Clover Jones and Laura Dangerfield have been best friends since their children were born. Along with Clover's stylish, powerful friend, Alice, they share holidays, sleepovers, school runs and childcare. They're like one big family. But all families have their secrets. When the children leave home, Clover and Laura's lives and marriages change forever, and the old rules on love and loyalty no longer apply. And when Alice decides she wants what they've got, Clover and Laura have to find out who they really are. Without the children, can their marriages - and friendship - survive?
Family dramas are some of my favourite novels to read and when I first heard about Nina Bell’s latest novel The Empty Nesters, I just knew this would be the novel for me. I have to admit that I have not read any of Nina’s previous novels, although I have heard great things about them all, however I was hooked from the first page and could not put this novel down.
Clover and Laura have been best friends for years, and along with Alice, they share holiday’s, sleepovers, school runs, child care and lots of gossip. They are more like a family than just friends. All families, however, have their secrets, and for these ladies it is no different. Once their children leave home and head to university, they all find that their lives and marriages change forever and the old rules on friendship and love no longer seem to apply. When Alice decides that she wants the lives that Clover and Laura have, all the ladies have to find out who they really are and exactly what they want from their lives. Without the children, can they marriages and friendships survive?
Before reading The Empty Nesters, I was a little worried that I would be unable to relate to the characters, as they are all in their forties and fifties with children leaving for university. Once I started reading, however, all my worries were put aside as the characters are actually very relatable. Even though I have very little in common with Clover and Laura I found that they were really likable characters. I felt that I was drawn into their lives, and the lives of their children without any hesitation. Nina Bell is really able to capture the emotions of these women as they try to figure out their lives once their children are leaving for college. I was especially able to feel Laura’s pain throughout everything that she goes through within the novel. I really felt for all these characters and was routing for their happy ending. The storyline line itself flows well, with little twists and turns thrown in, making the plot exciting. Many times throughout the novel I was sure I had figured out why certain characters were keeping secrets and what those secrets were, only to be surprised in the next chapter when it turned out to be something entirely different. I loved how the reader is kept in suspense, which made me want to keep reading to find out exactly what happens. I was able to really delve straight into the novel from the beginning and I really enjoy reading about the holiday the families take to France. This resonated well with me, as when I was younger, myself and my extended family took very similar vacations together. I also enjoyed reading about the male characters, George and Tim within the novel. I may not have liked them as people very much but they were entertaining characters who really contributed to the development of the story.
I only wish that Nina Bell had added some narrative from Alice’s point of view. I really enjoyed that she wrote from Laura and Clover’s point of view, therefore showing exactly how they felt and what they were thinking but I did not get to know Alice very well throughout the novel. Perhaps if there had been some narrative from Alice I would have got to know her character better and understood why she acts the way that she does.
Nina Bell has a real talent for penning intriguing, real and emotional family dramas that really engage the reader. With The Empty Nesters, she has succeeded with this style of writing yet again. I will be finding all Nina Bell’s previous novels and devouring them in the same way that I did The Empty Nesters. I cannot wait to read more from this talented and engaging writer. I really enjoyed this novel and would not hesitate to recommend The Empty Nesters to anyone looking for family drama infused with chick lit.
The back cover says Nina Bell: fiction that gets under the skin of family dynamics. How true!
The story is set around three families.
Clover and George Jones and their children Ben and Holly - They are alone now for the first time in a long time, can they survive?
Tim and Laura Dangerfield and their son Jamie - Interesting reading about Laura's feelings when times got tough for Tim.
Alice and her daughter Lola - Single-parent, successful business woman, has it all, or does she?
The dynamics of the group and character traits were clearly laid out early on in the story so I could settle into the storyline about how the children flying the nest would change these people's lives.
The storyline flowed and the engaging dialogue between the characters, throughout, not only made me want to join in discussions but kept me changing my mind about who was up to what, with who, and why. I enjoyed the way characters would chat and analyse each other.
Secrets were being kept, trust was being tested, and many things were not being said between friends and husbands. It is not always what you do say but what you don't say that matters in a friendship or relationship.
