Book Bingo 2019 is a collaboration challenge I am completing with my favourite bloggers, Theresa Smith Writes and The Book Muse. Each Saturday, on a fortnightly basis, beginning on Saturday 5th January 2019, Ashleigh, Theresa and I will complete a book review post, outlining our respective bingo card entries. The Book Bingo 2019 card contains a total of 30 squares, which we will complete over the course of the year, with the aim to complete the whole card by the end of December. Two of the Book Bingo entries this year will be flexible, so that means it is completely down us as to when we post these entries, to ensure all 30 are ticked off by the end of the year. Do keep an eye out on our respective blog sites for our bonus round entries! To keep things interesting for ourselves and those following along with us, the choice of bingo square to be covered will be entirely down to us, there is no crossover – that is planned anyway! However, as Ashleigh, Theresa and I enjoy similar books, especially books by Australian women writers, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we end up with more than one book double up, as was the case in 2018! We invite you to join us in this fun book related challenge, by linking your bingo card entries in the comments section of this post, tagging us on social media, or by visiting The Book Muse and Theresa Smith Writes.
The trouble with choices… is they come with consequences.
Dumped on the eve of her brother’s wedding, schoolteacher Sophie Faraday throws caution to the wind and winds up in the arms of the sexy best man. It was meant to be a one–night fling, but an unexpected consequence means Sophie must face one of the hardest choices a woman ever has to make…
Older sister Beth finds life is tough enough juggling a mortgage, shift work and raising her ten–year–old daughter alone. When she meets Harry, the quiet gardener with a heart of gold, she’s determined to place him firmly in the friend zone. How can she let herself love again, when the guilt she carries every day reminds her what love can cost?
Hannah, Beth’s twin, has her own reasons for avoiding relationships. But when Irishman Declan walks into her veterinary clinic with an orphaned joey in his arms, she’s seriously tempted. But isn’t resisting the attraction the safest option? Especially when the secret she’s held close for so long can only guarantee heartbreak…
Will the Faraday girls learn that, with your sisters by your side, the wrong choices can still lead to the right places?
Review:
The Trouble With Choices, by Australian author Trish Morey, features a truly gorgeous front cover, filled with sentiment. Three women are linked in an embrace. The emotion of this book spills out from the tender-hearted cover and is a good indication for what is in store for the reader. From the cover tagline, ‘Three sisters, three tough choices, and the ties that bind a family together…’, we know that this novel is going to concentrate on family relationships, the bonds of sisters and the tough choices we face in life. It certainly pulled me in.
The Trouble With Choices opens with the spectacular and long awaited wedding between Dan Faraday and his love, Lucy. As Dan and Lucy walk down the aisle, Dan’s sister Sophie is nursing a broken heart. In an effort to quell her heartbreak, Sophie sets her sights on a handsome young bartender at the wedding, but she is rescued by Dan’s loyal best friend Nick. This tryst with Nick leads to some unexpected developments, which Sophie must deal with. Meanwhile, older sister Beth has troubles of her own. She is a single mother to a ten year old. She is struggling to gain the upper hand over work and family. Beth doesn’t have time for love, but when it comes knocking for her, Beth doesn’t know how to open up her heart. Finally, the third Faraday sister (who is also Beth’s twin) Hannah is tempted in the love stakes by Declan, a gentle Irishman. But secrets haunt Hannah and she can’t commit to Declan without breaking both their hearts. The Trouble With Choices is a rich family saga, about the bonds of sisterhood and how we need our siblings when we are faced with the impossible.
When I cast my mind back to The Cherry Season, the previous release from Trish Morey, I look to this book with a great deal of affection. It came as a welcome surprise that although The Trouble With Choices is a standalone contemporary women’s fiction crossed with romance novel, it features many of the characters that appeared in The Cherry Season. I adored The Cherry Season, so I was excited about the prospect of a reunion with Dan and the Faraday family.
The Trouble With Choices is a novel heavy on relationships and character issues. Morey keeps the reader entertained with plenty of dialogue that will make you feel angry, make you chuckle, cry and fill your heart with plenty of emotion. Each chapter is rotated perspective wise with the three sisters featured in the novel, along with Nick, Dan’s best friend. The Trouble With Choices also features a nice clear wrap up with an engaging Epilogue. I liked how Morey chose to begin the story with Sophie, I really felt like she was the dominant force in the novel and I have to say I enjoyed her story the most.
Alongside Sophie’s night of passion, which turns into a big reality check, we have twin sisters Beth and Hannah’s own problems in the love department. These two stories proved to be a nice side accompaniment to Sophie’s compelling story, but I didn’t feel as connected to the twins as I did with Sophie. Morey also rounds off her narrative by touching on the new life of Dan and Lucy, the memorable leads of The Cherry Season. I appreciated this narrative thread very much.
The Trouble With Choices is told in a light hearted tone, but there is a major plot thread that is of a serious nature. The beloved Faraday grandparents are issued with a real test to their day to day lives when it becomes clear that dementia is affecting the family in a big way. This is handled with insight, sensitivity and care by Trish Morey. I am sure many readers will be able to relate to the predicament faced by the Faraday clan.
Another highlight of The Trouble With Choices that I feel I must not ignore is the setting. I would dearly love to visit the Adelaide Hills one day. Thanks to Morey’s wonderful situational prose, I was easily able to picture this rich Australian locale in my mind. I loved the references to the local wildlife too. It was fantastic.
‘A flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos flew overhead, screeching in the mid air before descending into a pine tree, splashes of white and yellow amongst the green. God, it was gorgeous. Overnight rain had washed any dust and turned the tiny creek to running, an she breathed in the clean fresh air and thought there were worse places to bring up children.’
If you are a romance fan, you are in capable hands with anything written by Trish Morey, she is a romance expert. In The Trouble With Choices, you get a four for one deal! Not only do you get to follow up on Dan and Lucy’s happy ever after, expect your heart to beat when you read Beth, Hannah and Sophie’s respective love stories. Each individual road to love will leave you with stars in your eyes!
I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending The Trouble With Choices. It proved to be not only a lovely romance novel, but a noteworthy portrait on the issues faced by members of a close knit family.
**** 4 stars
The Trouble With Choices by Trish Morey was published on 18th June 2018 by Mira – AU. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
To learn more about the author of The Trouble With Choices, Trish Morey, visit here.
The Trouble With Choices is book #87 of the 2019 Australian Women Writers Challenge
