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Without Him
Shelley Fitzgibbon has it all – three beautiful children, a charismatic successful husband and the life of her dreams.
Then her husband Charlie disappears, leaving more than just a business empire in crises..
The luxurious family home is sold and while Shelley’s daughters Olivia and Emma come to terms with being broke, eleven-year-old Mac refuses to talk about what happened.
When Charlie’s estranged mother Vera opens her doors to the broken family, secrets from the past emerge that reveal there’s more to the Fitzgibbons than meets the eye.
As Shelley struggles to keep her family together she begins to wonder if she ever really knew the man she married.
Meanwhile, six thousand miles away in sunny Cape Town, Charlie is wrestling with with life-changing decisions of his own.
Is blood always thicker than water? Maybe Charlie’s family are simply better off without him....
Then her husband Charlie disappears, leaving more than just a business empire in crises..
The luxurious family home is sold and while Shelley’s daughters Olivia and Emma come to terms with being broke, eleven-year-old Mac refuses to talk about what happened.
When Charlie’s estranged mother Vera opens her doors to the broken family, secrets from the past emerge that reveal there’s more to the Fitzgibbons than meets the eye.
As Shelley struggles to keep her family together she begins to wonder if she ever really knew the man she married.
Meanwhile, six thousand miles away in sunny Cape Town, Charlie is wrestling with with life-changing decisions of his own.
Is blood always thicker than water? Maybe Charlie’s family are simply better off without him....
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
90 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 11, 2015
2.5
The impressively designed cover caught my attention among the books of the new arrivals’ shelf , and while I was reading the summary on the back , the old man in the bookshop stated ; “ you must read this my daughter so that you don’t trust men . Good girl , men are treacherous creatures ! “
I smiled “ yeah ,Sir ! Am good enough to know who to trust ”
He looked me deep in the eye , patted my shoulder and insisted “ you should “
Well , the title and the older man’s words made me a little skeptic about the content ! I’m not into any type of writing that accuse men , simply because I do believe that ‘ Every medal has it’s reverse ‘ Any way I started my journey on the 7th of January 2012 , but unfortunately I’m not done yet !!
I admire the way Fiona had presented her characters and loved how each one of them had told his part of the story , the story of Charlie disappearing and leaving his Shelley , Vera , Olivia and Emma behind . I could get their viewpoints and feel what everyone was going through . She did a great effort in making the characters close and intimate , But the language was tragic for me . Reading English as a second language , I’ve exhausted and got tired . Searching the dictionary , guessing , leaving too many ideas without understanding and evoking my memory during that one year-intermittent reading , I got bored and felt that this will take my whole life to be done ! and not sure what will get in the end !
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I didn’t finish it , I just stopped sailing the last month and not sure when to continue my journey .
The impressively designed cover caught my attention among the books of the new arrivals’ shelf , and while I was reading the summary on the back , the old man in the bookshop stated ; “ you must read this my daughter so that you don’t trust men . Good girl , men are treacherous creatures ! “
I smiled “ yeah ,Sir ! Am good enough to know who to trust ”
He looked me deep in the eye , patted my shoulder and insisted “ you should “
Well , the title and the older man’s words made me a little skeptic about the content ! I’m not into any type of writing that accuse men , simply because I do believe that ‘ Every medal has it’s reverse ‘ Any way I started my journey on the 7th of January 2012 , but unfortunately I’m not done yet !!
I admire the way Fiona had presented her characters and loved how each one of them had told his part of the story , the story of Charlie disappearing and leaving his Shelley , Vera , Olivia and Emma behind . I could get their viewpoints and feel what everyone was going through . She did a great effort in making the characters close and intimate , But the language was tragic for me . Reading English as a second language , I’ve exhausted and got tired . Searching the dictionary , guessing , leaving too many ideas without understanding and evoking my memory during that one year-intermittent reading , I got bored and felt that this will take my whole life to be done ! and not sure what will get in the end !
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"I didn’t finish it , I just stopped sailing the last month and not sure when to continue my journey .
June 13, 2011
Fiona O'Brien has done a great job with this book. You think you know what's happened and what's going to happen, but you'll be wrong at almost every turn.