It is very difficult to say how I felt about the characters in this book without giving away too much of the story. There were characters I was not keen on during the story, but by the end of the book I began to understand why they acted they way they did.
This is my first encounter with Nina Bell's writing and I loved it. I want more.
This novel gave me a great big hug but also made me do a little self-evaluation. Very therapeutic read.
5 out of 5 for me!
I received a review copy from publishers. Thank you.
Well, it was an easy enough read but I didn't like it. It was rather dull. I didnt like the main characters and their kids didn't phase me either. It wasn't really much of an escape for me, like other stories. So my rating is pretty low as it wasn't my cuppa tea but the writing was pretty good so, I gave it three stars.
A group of friends become empty nesters when their kids head off to university. This is a good book and I enjoyed reading it. I would give it 3.5 stars if I could.
Clover Jones and Laura Dangerfield have been best friends since their children were born. Along with Clover’s stylish, powerful friend, Alice, they share holidays, sleepovers, school runs and childcare. They’re like one big family. But all families have their secrets. When the children leave home, Clover and Laura’s lives and marriages change forever, and the old rules on love and loyalty no longer apply. And when Alice decides she wants what they’ve got, Clover and Laura have to find out who they really are. Without the children, can their marriages – and friendship – survive?
I’ve read most of Nina Bell’s previous books and really enjoyed them – they are great family dramas and really draw you in when you’re reading them which is what I love from a book. I have to say that when I saw the cover for her latest book The Empty Nesters I wasn’t initially impressed – it looked a bit bland and didn’t jump out at me like her previous covers had done at all. However, when I received a copy I thought it was actually quite nice and after reading it, I see how it fits in with the story too. As usual, Bell has delivered on her dramatic family dramas and although I felt this one was a bit of a slow burner at first, I soon found myself engrossed in it and not wanting to put it down!
What I really liked about this book was how the character’s enabled you to really get involved in their lives and see what was going on between not only the group of parents, but the children too. Clover, Laura and Alice are the main three adult females in the book and all flawed in their own ways. Clover tries to rescue people too much, Laura is in a rut with her marriage and doing something she knows is awfully wrong, and Alice is being a bit too over-bearing with her daughter Lola, and also a big ignorant of what Clover is doing for her as a friend. I really disliked Alice, and couldn’t find anything I liked about her at all – she’s your worst nightmare of a friend and parent to be honest! On the other hand, I felt Clover and Laura were written as really good parents, and as a mum myself I could understand Laura’s pain in letting her only child go away from her, I felt Bell really captured her pain.
The male characters are also very important in the book. We have Tim, Laura’s husband who is about to go through a major period in his life which will make or break his marriage, George, Clover’s husband who is being a bit secretive and leading Clover to be a bit suspicious about his activities and Duncan, a single dad who is new to the group. I felt Bell wrote her male characters to be just as important as the female ones in some respects, which is a nice thing in this genre since male characters sometimes take the backseat. I really enjoyed reading Tim’s story, yes it isn’t particularly nice to read about but I felt it was well covered and the reactions of both Tim and Laura to the issue were very realistic. I actually felt realism was felt throughout the book regarding the characters, their emotions and reactions to things that happened and that made it a very enjoyable read.
Although the adult characters in this book were much older than me, probably around double my age actually, I didn’t find it hard to relate to the book at all, and you’ll find this one you’ll relate to very easily if you are a parent! My son is only 5 yet I dread the day he goes off to University, and so I felt I was really able to relate to Laura in this instance when I was reading. The younger characters were also very well written, although they didn’t appear too frequently in the book. I felt Bell’s writing was very easy to read and enjoy, and the third person narrative worked well for the multiple characters being used in the book. Her descriptions of not only people and feelings, but places, surroundings and the like allow the book to come to life in your head as you are reading. I did find the start a little slow if I’m honest, which is what knocked the book down from a 5 star to a 4 star, but I persevered and I am glad I did as I would have missed out on a really great book. I very much enjoyed reading it, and loved the revelations that are revealed as the book progressed, one involving Laura that I never saw coming at all until it was revealed! If you love books about families or dramas, then you are going to love The Empty Nesters, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone.
