The Pink Ladies Club (2011)

This tells the story of three women who all have the membership requirement for the club nobody wants to join - cancer. Zoe is a tender 22, Tanya is 35 and Esme is 69, but despite the generation gap and how little else they have in common, the women find themselves being drawn into each others' lives as they battle with their health problems. With the help of their counsellor Sian, their club meetings become one of the few things that help them make sense of how their lives have changed immeasurably. Not all three women may last the course but the experience of facing and fighting this illness is life-changing - and even life-enhancing. With likeable characters and three very different perspectives on how to deal with a life-shattering illness, The Pink Ladies Club flows easily - until an unexpected twist halfway through the book shakes up the course of the rest of the story. The only drawback to this highly effective twist was that the pacing of the rest of the book seemed slightly off-kilter thereafter, but the inherent humour in the author's narrative voice coupled with the strength of characterisation made the book a winner for me. Esme, in particular, is a brilliant and memorable character with inspirational positivity - and fantastic misnomers. (SBB)

Miss Conceived (2010)

This tells the tale of three very different women on the rocky road to childbirth. Angie has just turned 40, is still single and wants a baby - but how is she supposed to have one without a partner? By going to drastic lengths to ensure she doesn't end up childless and alone, that's how. Serena is the personification of glamour and sophistication, with her perfect looks and her perfect life. Married to a dynamic businessman, all she needs is a baby to make her life complete. But when she finds herself struggling to conceive, a secret she's been hiding from everyone - even herself - comes to light and threatens to destroy her utopian world. Ruby is 16 and has her entire future ahead of her - but she hadn't envisaged falling pregnant and having a baby before her next birthday. Her shocked parents, who have put so much into Ruby's education and her privileged lifestyle, are determined that her pregnancy won't destroy the rest of her life. Determined to keep the impending birth a secret from their circle of "it" people, they conjure up a plan to save face. But has anyone asked Ruby what she wants? I bought this book because I enjoyed the author's style of writing in her previous book, Designer Genes, even though the cover of this book didn't appeal to me at all. A lot of recent women's fiction seems to have dealt with the issues of getting pregnant, being pregnant and life post-pregnancy, and I was initially concerned that there may be nothing new in this book - but I needn't have worried. Each of the three main characters won me over and drew me into their own unique tales. Serena may originally come across as a stereotypical trophy wife, but I felt we got to know her as a person throughout the book. It can be hard to make the reader like a character who comes across as a snob but Serena was more three-dimensional than your typical rich character who, from an outside perspective, seems to have a perfect life. You can't help but feel for Ruby and find yourself rooting for everything to work out for her, and the story of her and the father of the baby really pulled me in. As for Angie, she's the type of woman you can see yourself being friends with, and her predicament is one that many women can identify with. I actually enjoyed this book more than the author's first, which I find isn't always the case and is a sign of a really promising writer. I will definitely be buying Hannigan's next book. (SBB)

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