Charlie Fitzgibbon has pulled a disappearing act and left his family in the lurch. The once highly successful entrepreneur has somehow managed to goof up so badly, the new kitchen has to be repossessed and he forges his wife Shelley's signature and sells the house out from underneath her.
Shelley has no one and nowhere else to turn, so she turns to her mother-in-law Vera who has been estranged from Charlie for decades. So she moves herself and her three children into Vera's small three bedroom house.
Besides the surprise twists, the best part of the book was chapters from the point of views from all of the characters. You had direct insight into what each character was going through. This is my first Fiona O'Brien book, but it definitely won't be my last!
Charlie Fitzgibbon has pulled a disappearing act and left his family in the lurch. The once highly successful entrepreneur has somehow managed to goof up so badly, the new kitchen has to be repossessed and he forges his wife Shelley's signature and sells the house out from underneath her.
Shelley has no one and nowhere else to turn, so she turns to her mother-in-law Vera who has been estranged from Charlie for decades. So she moves herself and her three children into Vera's small three bedroom house.
Besides the surprise twists, the best part of the book was chapters from the point of views from all of the characters. You had direct insight into what each character was going through. This is my first Fiona O'Brien book, but it definitely won't be my last!
March 3, 2011
Shelley thought she had it all – a loving husband, a gorgeous house and most importantly her 3 beautiful. However, her world is shattered when husband Charlie runs off without a word after his business empire collapses around them. Shelley’s house is sold from under her feet, she’s left with no money, and 3 children who don’t understand where their dad has gone. Shelley is forced to move in with her mother-in-law Vera who hasn’t seen the family for years after an argument with Charlie, something Shelley has never got to the bottom of, and finds herself having to work, look after 3 confused children and keep herself from bursting into tears over a lost marriage. When Russian billionaire Lukaz comes into the picture, Shelley’s unsure about his motives after finding out he did business with her estranged husband. Will Shelley be able to hold it all together for her family without her husband and what exactly is Charlie’s big secret?
I have previously read one of Fiona O’Brien’s books, No Reservations, and I really enjoyed it. It had a great writing style, a well constructed plot that kept me gripped and was just overly very enjoyable. When Fiona contacted us asking us if we wanted to review her latest books, I jumped at the chance because they sounded great, and I was hoping they would be as good as the previous book I’ve read. Without Him is Fiona’s latest title, and is released in the UK in April, having previously been published in Ireland in 2010. My cover is slightly different to the green pictured here, being tones of purple which I find much nicer, and I think the cover suits the book well enough.
The story begins with Shelley having just found out about Charlie’s betrayal and we meet the family when they are having the kitchen removed by the fitters due to non payment. It’s a pretty shocking start but it immediately gives you sympathy for Shelley and her 3 children Olivia, Emma and Mac. O’Brien doesn’t shy away at all from showing the emotion of the events on the family, the toll it takes not only on Shelley but also the young and impressionable children, but interestingly also on Vera, Charlie’s mother who is pleased to finally have time with her family after years of not speaking. It’s a book that is deeply rooted about family, the importance of honesty and looking after those around you, even when times are very tough.
I really enjoyed how O’Brien wrote this book. She chooses to write in the first person tense, but each chapter is narrated by a different character. The main narrators are Shelley and Vera, but we also get chapters from the 3 children, Lukaz and even, sporadically, Charlie himself which makes for interesting reading. It’s easy to differentiate between all the narrators and I loved how it was constantly changing, it kept the book fresh and gives many different perspectives for the story, and I really liked, especially when we see Shelley’s, then Vera’s perspectives of something. There is a slight overlap occasionally and it works so well. I was never bored and really enjoyed the unusual writing of this book.
The story is very well constructed, and certainly keeps you gripped. Nothing is really revealed at the start – we know Charlie has lost his business, but then other things become apparent to do with him and his “extra-curricular activities” shall we say, we aren’t given the whole story but things are eventually revealed and I didn’t see these things coming at all, so well done to O’Brien for keeping us in the dark and making me surprised – I like chick lit that isn’t that predictable and this certainly wasn’t. As well as the modern day story, we also dive into the past of Vera’s relationship when Charlie was small, and I enjoyed this movement back and forth in time, it added a different element to the book and made it something different from the norm. I also felt it gave me a really good insight into Vera, a character we would otherwise not know much about, and O’Brien makes these time travelling portions distinguished by dating them at the top of Vera’s chapters.