I read all Nina Bell's earlier books and found myself to be frustrated when i could get hold of a copy of Nina's book in the form of ebook. In fact, i have been searching for sometime now until i stumbles over Booksonboard, and i remember how happy i was when i found out i can actually purchased it ;) I like Nina's writing as it carries message that is close to our hearts and this one is not excluded. This time around, Nina write about old age and what happen to those when they retired.
The story centred around their person, Clover, Laura and Alice who all their childrens have leave home and found themselves directionless especailly Clover. She is so used to be incharge and have all the times in the day being filled with activities related to her children and with them gone now, she have too much times in hand that she doesnt know what to do. Laura, on the other hand, who placed all her attention to her only son, found herself to be lonely and when her husband was diagnosed with cancer, she found herself blaming ownself for the diagnoses as she fells that she failed as his wife while Alice, a single mother is a selfish and "user" of people's kindness and seems to want what the other two friend is having.
The story centre about how they cope with the loneliness and struggles in trying to adapt to their new life without anymore burden from their childrens. Among the characters, i find myself to be able to relate to Laura the most. As a mother, it is difficult for us to let go of our child and let them decide for the fear that they make the wrong decision. This is also what Laura is fear off. Wanting for the best for her child have make him rejecting her affection and i really feel bad for her. I couldnt help wonder whether Hayden will be doing that to me when the time comes; whether my attention spend on him will try him away from me.. Reading this book somehow have provide me an insight of what i should be doing ("the right thing") when the time comes. Overall, this book is really interesting to read and one may find the insight that is much needed for them to understand when and how to let go of their children.
Well.... To begin with I wondered whether I'd ever get into the book and struggled to get my head around the amount of characters there were in the book. Clover - was easy to like, easy to understand, she was missing her children, the hustle and bustle of the children and their friends coming in and out, which I think is understandable, especially as she didn't have her own job/career so ultimately the children were her life, i understood that very much. Alice - I don't care if she was a tycoon/celeb whatever, she wound me up no end and her control of Lola was embarassing, and I just didn't like her, I did like that she seemed to discard Lola all through childhood and then as soon as she went to Oxford Alice was bothered all of a sudden. Laura - She was the character I couldn't understand. Yes, Tim cheated on her, but ultimately she made her choice to stay with him, but then she went and had an affair with Joe - THE SAME AGE as HER SON! I liked her, but I lost all respect for her after that - I went through the whole story thinking she was sleeping with Duncan, and it was Joe, she just made me want to be sick! George - He was too naive for me and I felt like he ridiculed Clover when to me she had every right to be curious and suspicious of Alice.
Overall - slow start to the book, but it was very good; even though I feel it ended slightly abruptly!!
An enjoyable book which, on the surface of it, is an easy read but delve deeper and it examines what happens to relationships when a common interest is removed.
Clover, Laura and Alice met at the school gates. Clover and Laura seem to have very happy marriages; Alice is a single parent and high flying business woman but the women are all close and, together with husbands and children, they are one big happy family, even holidaying together. However, their children are all heading off to university, and losing that common thread is the catalyst for a number of events that will test their friendships, relationships and marriages.
This book is full of surprises and very realistically deals with a number of issues. Clover and Laura and beautifully portrayed so you get a real feeling for who they are, as are their husbands George and Tim, and Duncan, a single dad who is quite new in the scene. However, Alice is only really seen through the eyes of the other characters and comes over badly - it would have been nice to find out what her motivations were, and as a single parent myself it might have given me a little more empathy for the way she behaves. As it is she just comes across as a selfish woman who uses everyone around her to get what she wants with no thought for their feelings at all.
