna visits, who becomes a special person in her life. It was a struggle for her to watch him go through memory loss and she didn’t want to accept that he had dementia. It was a touching and emotional part of the book. With that said, there is nothing else I liked. The characters were all annoying...especially Anna. Ughh, you want to feel bad for her in the beginning because her husband has an affair but then she ends up being just as bad as him, if not worse! The affair she ends up having (with a younger man) made me cringe as I was reading. It was just so poorly written. Moving onto the daughter. She’s 15 years old, her parents let her drink alcohol pretty much whenever she wants. They actually had enough alcohol for all the kids at her 16th birthday party but then got mad when the kids drank more than the 2 drinks that they had for each of them. The daughter has sex at 15 and the moms response is “I’m happy for you”. She’s happy for her but yet she has some sort of creepy infatuation with her daughter’s boyfriend. I kept telling myself if she ends up having sex with him I will stop reading. Fortunately she did not. But she did make a lot of comments about his body especially when she walked in on him having sex with the daughters best friend. Ok let’s move onto more issues...drug overdose, naked snapchat photos...horrible things would happen to this girl and it was just all OK the next day. I don’t know any parent that would be ok with everything that went on in this 15 year old’s life. And then the ending...insert huge eye roll 🙄...after all the cheating they just had to throw in one more with the best friend. And let’s not forget Anna hitting Jack on his bicycle at the end and him almost dying. There was just way too much going on in this book and I felt like it was a struggle to read, but I pushed through so I could leave an honest review because I had hoped that it might get better as it went on....it did not. I do not recommend this one at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was dubious when starting this novel, thinking it would be just another mid-life crisis affair story. To an extent it is, though there are surprising twists that add new levels to this novel.
A sassy and satisfying mixture of lust and betrayal, with added themes such as a mother trying to navigate her changing relationship with her daughter, make for a gripping read. I had to know whether the protagonist, the mother, would have the last laugh.

This taunt family drama blew me away. You get caught up in all of the drama. It keeps you engaged from the very first page and there's a shocking betrayal that I can't say much about without giving it away. Trust me you want to read this book. Happy reading!

This is a book about marriage, love, motherhood, friendship, first love and sex. It is told in the best possible way, it is real and raw and poetic. This is Contemporary Literary Fiction at its finest. Diane Chandler writes about the human condition in a very compelling way. I read this book in a single day and found it to be a great character study.

This is definitely not a fluffy beach read. Besides the coming of age and the love story of each of the characters this book handles some important issues...low self esteem, loneliness and infidelity are just some of the emotional baggage these characters are carrying around. Watching each of these characters push through life the best way they can makes for a compelling read that in the end will make you glad to have read their story.

The plot is powerful and riveting, but the book's true strength is in the fully-developed characters, who will haunt you long after you stop reading. This is a must read for fans of contemporary, women's fiction.

This book occupies that elusive middle ground between literary fiction and the best of popular fiction, compulsively readable but quite beautifully written. Anna’s voice is always clear and distinctive – it might be that she’s a slightly unreliable narrator at times, but it really wasn’t difficult to identify with her and her search for direction and purpose. Her life has revolved entirely around her family for a long time – feckless husband Ollie (who’s really gone too far this time) and daughter Sophie who’s growing up fast and slipping away from her protection and control. Although I’m neither a wife nor a mother, it was quite impossible not to identify with her feeling of lost youth and opportunity, that need to feel attractive and desired, to get a grip on things, to feel wanted. Might some of her actions have been prompted by a thirst for revenge too? Yes, I think they probably were.

I really want to take you through the twists and turns of the story – all those decisions made by Anna, many of which you’ll empathise with, but at other times might be well beyond the behaviour you’d expect. I won’t – but in a story that’s essentially Anna’s, I think it’s fair to say that much of the book’s focus is on men and their impacts. Husband Ollie behaves very badly, but – as men sometimes do – thinks contrition and promises mean that life will resume its former comfortable pattern. Jack, daughter Sophie’s rather exciting new boyfriend, provides a rather nice diversion, easing the tensions for a while when he’s welcomed into the family – I did rather expect the story to go in one direction, but it then it confounded me by going in entirely another. Then there’s Gabby – perhaps one of Anna’s less wise choices, their encounters glorious and a little seedy by turns, so very well handled by the author.