Overall, this book is a fantastic read, and I loved every page of it. It isn’t a short book by any means but I found myself ploughing through it fairly quickly because I couldn’t put it down. I really wanted to find out just what Charlie’s secret was, how Shelley was going to deal with everything that happened, including the appearance of the brilliant Russian character Lukaz, and the alternating chapters made it just a bit different, and I loved reading it. O’Brien’s writing is very easy to read, and she certainly brings alive not only the story but the emotional journey all of these characters go on throughout the book as well. If you love well written and enjoyable chick lit that isn’t all light and fluffy, then I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy of ‘Without Him’, it’s brilliant!
I have previously read one of Fiona O’Brien’s books, No Reservations, and I really enjoyed it. It had a great writing style, a well constructed plot that kept me gripped and was just overly very enjoyable. When Fiona contacted us asking us if we wanted to review her latest books, I jumped at the chance because they sounded great, and I was hoping they would be as good as the previous book I’ve read. Without Him is Fiona’s latest title, and is released in the UK in April, having previously been published in Ireland in 2010. My cover is slightly different to the green pictured here, being tones of purple which I find much nicer, and I think the cover suits the book well enough.
The story begins with Shelley having just found out about Charlie’s betrayal and we meet the family when they are having the kitchen removed by the fitters due to non payment. It’s a pretty shocking start but it immediately gives you sympathy for Shelley and her 3 children Olivia, Emma and Mac. O’Brien doesn’t shy away at all from showing the emotion of the events on the family, the toll it takes not only on Shelley but also the young and impressionable children, but interestingly also on Vera, Charlie’s mother who is pleased to finally have time with her family after years of not speaking. It’s a book that is deeply rooted about family, the importance of honesty and looking after those around you, even when times are very tough.
I really enjoyed how O’Brien wrote this book. She chooses to write in the first person tense, but each chapter is narrated by a different character. The main narrators are Shelley and Vera, but we also get chapters from the 3 children, Lukaz and even, sporadically, Charlie himself which makes for interesting reading. It’s easy to differentiate between all the narrators and I loved how it was constantly changing, it kept the book fresh and gives many different perspectives for the story, and I really liked, especially when we see Shelley’s, then Vera’s perspectives of something. There is a slight overlap occasionally and it works so well. I was never bored and really enjoyed the unusual writing of this book.
The story is very well constructed, and certainly keeps you gripped. Nothing is really revealed at the start – we know Charlie has lost his business, but then other things become apparent to do with him and his “extra-curricular activities” shall we say, we aren’t given the whole story but things are eventually revealed and I didn’t see these things coming at all, so well done to O’Brien for keeping us in the dark and making me surprised – I like chick lit that isn’t that predictable and this certainly wasn’t. As well as the modern day story, we also dive into the past of Vera’s relationship when Charlie was small, and I enjoyed this movement back and forth in time, it added a different element to the book and made it something different from the norm. I also felt it gave me a really good insight into Vera, a character we would otherwise not know much about, and O’Brien makes these time travelling portions distinguished by dating them at the top of Vera’s chapters.
Overall, this book is a fantastic read, and I loved every page of it. It isn’t a short book by any means but I found myself ploughing through it fairly quickly because I couldn’t put it down. I really wanted to find out just what Charlie’s secret was, how Shelley was going to deal with everything that happened, including the appearance of the brilliant Russian character Lukaz, and the alternating chapters made it just a bit different, and I loved reading it. O’Brien’s writing is very easy to read, and she certainly brings alive not only the story but the emotional journey all of these characters go on throughout the book as well. If you love well written and enjoyable chick lit that isn’t all light and fluffy, then I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy of ‘Without Him’, it’s brilliant!
May 7, 2012
This is the first book by Fiona O'Brien I have read, and I have to say it will definitely not be the last. I absolutely enjoyed this book, I was gripped from the first chapter and I just kept wanting to keep reading. I am so happy as the last book I read (Jo Carnegie's Horseplay) was so difficult for me to want to read it, and it took me weeks to finish, whereas I finished this in 5 days.
