Product Description

Friends like this are hard to find! From the bestselling author of SOMEONE LIKE YOU and WHAT SHE WANTS an uplifiting novel about how three very different women cope with the complexities of their lives -- relationships, careers, and families -- to find fulfilment. Full of Cathy Kelly's trademark warmth, romance, optimism and wit. What's the secret of the fabulous Miller girls!? Everyone says that they lead charmed lives: beautiful, brilliant Stella, effortlessly juggling career and single-motherhood; witty TV writer, Tara, and dreamy, artistic Holly. Perhaps it comes from their calm, elegant mother, Rose, the centre of the family and adored wife of Hugh. Now, with Hugh and Rose married for forty years, their perfect daughters and their friends in the Irish country town of Kinvarra are looking forward to a celebration. But as plans are made for the party of the decade, the secret heartaches the four women have kept hidden, even from each other, begin to emerge. Are any of them strong enough to deal with the truth about themselves and their golden lives?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #418373 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
On the surface, Rose Miller, the heroine of Cathy Kelly's Just Between Us, has a golden life: she's just about to celebrate her 40th wedding anniversary with her lovely husband Hugh, her three daughters are all wonderful and her home in the small Irish town of Kinvara is gorgeous. So far it sounds like a feature in a glossy magazine, where everyone is happy and smiling and the only foreseeable problems ahead involve estimating the exact quantity of canapés for the party guests at Rose's ruby wedding bash. But Cathy Kelly doesn't deal in slick clichés. Her characters, despite their glamorous exteriors, face real emotional dilemmas and heartaches. As Rose says: "It was one thing to look as if your life was perfect, it was another thing for it to be so. Looks could be deceptive."

Cathy Kelly, with great warmth and compassion, begins to reveal the not-so-gilded truth about the four Miller women. Rose is questioning her marriage; her youngest daughter Holly is lacking in self-confidence and stuck in a boring job that stifles her creativity; single parent Stella is a brilliant lawyer and mum, but romance seems to be by-passing her; and Tara has a glowing television career, but her home life is turning out to be far from rosy--her husband seems to be drinking to excess. Over the course of some 500 hundred chatty pages Cathy Kelly reveals the women's secret doubts. Their problems are distressing, but the novel still has that feel-good factor; the author mixes humour with realism and the result is this compelling sixth novel from the bestselling Irish author. --Eithne Farry

From Booklist
The Miller sisters are close despite their differences. Stella, the oldest, is a single mother discovering love again with a divorced client. Tara is a successful scriptwriter adapting to life as a newlywed. Holly, the youngest, struggles to overcome her shyness at work and around men. Their whole familial framework is shaken when their devoted mother, Rose, reveals on her fortieth anniversary that she's fed up with her husband's philandering and is leaving him. Kelly interleaves the heartbreaks and triumphs of the four Miller women, effortlessly capturing the challenges women face at different stages of life. Readers will find it easy to relate to the engaging, realistic characters. Though the novel treads on some heavy territory--including divorce, adultery, depression, and alcoholism--it never becomes overwrought, and the happy endings don't seem tacked on. Kelly offers a refreshing, honest approach to romance that readers will appreciate. Aleksandra Kostovski
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Review
'The carefully structured narrative culminates in a powerfully insightful and ultimately moving denouement.' CHOICE 'Told with Kelly's trademark warmth and wit, this novel will have you pinned to your deckchair.' Woman and Home Pre-publication review of JUST BETWEEN US: 'Kelly has earned her place on the bestseller lists with her sharp understanding of behaviour, and this splendid women's read will keep her there. The feel-good factor! is a particularly endearing trait, spreading warmth and a satisfying conclusion.' Publishing News, September 2002 Acclaim for Cathy Kelly's novels: 'A compulsive read' Woman's Weekly 'Kelly dramatises her story with plenty of sparky humour' The Times 'Down-to-earth and insightful, her novels are as compelling as Big Brother' Andrea Henry, The Mirror 'Totally believable' Rosamunde Pilcher 'Compassionate and compelling' Irish Independent