Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Marian Keyes and Sophie Kinsella, this is a funny, warm-hearted novel from the author of The Memory Book, which was featured in the Richard & Judy book club 2014. "I immediately read The Memory Book and it's WONDERFUL ...I'm so happy because she's written other books and its so lovely to find a writer you love who has a backlist". (Marian Keyes). Six months ago, city girl Sophie Mills gave up everything to move to Cornwall. All to be with the man she thinks she loves, and his two daughters who she knows she loves. But adjusting to life as a semi-permanent mother in the countryside isn't quite as easy as Sophie imagined it would be. Designer shoes aren't nearly so readily available - not that she ever has any occasion to wear them - and her best pair of vintage Manolo's have already found their way into the girls' dressing-up box. Sometimes Sophie doesn't recognise herself; which most of the time makes her happy but every now and then scares her to death.
The hardest thing of all is making that final commitment to actually move in with Louis and the girls - she's been the longest paying guest of the Avalon B&B, St Ives in the history of the establishment. And as she tries to adapt to country life, her newly adopted family and discovering more about Louis' past, she begins to wonder if she's got what it takes to make it all work...
Following on from The Accidental Mother, we pick up Sophie, Louis, Bella and Izzy six months down the line when Louis proposes. I found The Accidental Family as good as The Accidental Mother but felt it was written differently. Whereas I felt The Accidental Mother was more about Bella and Izzy, The Accidental Family focuses more on the adults.
All of the main characters returned along with a couple of new ones – Carmen, Mrs Alexander and Grace Tregowan who were all hilarious particularly Grace. Some of the plot lines were a bit easy to guess – from how the chapter when Wendy first appears was written I kind of guessed why she had disappeared years ago.
The main plot with Wendy/Louis is a well-used plotline but it still works and I enjoyed how Sophie and Bella picked up straight away how nasty and manipulative Wendy seemed to be. I thought Louis was flaky and it seemed that everything that was said in The Accidental Mother was false but all wasn’t as it seems and I understood how he was used to dealing with things by himself.
Sophie was as good as ever but it was a shame she didn’t have more interaction with the children because I enjoy having Bella and Izzy being the main focus rather than the adult troubles. I enjoyed her re-visiting her old haunts in London and realising she didn’t want that life any more. I also saw her pregnancy coming but it was a nice surprise.
I thought Cal was hilarious and I was glad he returned and found love (his stalking episode was really funny), along with Iris Sophie’s mother who also found love. Even Artemis, the cat, returned and had kittens.
I really enjoyed The Accidental Family and do wonder if there may be a third instalment. How much more the family can deal with, who knows?, but I wouldn’t say no to a third book – I could read about Sophie, Louis, Bella, Izzy and all, all day long.