And then there’s Fred – an elderly man “adopted” by Anna as part of her search for purpose and direction, and a storyline that lifted this book for me from “loved it” to “it blew me away”. As a portrait of the descent into vascular dementia, I thought the writing was quite exceptional. It was all in the “moments” – the first signs while doing the crossword, the increasing forgetfulness and focus, the dead-heading of the roses with pliers rather than secateurs. The later stages of their relationship were searingly real – the absence of recognition, the brief moments of lucidity, the asking about his mother – and deeply moving. And through it all we have our own niggling questions around Anna’s motivation – that possibility that she might be caring for him to fulfil her own needs.

I really must mention that the whole book isn’t downbeat in any way – well, unless the story really demands it. There are many times when it’s exceptionally funny – returning items at M&S has never had me in tears of laughter before – and there are plenty of lighter moments. The author’s characters are never less than real people – and they simply behave as real people do.

And although I’ll say no more about it, I absolutely loved the book’s ending – if you’ve questioned Anna’s actions at other parts of the book, it presents perhaps the biggest question of them all, both dark and delicious.

Absolutely without question, this was one of my books of this year – I really hope it will bring Diane Chandler’s wonderful writing the attention and acclaim it so thoroughly deserves.

(Review will be copied to Amazon UK on publication day: copied to Waterstones, but review not yet visible)

Only Human is the beautifully told story of the slow end of a marriage. Over the course of one summer, Ollie and Anna navigate through a morass of problems as they try to find a way to hold on to their relationship.

After nineteen years of marriage, Anna accidentally discovers that her husband has been having an affair. Following a confrontation, they are able to settle into a cool truce concentrating on their almost sixteen year old daughter Sophie. Anna gave up her career in banking to raise Sophie and her daughter affectionately calls her a “tiger, helicopter, submarine” mother. However, now Sophie has become more independent and has distanced herself from Anna. When Sophie falls in love for the first time, her boyfriend Jack becomes almost a part of their family.

Anna is trying to find out who she is without Sophie and possibly without Ollie. When, through the Old Friends agency, she volunteers to regularly visit a senior citizen, she is paired with the delightful Fred, an eighty-five year old widower. Fred’s gradual decline inspires her and gives her a new focus.

Only Human pulls the reader in from the first page when Anna, riding on a bus, sees her husband kissing another woman. Each page is filled with words perfectly chosen to make you feel what each character feels, to see what they see. Only Human describes them all perfectly for they are vulnerable to the love, jealousy, betrayal, lying and grief that colors their summer. 5 stars. It deserves more.

Thank you to NetGalley, Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op, Blackbird Digital Books and Diane Chandler for this ARC.

A stunning family drama that many people will relate to and others will hope to never encounter the dramas this family had but as life goes on everyone will have their own story to tell after the years roll by.

Anna and Ollie have been contentedly married for almost twenty years and their only child Sophie is fifteen and just starting to show a little independence from her family as she and Anna were joined at the hip and Anna is extremely overprotective of Sophie and she is not ready to let go. One day Anna discovers Ollie had been having an affair and her whole world starts to unravel while Sophie now meets sixteen year old handsome and charming Jack who becomes the love of her lifetime and he also becomes an integral member of their family and a big distraction for Anna while she begins to rediscover herself as a woman and a person. Then along comes Fred, an eighty-six year old man whom Diane spends a few hours a week offering support and companionship while working through a volunteer program for the elderly. The time Anna spends with Fred will take her on a journey of learning and caring that will affect every aspect of her life.

This book was a wonderful and sometimes very raw story of infidelity, lies, lust, pain, love ,deceit, callousness, gentleness, caring and self-discovery while a wife is trying to make the decision of "should I stay or should I go" while trying to handle the pressure of a daughter rebelling while spreading her wings. Terrific moments of humor are brought into this mesmerizing story and bits of hope while this family experiences so many ups and downs that are truly life shattering. I am very grateful that I was able to read this book as it is different than my usual genre. The characters became realistic and I was drawn into their journey and cheering for a happy ending but this book took many unexpected turns that I wasn't prepared for and I loved it! I also fell in love with Fred and his delightful character who just stood my heart and this book would not have been the stunner without him.

I want to thank the publisher "Victory Editing Netgalley Co-op and Blue Digital Books" for this wonderful ARC and any thoughts and opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!

I highly recommend this book to all readers who enjoy family or life dramas and have given a rating of 4 Stunning 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stars!!

This is a wonderful page-turner full of suspense, tension and intrigue. It also has a great sense of place.

This was a beautiful family drama that kept me fascinated throughout the entire journey. The characters were engaging and believable. Can’t recommend it enough!