Beneath the Apple Blossom

Genre: Contemporary women’s fiction

Release Date: 04/08/16

Publisher: Lemon Tree Press.

Four women, linked by blood ties, friendship, betrayal, loss and hope, struggle with the choices they’ve made and the hand that life’s dealt them.
All Pippa’s ever wanted is marriage and kids, but at thirty-four and about to embark on IVF, her dream of having a family is far from certain. Her younger sister Georgie has the opposite problem, juggling her career, her lover, a young daughter and a husband who wants baby number two.
Pippa’s best friend Sienna has a successful career in the film world, and despite her boyfriend pressurising her to settle down, a baby is the last thing she wants. Happily married Connie shares the trauma of fertility treatment with Pippa, but underestimates the impact being unable to conceive will have on her and her marriage.
As their lives collide in a way they could never have predicted, will any of them get to see their hopes realised?

EXTRACT
Connie stopped and looked around. She had wandered a little way off the path and was in a small grassy clearing surrounded by trees heavy with spring leaves and blossom. Not in the mood for making small talk with a stranger, she chose a spot in semi-shade out of sight of the path, leant back against the slender tree trunk and closed her eyes. A slight breeze caressed her face and every so often she got the wonderful sensation of sunlight on her. She took a deep breath and drank in the scent of damp grass and spring flowers – fresh, sweet and alive – then opened her eyes to the canopy of white against the blue sky. The apple tree was bursting with blossom like masses of white teardrops.
She had everything to live for even if it didn’t feel like it right now. Life was a journey, and the best journeys were the ones that couldn’t be predicted before setting off, or that weren’t an easy ride to reach the destination. Right then, on    a perfect spring day beneath the apple blossom, she made a pact with herself to keep loving life whatever was thrown at her. She may have suffered yet more disappointment but she could still see beauty in the world and feel at peace.

BUY LINKS
AMAZON UK
AMAZON US


MY REVIEW

I have just finished this delightful book and am so glad that I had the chance to read and review it because it has been a very moving, thoughtful and insightful read.
In it we meet four very different women who have very different lives and very different hopes for their futures and the story follows these four woman as they face the many highs and lows that beset their lives.

Pippa is thirty four and has been trying for a baby with husband Clive for over 3 years and is about to embark on IVF treatment for the first time. A family is all Pippa has ever wanted and IVF is her last chance at achieving her dreams.
For her sister Georgie, married young and pregnant within a few years of being married, it is a different story.  She loves her daughter Daisy but also resents that she has to give time to her when she could be pursuing a great career in advertising.  Her husband is pressuring her to have another baby and Georgie is not ready and not sure she ever will be.
Pippa's best friend Sienna is another for whom marriage and a child are low on the agenda.  She loves her job and her boyfriend but values her independence and nothing would make her give up her high flying career in the film industry, even when boyfriend Ashton wants more.
And finally Connie, who is also undergoing fertility treatment.  She and Pippa become friendly through an online fertility group, sharing their experiences. Connie's husband is the infertile one but Connie is the one who has to go through the treatment in their quest to become pregnant.
Life is a mystery and none of these four women know what is in store for them but there are more than a few surprises and plenty of disappointments.

Fertility is a very delicate subject, everyone knows someone who has fertility problems and so probably has some broad idea about what it means but this book does a fabulous job of, not just telling a story, but educating the reader about the nitty-gritty of fertility treatment.  It is plain to see, during the reading of this novel, that a great deal of thought and research has gone into it to make it very true and sympathetic, so it comes as no great surprise that the author herself underwent fertility treatment and is now, happily, the mother of a little boy.  The pain, despair and longing she writes about in Pippa's and Connie's stories are tangible; you'd have to have a very hard heart not to feel their anguish and want their dreams to come true.  The more I read, the more involved I became with their hopes and fears and when  hopes came to a big, fat bloody nothing, I really felt for them and it really brought home the fact that this happens day after day after day in real life.  And yet, Connie and Pippa carry on, never giving up, wondering if there will come a day when they have to face the reality that they will never have a child of their own.

Of course, there is very much an opposite to wanting a child and that is not wanting one.  Another taboo subject which Kate Frost writes about with as much empathy and knowledge as she does the urge to have one, and one in which I was equally enthralled.  In Sienna and Georgie, Kate Frost has created two very different characters, one has had a child she has struggled to bond with and emphatically does not want that experience again, and the other never wants a child to get in the way of her life.  Each situation leads to difficult decisions as it becomes clear that their choices affect not just themselves but their partners and their commitments to them.

Although the book is focused on the four women and their choices, their men do get a look in and again Kate Frost writes a very clear and insightful portrayal of their feelings about having children, wanting children and not being able to have children.  If you think men can't get broody and don't have a natural urge to have children, think again.  The partners of the women, Clive, Felix, Ashton and Nathan have a variety of emotions and feelings as to what it means to have or not have a family.

Kate Frost has written very realistic characters for her book; characters who have flaws and faults and behave just like anyone would.  They are not always likable or admirable but they are relatable and you can at least understand the reasons for some of their actions even if you don't agree with them.  I absolutely got involved in their lives and the more I read the more enthralled I was, not least because the writing was fresh and interesting and I just wanted to keep following their stories.  Subject wise, I found it fascinating; I often found myself thinking about people I know who have been through fertility treatment, thinking that I never really knew what it involved and wondering how much or little they had kept to themselves.  It has been very eye opening and informative.

I am hoping that we might see more of Connie, Pippa, Sienna and Georgie and get to find out what happens next. Their lives seems so real with stories that could be continued......maybe?  I hope so because this has been one of the most refreshing books I have read this year for it's subject and depth of feeling and knowledge.  It's really touched me and I hope that you will all buy it, read it and be as moved as I was.



ABOUT KATE FROST

Kate Frost is a writer and author with a MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University where she has also taught the lifewriting course to Creative Writing undergraduates. Alongside writing articles and short stories for magazines such as New Welsh Review, The London Magazine and QWF, Kate has worked in a bookshop, a cinema, as ground staff at Edgebaston Tennis Tournament and as a Supporting Artist in the films Vanity Fair, King Arthur and The Duchess.
Kate’s debut novel, The Butterfly Storm, was published in 2013 and featured on Amazon’s Movers and Shakers chart. Beneath the Apple Blossom is the first book in a series and Kate also plans to release the first in a time travel adventure trilogy for children by the end of 2016.
Kate lives in Bristol with her husband, her young son and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and fits in writing and publishing books around looking after – and being amused by – an energetic toddler.


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