I discovered this gem of a novel in a search for books on the "empty nest" to help prepare myself for what's coming up very soon. Nina Bell's story of the various families who have forged a "family of friends" over the years of the children's' schooling rings true in every way. Yes, the characters are a bit stereotyped--the using single mom [Ouch! I hope I haven't been so awful!], the perfect stay at home Mom, the two professional family etc, etc. But these characters were very real to me. Their stories are well-known to anyone in middle and upper middle class suburbia anywhere in the developed world. The struggles to get the kids thru school and into prestigious colleges and high-paying careers, the necessity for ongoingself discovery and marriage reinvention, the taking stock of life--it is all right where I am today. The crisis that come out of nowhere, the bizarre but thrilling interlude [not one I would choose!!] are all so HUMAN, so real. I plan to read more from this author. I also hope there is a sequel to this book--it lends itself to it very well. The Empty Nesters by Nina Bell.
I'd never read this author before, and this was a book group read, a perfect, undemanding choice for the post Christmas and New Year period. The story concerns a group of parents who have become friends through their children who all attended the same school, but are now leaving home to go to university. The parents react in very different ways to the loss of their offspring and cracks start to show in some of the relationships. It considers how some friendships last the test of time and others break down when a common interest is gone, and the effect of re-adjustment between couples when the family unit is reduced to just the two of you. Of the three principal female characters, two are given a voice throughout the story, but I would have liked to hear more from Alice, who was frequently discussed but never given a chance to explain herself.
I can't say this book was any more than 'ok'. There were a lot of characters, some of which I still wasn't sure exactly who they were in relation to others when I got to the end of the book! I thought I would relate to this book, being almost at 'empty nest' stage myself, but I really didn't feel any affinity for any of them, as all the characters seemed to go in different directions, including the teenagers, which only added to my confusion. I did finish it, but really wasn't that bothered about what happened.
An enjoyable easy read about a group of pretty well off middle aged couples who's offspring are moving out to go to university. Dealing with such a big change is bound to be difficult, especially when they all have secrets and different issues to cope with.
A character driven story with lots of well written, if perhaps rather too many characters and although a light and easy read it also tackles several rather difficult subjects with frankness and panache.
A whole galaxy of characters made the early stages somewhat difficult. to be honest it was what I expected with Mumsy Lit with too many pretentious folk, worrying about nothing at all, and allowing a storyline to just meander along.
Good read for those wanting a break from and watching Homes Under the Hammer, and certainly well written, but at no time does it have a surprise or a hard edge to get you thinking, make you pionder.
This book started off slow for the first 100 pages, and then the story really begun after that. Quite a few twists I wasn't expected and still some bits slow but quite a good read. I liked Laura and Clover and the kids the best but hated Alice and the way that everyone said yes to her every-time she asked for something.
I was a bit disappointed with this book, I have read all the books by this Author and find them very easy to read, I was over the moon, I won this book from Chick Lit Reviews and couldn’t wait to read it. However I found it very hard to get into and follow, there was lots of Characters to remember, eventually I did enjoy the book and I would recommend.
I didn't like this book very much as I was not interested in the fates of the various characters. Perhaps if I was a mother myself I'd be able to relate to the characters more easily, and care more about the story.
I'll probably give one of Nina Bell's other books a go at some point as I liked the writing style.
I absolutely loved this book, plenty of humour and a chance to "peep" into our own lives through the eyes of other people. Wonderful observations and well written. One the I am sure I will read again.
Just wonderful - almost a chick lit with a large helping of well written pages thrown in to make it stand out!
good book on how parents live the leaving of their kids to the univ and how to react to the empty house ..book full of surprise ; illness cheating and of course new life starting after this new point of life i enjoyed reading each chapter wondering what will wait for me in a new one good book
I was surprised by how much I liked this book!! I picked it up from the library and thought it might be an enjoyable chick-lit and whilst it was that, it was pretty compelling to keep picking up and read abit more.
I think i will check out Nina Bell's other books too
I guess I enjoyed this book even more because I am in this age group with kids going to sixth form and uni. The reminiscing of the primary school mums "friendship" ringed true. I liked the different story lines
A real slow burner of a plot, and at times I wondered if I'd actually finish it, but I'm pleased I persevered as the ending was lovely. But in no way is this a page turner. Disappointed.
Found this book easy to read, and enjoyed the story. good descriptions of the various characters, family dynamics, emotions of characters, situations, places, friendships,