NEW RELEASE
One Wish - Maria Duffy (2014)
When Becky finds out that she's pregnant after a one-night stand, she decides to raise her child alone. Now, four years later, her daughter is asking questions about her father, so Becky plans to track him down. When she finds him, Dennis is no longer living the high-flying lifestyle he once was, and instead has lost everything and is living on the streets. Will Becky still tell him about their daughter and involve him in their lives? Having read Maria's previous novels, I was highly anticipating this one, but unfortunately, for me it fell a little flat. The plot in theory is good, but it took Becky so very long to decide what she wanted to do in regards to Dennis once she found out he was homeless, that the middle of this book dragged on far too much. I struggled to read on but I was intrigued to find out what would happen in the end so I persevered. A lot of the story centred on the life of a homeless person, and this very serious issue was dealt with in a sensitive and informative way which raised awareness of the issue without giving the plot too heavy a tone. Overall though I was disappointed with the lack of action. (LO)
One Wish, by Maria Duffy, is about a woman tracking down the father of her child. The summary says: "When Londoner Becky Greene moved to Ireland for her high-powered job, she was ready for a fresh start - and to leave her dysfunctional family far behind. But when her daughter Lily comes along, Becky suddenly has more than herself to think about. Now Lilly is four years old and asking questions about her father. And tracking down a one-night stand is the last thing independent and self-sufficient Becky wants to do. She has no room in her life for a man - even if he is the father of her child. But as she sets out to find Lilly's father, she's about to discover that life has a habit of interfering with the best-laid plans. Meanwhile Lilly's father Dennis has his own problems. Once a high-flyer on the Dublin property scene, his life has taken a very different route - one he is struggling to come to terms with. And discovering he has a daughter is definitely not in his current five-year plan. When Becky finally manages to track Dennis down, she finds him completely changed from the man she remembers. And the more she comes to know the person he is now, she begins to wonder if maybe there just might be room for him in Lilly's life - and in hers too." One Wish is out in July 2014.