Ordinary Time

by Cathy Rentzenbrink

'There are already three of us in this marriage. I'm not sure there is room for a fourth . . .'

Ann is a reluctant Vicar's wife. She tries her best but her husband only has eyes for God, her son is asking questions she struggles to answer, and it is all too easy to displease the congregation. It may only be a matter of time before she makes the headlines of the local Vicar's wife gets giggles in church. Vicar's wife refuses to bake scones. Vicar's wife does not care about other people.

When her brother needs her help, Ann travels from Cornwall up to London. There she meets Jamie, and a new world unexpectedly opens up. Ann knows what the older women of the parish would say - she's made her bed and now she has to lie in it. But once she has been led into temptation, it may prove impossible to resist . . .

The funny and heartbreaking new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink, Ordinary Time is an unforgettable story of the joys and sorrows of everyday life; one that asks big questions about friendship and marriage, forgiveness and redemption, and the real meaning of love.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Audiobook, Novels

368 pages, Hardcover

Published July 11, 2024

About the author

Cathy Rentzenbrink grew up in Yorkshire and now lives in London. A former Waterstones bookseller, she is now Project Director of the charity Quick Reads and Associate Editor of The Bookseller magazine.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the unpretentious writing style, gentle but honest humour, flawed but sympathetic characters and the thoughtful plot of this novel about different kinds of love, loss, the enduring scars of childhood and the choices we make. The title reflects the liturgical name of the period between two great Christian festivals - Christmas and Easter; a fitting description for a period of moral and spiritual struggle for Ann, a reluctant, non-believing spouse to Tim, a vicar who takes God and the service of his people more seriously than paying attention to Ann and their son, Sam. To add to her problems, Ann's much loved younger brother is struggling with anxiety and a fixation of imminent death (I was drawn into a false sense of doom by the section dates which place this novel in 2019, just before the beginning of the Pandemic!) and we learn of the siblings difficult childhood marred by their father's early suicide. On her way to support brother Stephen from her Cornish vicarage, she meets Jamie, a gloriously handsome and empathetic hero-man, and falls in love. All the main characters, and even the minor, annoying parish pariahs, are drawn with endearing qualities and, although there is grief and mundane tragedy, there is also gentle and healing humour. Names are important and Ann's is no accident. Throughout the novel there is reference to Anna Karenina, but will Ann's fate be different from the great tragic heroine of literature?

[Jacki (Julia Flyte) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title is ordinary but the book is not. I loved it. It will be one of my favourites for the year. I’ve put off reviewing it, because I get tongue tied when it’s a book I really love. I’d like to just push it into your hands and beseech you to read it.

It’s a contemporary novel but it has a vaguely mid century feel to it - which I love. It feels like Cathy Rentzenbrink is Barbara Pym’s granddaughter (she isn’t). I probably think that because the novel is centered on a vicarage and the somewhat eccentric congregation, but it also has all the heart and humour and pathos that Pym’s books have.

It’s about a woman called Ann, married to a vicar called Tim and living in Cornwall. Ann is not happy – although she adores her son. Her husband is devoted to his job but is an absent husband. Their house is horrible. She doesn’t know many people in Cornwall and she’s lonely. She thinks about whether she wants to turn her life upside down. I adored her and I felt for her.

Look, it’s not perfect. I never really bought why Ann married Tim in the first place. Another reviewer here called it dreary and I guess that because it’s a quiet book without a hugely dramatic arc. But there’s so much that is wonderful. You care about the characters. The humour is quiet, but it makes you smile. It’s about love and connections and evaluating your life and seeing the beauty in the everyday. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy: please, read it.

[Francis Pellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful. I really enjoyed this

[Tom Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, lovely, lovely book!!! So gentle in its approach and writing, Cathy Rentzenbrink you have a new fan!

[Taggie Edmondes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, witty and a quick read. Talked a lot about grief, suicide and mental health which I worried would trigger me but found it moving instead. Didn’t really buy the Jamie and main character love story and actually found him quite annoying but liked the point around how the perception of an ‘ordinary’ and simple life can so often hide the darker secrets many people have. Many of the characters were flawed but I liked the (more subtle for some) growth elements of them especially the vicar

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the characters and the subtle humour throughout the book. It was a nice balance for some of the heavier topics like suicide and mental health. Overall, I really enjoyed the story, but was unsatisfied by the ending. Ann deserves to be happy and it doesn’t have to comprise her being a good mother to Sam. Both can be true at the same time.

[Susannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this.
I thought it was going to be a gentle parochial tale but it is thoughtful and heartfelt and lovely and sad and hopeful.
All the feelings.
Recommended.

[Kerry Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first 70% of this book but it just fell a bit flat and like it was finished in a bit of a twee, predicable way. Disappointed because I loved the first part

[Rebecca]

5 STARS

The list of books I own but haven’t read is so long that I don’t tend to buy them now unless they’re on offer and on my TBR (a sad state of affairs but I need to get through them somehow!). But I happened upon this on a Kindle Daily Deal and thought I’d give it a go, and what a gem it was. Completely unpretentious and unassuming, just good, funny, warm writing that I lapped up in pretty much a day. I think Cathy Rentzenbrink has done an excellent job of balancing this with some of the heavier topics in the book, without any of it feeling heavy-handed at all. Just a really lovely book that I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about!

[Melissa Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book may be a hard one to sell to others in that it’s quite hard to describe and explain but I simply loved it. Couldn’t get enough.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ordinary Time by Cathy Rentzenbrink is the book that saw me from 2024 into 2025 and it made a good end to one reading year and start to another. The title comes from the Christian liturgical calendar and refers to the time outside the main seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.

Our main character, Ann, has a rather ordinary life and a stale marriage. She is a vicar’s wife but doesn’t really have much belief. Her husband Tim has plenty of time for God and his parishioners but very little time for Ann and their son. He really seems so self-centred and oblivious to those he should love, putting duty before his family.

I found Ann to be a likable character although I feel in her position I would have been rather tempted to leave my husband if I was treated in such an offhand manner. However, as the book progresses we find out why providing a stable family life for her son is so important to her. The author wrote very insightfully about Ann’s feelings towards her husband, her son and her brother, and created an understanding of what her life is like. When temptation comes her way in the form of Jamie, it is completely understandable that she considers what a different life might be like and whether it would be possible.

I found the whole depiction of parish life in a small community to be very convincing and often provided some entertaining moments. I felt for poor Ann moving from one parish to another at her husband’s whim and ending up in a damp vicarage, with a dining room full of jumble, where parishioners were used to just popping in anytime. Ann was always concerned she would do something to earn the disapproval of not only her husband but the ladies of the parish. However, some of them proved to be very supportive at times.

The author’s writing put me in mind of Anne Tyler. Both authors show great skill in writing about ordinary things of everyday life and making them fascinating. A quietly compelling book, Ordinary Time is an insightful portrait of a marriage and of lives which have been impacted by childhood events.

[Nicola Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordinary Time is the story of Ann, vicar's wife, mother, sister - this is how she is defined but it's stifling her. Her husband, Tim, thinks more of God than of his own son, let alone his wife, pushing both aside for often trivial pastoral matters. The family have newly arrived in Cornwall for Tim to take up residence as the vicar - another move, another new school, same old stale marriage.

Cathy Rentzenbrink portrays small parish life perfectly, one in which the vicar and his family are almost public property. Barbara and Doreen think nothing of simply popping their head around the back door, and the dining room of the vicarage is full of jumble that Tim doesn't even notice, let alone think is a problem.

This is an intensely character driven novel, with human nature and all its foibles observed to great effect. Rentzenbrink writes with dry humour but it's also a moving tale of childhoods marred by great tragedy and how the trauma of dealing with it can trickle down through the rest of your life.

When Ann meets Jamie, a man who she feels not only attraction for, but a kinship with, it drives her to reflect on what's important to her. I thought this thread was beautifully written with both yearning and possibility (and impossibility too).

Ordinary Time is a story of a marriage, a family, a loss and a love. It's a quiet novel but one which delves deep into feelings and emotions. I particularly appreciated the honesty in Ann's narrative and how she let rip internally all that she didn't feel able to say aloud. It's a fabulous novel. I enjoy this author's perceptive and funny writing so much.

[Claire Tomonaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was wonderful. Simple and heartfelt. It made me laugh and cry. I know this novel will stick with me.

