Product Description

For some families, a year can feel like a lifetime … The Harrisons are a large and extremely close-knit family. But with the grandchildren fast becoming adults and elderly Pamela struggling to adapt to widowhood and the emptiness of Ashley House, the four children of the middle generation find themselves equally lost in a changing world. As preparations for 42 year-old Cassie's long-awaited wedding gather pace and an exotic family holiday is planned, sibling and marital bonds are stretched to breaking point: adultery, an unwanted pregnancy, shadows of past losses … suddenly a year of celebration threatens to become one of painful upheaval. Beset by such emotional chaos, how can the adults hope to guide their children in matters of the heart? Or are the children the ones who should be guiding them? A multi-generational story of love, lies and family ties, The Simple Rules of Love presents Amanda Brookfield at her perceptive and poignant best.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #207033 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

About the Author
Amanda Brookfield was born in 1960 and educated at University College Oxford. She began her career working in advertising and then as a freelance journalist in Argentina. Her eleven previous novels include 'Alice Alone', 'Marriage Games', 'Sisters and Husbands' and 'Relative Love.' She is married with two sons and lives in London.

Customer Reviews

A Big Disappointment
I loved Relative Love, to the extent that I dug Amanda Brookefield's complete back catalogue from the attic and re-read them all. I was therefore pleased to see that The Simple Rules of Love continued the story that began in Relative Love. However, I was very disappointed, almost from page 1. The characters no longer seemed believable and they all appeared to have had complete personality transplants! I forced myself to finish the book, because I hate leaving books partially read, but unfortunately, things didn't improve. Maybe it would have been better if the characters hadn't been re-visited? I look forward to something new and improved for Amanda Brookefield's next offering.

An enjoyable sequel to 'Relative Love'
I also read this book straight after finishing 'Relative Love', but, personally, I didn't find that the characters' personalities had changed unrealistically.

The story has moved on six years from the last book, and I think some artistic licence may have been used with regard to the characters' ages as some of them didn't seem to quite tally to me, (but that may just be my unreliable adding up). However, this didn't detract from the story once I'd got through the first chapter or so.

I would highly recommend this as a very enjoyable sequel to 'Relative Love'.

Pleasant, touching and enjoyable
This fat book promises hours of engagement with the family we came to know in Relative Love - it doesn't fail to deliver. However I don't think the reader needed to know Relative Love to get caught up quickly in this one, it could happily stand alone. A modern saga, epic in it's range with moral dilemmas and their solving all bound together with wisdom and understanding. Not that demanding but nevertheless a comfortable summer pleasure, especially when the Harrisons all go on holiday together!