Ambitions

Ambitions #1

by Audrey Howard

Their friendship brought them success. Love made them rivals.

Lucy Hemingway and Rose O'Malley could not have had more different origins - Lucy's was full of privilege, as befitted the daughter of Liverpool's richest shipping magnate, while Rose's was as difficult as only the life of a poor Irish immigrant could be.

Their friendship was as powerful as it was unlikely. From the early days of childhood, they faced a sometimes hostile world together. Their united strength helped them build a business empire that was a model to the world of men they challenged.

But, ultimately, their empire and their friendship were brought to the point of destruction - by the love each of them had for the same man.

Genres: Historical Romance, Historical Fiction

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Audrey Howard was born on 1929 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK, and grew up in St Annes on Sea, Lancashire, where she lives in her childhood home.

Before she began to write she had a variety of jobs, among them hairdresser, model, shop assistant, cleaner and civil servant. In 1981, while living in Australia, she wrote the first of her bestselling novels published since 1984. In 1988, her novel The Juniper Bush won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Not a rage-quit, just a disinterested-quit.

Prose is okay, if a bit slow to move; it's the herky-jerky plot & unlikable characters that turn me off. They might not be unlikable to everyone, but personally...bleh. I got no sympathy for Bridie's OTT sob story lifestyle, Rose's lifetime o' instalove for a bland guy who's eternally besotted with Lacy after one picnic, James & his devotion to a disinterested Lacy even though he wouldn't mind boinking Rose... *yawn*

It's the instalove that gets to me, I guess. I'm not necessarily opposed to a love triangle -- especially in soaps -- but an instalove-triangle + the tedious forum of wordy Women's Fiction doesn't rate highly on my list. I don't care about these people enough to suffer 600+ pages of their Y U NO LUV ME woes.

DNF @ 27%.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of a trilogy following the lives and fortunes of the Hemingway and O'Malley families. A sweeping saga set in Victorian Liverpool against a backdrop of shipping dynasties. This book is probably my joint favourite of all the author's work, up there with The Juniper Bush. A really engrossing story, lots of good period detail. One to revisit

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review taken from my Blog Post in July 2011, after I borrowed the book from the local library:

A 3.5 Star read .... the story of two very different woman who built a life and business together and who both fell in love with the same man ... obviously one one was lucky enough to win his love .... or was she?

Wealthy and upper crust Lacy Hemmingway, pampered daughter of Charles Hemmingway the shipping magnet witness the terrible death of one of her Father's Irish workers and then goes on to be-friend that man's daughter, Rosie O'Malley.

Together they go on to challenge the accepted way of doing things and build a business together, but with both woman in love with the same man, James Osbourne ...... how will it end?

[Kara Ayres · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story has been done before and by more accomplished authors. If I had been reading this book instead of listening to it, I would not have finished it. A very accomplished narrator managed to bring the lacklustre characters to life and the best quote in the book in my opinion is..."...As drunk as a fiddler's bitch..."

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

could'nt put this book down, fantastic read.