[Debby Binns · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a marvellous book of the female experience. Its completely authentic and I really looked forward to sitting down to pick it up and read it. Its full of the painful realities of modern life, married life, and being a Vicar's wife. Its also filled with heart filling amounts of wonderful humour, lively characters, and incredibly good dialogue. I heard Cathy R talk about the writing of this book at the Falmouth Book Festival. She pictured the church at Mylor Bridge as the setting for the book - but she said (I hope I'm not mis-quoting) that she picked up this church and set it near the GreenBank Hotel in Falmouth - so the views were from there. I had this picture in my mind as I read this awesome book.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book about an unhappily married vicar's wife. Some characters from her previous book also appear, which I liked very much.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ordinary but enjoyable.

[Mrs]

Ann has a loving and supportive relationship with her brother Stephen, but not with her husband Tim, a minister who is more interested in his flock than his family. He takes Ann for granted and is very cold towards his son.
Ann’s father took his own life on the railway, and Ann and Stephen there have been different but long lasting ripples through their lives as a result. It is very touching how just Ann’s presence can soothe Stephen.
Ann has a panic attack on a train, when there is “passenger action”, and she is helped by a stranger, Jamie, who turns out to be a friend of Stephen. Things develop…
Interesting take on relationships within a church, between a minister, church members, and agnostic wife of minister , and questioning son. The lack of joy or interest in anything material outside the church was also striking.
Ordinary Time is the religious term for the period between Easter and Advent .
I really liked this book.

[Hester · Rating 2 out of 5]

A light read , undemanding with flashes of reality in the relationship between the protagonist and her brother but otherwise it's as predictable as the dalays on the West Coast Mainline where I read it.

A particularly stereotypical portrait of a heavy drinking , gambling but "heart as huge as a planet" Irishman, who seemed to be the sole cause of all the sadness, was hard to swallow as was the clichéd handsome and heroic stranger who provides the love interest .

If a portrait of unexamined love bombing is your specialist interest along with an unassertive , downtrodden bookish ( of course she's bookish) mother with hidden qualities, which only the love bomber sees , then go right ahead . For me it reads like a user guide to how women learn to feast on the crumbs from the table and how we self sacrifice because of our children . It may be true but it wasn't nearly messy enough to convince me .

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. I listened to the audio, wonderfully narrated by Olivia Poulet. I was drawn to this by the cover, weirdly though apart from the main character travelling by train a few times it doesn’t reflect the content of the book at all.

It’s mainly about a 40 something woman who is unhappy and frustrated by life. She’s married to a vicar who is more interested in serving god than caring for his wife and son.It covers big topics, grief, trauma, suicide, mental health including ocd. But it also has an underlying warmth and humour throughout that never felt jarring.I loved the relationship between Ann and her brother and sister in law. I enjoyed the cast of eccentric smaller characters. A minor complaint is that for me the affair with Jamie never rang true. I loved the message of hope and forgiveness.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my usual read at all, ordinary but not, I enjoyed it but also found it Tim so frustrating, (I know you’re meant too) but it made the “wrapped up in a nice bow” ending very unlikely, good read though for something different

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a 4.5 - it was a lovely read

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. Beautiful writing. Just my cup of tea.

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this, could have been 5 stars but I didn't like the love interest

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book

[Jo Stass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, gentle novel that tackles interesting subjects such as mental health, love and loss with great wit and compassion. It's about a vicar's wife who isn't particularly religious, which is an interesting dynamic I enjoyed exploring. I really liked all of the characters although I'm not sure I found all of the relationships in the book entirely believable.

[Nicola Milner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann is a reluctant Vicar’s wife who is neglected by her husband and frustrated by the straight jacket of village expectations and pettiness. She has an affair, which gives her the confidence to be honest with her husband about how she is feeling with surprising results. I loved this book with its searing depiction of small village life and insightful portrayal of loneliness, redemption and ultimately what it means to be human. I especially loved how Ann is a character to be empathised rather than sympathised with - she has an inner strength, dry wit and isn’t happy to sell herself short. I will be reading more Cathy Rentsenbrink!

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book. Utterly loved it.

It’s worth a glance at the other reviews of this book, to see what authors this novels is being held alongside: Megan Mason, Anne Tyler, Barbara Pym. Really, that tells you all you need to know before choosing to read this.