It was such a well written story, and the characters were people I ended up caring about. I loved how Fiona has each chapter told from a different character's viewpoint, it really helped explain things and was so interesting finding out different character's feelings on events.
I particularly enjoyed reading Vera's chapters - the grandmother in the story. I enjoyed hearing about her earlier life in the 60s and found myself transported there with her.
I shan't say what but for me, there was a twist which I didn't see coming - I loved that! I like it when a book surprises me.
I think I may have found a new must read author!
Would highly recommend.
It was such a well written story, and the characters were people I ended up caring about. I loved how Fiona has each chapter told from a different character's viewpoint, it really helped explain things and was so interesting finding out different character's feelings on events.
I particularly enjoyed reading Vera's chapters - the grandmother in the story. I enjoyed hearing about her earlier life in the 60s and found myself transported there with her.
I shan't say what but for me, there was a twist which I didn't see coming - I loved that! I like it when a book surprises me.
I think I may have found a new must read author!
Would highly recommend.
October 29, 2017
A great story
A great storyline, but I very nearly gave up on it a quarter of the way through. Some dreadful spelling mistakes, about every other page, which put me off concentrating on the story.
A great storyline, but I very nearly gave up on it a quarter of the way through. Some dreadful spelling mistakes, about every other page, which put me off concentrating on the story.
June 7, 2019
Whenever I get my hands on a Fiona O'brien book I know I'm in for a treat!
She writes about life and all it contains.
But bigger.
She writes about life and all it contains.
But bigger.
December 30, 2017
Excellent
A wonderful book. Keeps your attention and full of twists and turns. The characters are endearing. A very well written story. Will definitely read more from this talented author.
A wonderful book. Keeps your attention and full of twists and turns. The characters are endearing. A very well written story. Will definitely read more from this talented author.
July 9, 2021
Maybe?
I loved whole cast of players, beautifully crafted. This is my first book by Fiona O'Brien and it really lived up to the description. I am about to buy another by this author.
I loved whole cast of players, beautifully crafted. This is my first book by Fiona O'Brien and it really lived up to the description. I am about to buy another by this author.
October 2, 2017
Exellent read
Such a wonderful story. Couldn't put it down. Great writer will buy another from Fiona o Brien collection... Highly recommended
Such a wonderful story. Couldn't put it down. Great writer will buy another from Fiona o Brien collection... Highly recommended
September 24, 2018
Fabulous
Definitely a must read book. I love her writing. Always different, they keeps you hooked. Can’t wait to start the next one.
Definitely a must read book. I love her writing. Always different, they keeps you hooked. Can’t wait to start the next one.
May 7, 2012
This is an interesting book to read. The way the author narrate the story with its main character tell their side of story in each chapter is very unique and is very well written. The book basically tells the story of the aftermath dissappearance of Charlie; on how Shelley and their kids deal with his absence, and having to stay with his mother; Vera. There was subplot in the main story where Caroline, supposely to be Charlie's mistress keeps her presence known and the other women with a kid; Annika whom Charlie choose to be. At first, i really thought Charlie is a playboy what with Caroline and Annika in the picture and the way their story was told by themselves in the chapter, one would not have resist but assume on their real relationship. ;)
Overall, i find this book very exciting to read and the author's writing refreshing!
Overall, i find this book very exciting to read and the author's writing refreshing!
October 6, 2011
What a wonderful read.....I thought I knew exactly what was going on and was proved wrong time and time again...characters were believable and some you loved and others you hated. Didn't want to put this book down, adored Vera and Lukas throughout!!!
October 9, 2023
Nice easy read
This is my third book by this author. I thoroughly enjoyed ‘No Reservations’ my first book, didn’t enjoy the second and third books so much. Would describe them as nice easy reads.
This is my third book by this author. I thoroughly enjoyed ‘No Reservations’ my first book, didn’t enjoy the second and third books so much. Would describe them as nice easy reads.
June 16, 2014
This is not great literature, but it is good chick lit. It is a well written story with a couple of unexpected twists and turns, I would probably recommend as a holiday read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews