Thank you to NetGalley, Random House and the author Ruth Jones for the opportunity to review this wonderful book. Dennoch war es mir zu sprunghaft, der häufige Wechsel zwischen den Zeiten, auch wenn ich natürlich verstehe, und schon früh ahnte, dass der Rückblick am Schluss notwendig ist, um nicht schon alles zu verraten. Everyone thinks they know the truth, but they are all keeping secrets, will Grace's party be a joyous reunion or a day of tears and recriminations? The thread which binds together mothers and daughters throughout their lives is awesomely strong; motherhood forges links of steel across generations, as I’ve seen myself since our own daughter gave birth to her first child - a girl.

The reader gains knowledge of this family's background, including the harm and suffering that have been inflicted upon them. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Ruth Jones is best known for her outstanding and award-winning television writing, most notably BBC One's Gavin and Stacey, which she co-wrote with James Corden and in which she played the incorrigible Nessa Jenkins.Each character was realistic and I have fallen in love with Grace , she is such a strong woman and as a Welsh woman myself , I see a lot of my own grandmothers in her. Grace, in her 90th year, certainly doesn’t act her age and her home by the sea in Dylan’s Quay has been a refuge for her grand-daughter Elin and Elin’s daughter Beca throughout their lives. Her 16 year old daughter Beca is about to fail her GCSE’s, her husband has started behaving strangely and her grandmother is secretly trying to track down Elin’s mother Alys before she turns 90, so the scene is set for some spectacular secrets to be revealed.

The book starts with Elin, a headteacher, who is organising a surprise 90th birthday party for her grandmother who brought her up when her mother was unable to, despite her grandmother having said that she didn’t want a party. I was completely captivated by this character-driven story of mother/daughter relationships and really cared about the characters; I was genuinely sad to finish it and leave them all behind. The time she looses her cool is with her academic mum which she is the opposite like the rest of the family it seems. It is a joy-filled, life-affirming, sob-inducing novel - with characters you'll come to know and love - from no. It shows how complicated and complex any relationship can be, but also how wonderful and uplifting even in the darkest moments that the maternal bond gives you.Were their circumstances the reasons for their mistakes or is it just their different personalities? The Times Crime Book of the MonthGuardian Best Crime and Thrillers----------'A warm, wise and witty warning never to underestimate the elderly' Val McDermid'I completely fell in love with it' Shari Lapena'This is properly brilliant.

Finally, Beca, sixteen years old, artistic and musical but not good at lessons, constantly at odds with perfectionist Elin who sees education as a gateway to the world, she knows she is about to fail all her GCSEs and disappoint her mother, again.A genuine young woman who warms to the whole of Beca’s family, she has a positive affect on all of them. She’s determined that Grace’s big day will be celebrated, her own daughter, Becca is slightly mortified by her mother’s quest to party, much preferring to spend quality time with her great grandmother. Love, mess, secrets; this story of four generations of women is shot through with Ruth Jones's warmth and wisdom. Also found the colloquial grammer used whenever characters spoke irritating, ie the way all the gs were dropped - "nothin" "pickin" etc.

A respected head teacher at the local school, Elin couldn't bear anyone to find out the truth about her mother.

Meanwhile Grace's great-grand-daughter Beca is oblivious to all these worries, too busy navigating the highs and lows of teenage life and keeping secrets of her own. Love, mess, secrets; this story of four generations of women is shot through with Ruth Jones’s warmth and wisdom. Nothing much will it seems, but finding her true self is much more important and in that she also finds her love for her music. For Grace time is running out to solve the family rifts that have been going on for the last thirty years.