Ordinary Time is a marvellous narrative of the female experience, utterly authentic and completely affecting. I so enjoyed each time I sat down to read it.

Full of the painful realities of modern life, married life, and life life, but also loaded with heart-filling amounts of wonderful humour, lively characters, and startling good dialogue.

Completely excellent.
Ps. Gentlemen: pay attention.

[Susan Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but I didn't love it. I could see what the Author was trying to do but imo she didn't do a well enough job for it to be a masterpiece. The writing and storyline kept me turning the pages though.

I didn't really like any of the characters apart from Sam and that's probably because I am a mother of sons and I felt maternal towards him.

Ann wanted to be noticed, she felt invisible and ignored. I get that. I really do. But she was married to a vicar-what did she expect? Said vicar was everything you expect a vicar to be and would certainly not get any awards for husband or father of the year.

The relationship she had with her brother was nice and I did feel for them both, with the issue of their father's suicide.
But what are the chances of her meeting somebody the complete opposite of her husband, him being attracted to her, coming to her aid and then being friends of her brother?

I just wanted to shake her at times and then when it got to the nitty gritty he even asked her permission when he made each move!! FFS woman, if you are craving excitement, and have an encounter with a bloke that you are in lust with just rip his ruddy clothes off!

The conclusion was too wrapped up nicely in a bow ending for me. I enjoyed the read but let me thinking "What was the point?"

[Jessica Riseborough · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the book - quite literally devoured it - up until the ending which left me feeling PISSED OFF. Why should the protagonist have to stay in a loveless and thankless marriage, where she is basically her husband's housemaid, all for the sake of being there for her child? To my knowledge, a parent can still be there for a child and not be with their father. I can understand that the ending is indicative of her husband changing and tries to offer some redemption by discussing his previous traumas etc but surely that's not enough to warrant staying after 10+ years of misery. The protagonist even acknowledges at the end that she cannot see herself sleeping in a double bed with him ever again and ends by debating when she needs to start cooking dinner for him and her son... icky

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read all of this authors books, both her fiction and non-fiction. She's an author that I greatly admire, her passion for books, and her incredible insight into the often mundane lives of character are astonishing.

Ordinary Time is Ann's story. Ann's husband Tim is a vicar, they have a young son Sam and have lived in various parishes over the years. They've just moved to a rural parish in Cornwall. It's a tight-knit community where the church is at the heart of all business. The previous vicar was elderly and unmarried, his house is old and almost derelict in places. There's a bunch of locals who made it their life to ensure that he wanted for nothing.

Ann is struggling. She's never really believed in God, her marriage is not what she hoped for. Tim's whole life is centred around doing God's work, assisting others, being the rock of the community, but Ann and Sam have always come second. Tim is not an affectionate man, he is blunt and often appears not to notice his wife or child, except to tick them off when they do something that doesn't really fit nicely into the 'family of a vicar' box.

Ann meets Jamie when she goes on a mercy mission to help her brother Stephen who is having problems with life in general. Jamie notices her, she sees her as a woman, he is kind, he appears interested in what she has to say. He acknowledges her intelligence. Ann's inner world turns inside out, desperate to spend more time in the company of someone who doesn't just see the vicar's wife.

This is a wonderfully quiet book, it is often so funny, and always so astute and well observed. Rentzenbrink's ability to look deeper than the surface is tender, and generous and will speak volumes to a lot of women who are experiencing those 'what now' moments that creep up and take a firm hold sometimes.

At its heart, this is a novel about love, in all of its many forms. Ann and her brother have a tragic back story that has impacted so much on their entire lives. This is one of the reasons that Ann decided to marry Tim in the first place, to put aside her true character, to try to create a new world for herself.

Tim is a cold man, a man of God, yet not a man of family. Well respected, almost adored by some of his parishioners, he is unaware of the needs of his own family. It is not until the end of the book that the reader learns more about him, about why he has led this life, and how he bears his own scars from the past.

Populated with characters to love, including the awesome duo of Barbara and Doreen, two elderly women whose verbal battles are a joy to read. Ann's brother Stephen and his wife Sarah are beautifully created too and we cannot forget young Sam, the youngster with the wise head on his shoulders.

Compassionate, subtle and honest. Ordinary Time is a wonderful read. Highly recommended.