Juliet and Liam aren't sure they will ever fit in when they move into her late mother's home with their young son Charlie. Magnolia Road is the picture perfect image of domesticity with big houses, and large cars and neighbors full of parenting and relationship advice. As Juliet begins to resent her own role in the house as breadwinner while her husband Liam hangs out with the other primary caregivers for content for his new novel, an accident puts everything into perspective.

I really enjoyed this - I thought it was a very good story that managed to capture that time in your 30s and 40s that is a bit manic, full of exhausting 9-5s, housework and parenting while also trying to upkeep a successful relationship and somehow not mess everything up. There is a slight element of Keeping Up The Joneses in it too as we see others covet what their neighbour has, or listen to everything the Queen Bee has to say.

I did keep expecting something really dark or twisty to happen and was surprised when it didn't and I realised this book wasn't a suspense or a thriller - it was just a slice of life, fiction book that still had me very much hooked on everyone's lives even though they were so normal. The characters surprised me as they all ended up being pretty decent people - again, just your average normal neighbours as you realise that while some people look like they have it altogether, they might be struggling themselves with other things and nothing is 100% happy for everyone all the time and everyone has their ups and downs be it with marriages, kids or work.

I listened to this on audiobook and found it really enjoyable.

 

It's summertime in Magnolia Road in present day Chiswick, West London. In her early forties, PR manager Juliet is grieving the recent loss of her beloved mother to cancer. She and novelist husband, stay-at-home father, Leeds-born Liam and six year old Charlie, have just moved into her mother's old house. Charlie starts a new school and Liam begins to get to know the neighbours and parents of Charlie's classmates, potential fodder for his novel. Coffee mornings and post-school wine time soon reveal the flaws and worries of the Magnolia Road set. Juliet feels left out, worried Liam is becoming close with one of the mums, whose husband has just left her, but then an accident brings everything into sharp focus.

Astute and hopeful, this slice of domesticity in a middle class London suburb reminded me on some ways of novels by Liane Moriarty and Joanne Cannon for their focus on domestic life, but more character driven and intensely engaging. So much so that I read it in one day because I wanted to know more about the characters and their lives. Parenthood and marriage come under the microscope as their characters' relationships struggle or flourish with the pressure of parenting. Aside from a couple of events, little happens, but yet the atmosphere is weighted, set against tragedy, grief, joy, fear and hope. Emotional, insightful and powerful, this author's fictional debut is beautifully written and comes highly recommended.