The Years She Stole

by Jonathan Harvey

Rachel and Shirley. Two women from different decades but somehow their lives are entwined, and neither can know the impact one woman will have on the other until it’s way too late . . .2017Pregnant Rachel Taylor is enjoying a holiday in Morocco when she gets the phone call to say her mother hasn’t got much time left to live. With a head of mixed emotions she returns to the village where she grew up to say her last goodbyes. It’s true to say their relationship had often been strained and Rachel had never quite understood why. When clearing out her mother’s things she thinks she finds an answer, and her world is changed forever.1978Shirley Burke is on a family holiday at Butlin’s when she first sets eyes on Doug, a man considerably older than herself. When his daughter goes missing one night, Shirley’s the one who finds her and returns her to him. When his gratitude turns into something else, Shirley realizes this is her time to shine. But Doug is married, and her young life is about to get very complicated.From the award-winning author of All She Wants and the writer of Coronation Street, The Years She Stole is big-hearted novel by Jonathan Harvey.'Some of these conversations will make you cry and some will make you laugh' – Daily Mail

Genres: Fiction

419 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2018

About the author

Harvey was born in Liverpool in 1968. He has a brother, Timothy Harvey who is a music teacher in Chester. His first serious attempt as a playwright was in 1987. Fuelled by the attraction of a £1,000 first prize to young writers from the Liverpool Playhouse, the result was The Cherry Blossom Tree, a garish blend of suicide, murder and nuns. This effort won him the National Girobank Young Writer of the Year Award.

Feeling very encouraged, he went on to write Mohair (1988), Wildfire (1992) and Babies (1993), the latter winning him the 'George Devine Award' for that year and The Evening Standard's 'Most Promising Playwright Award' for 1994. In 1993, Harvey, premiered Beautiful Thing, a gay-themed play-turned-movie for which he won the prestigious 'John Whiting Award' the following year.

1995 saw the premiere of Boom Bang-a-Bang, at the Bush Theatre, London, originally directed by Kathy Burke. Harvey cites it as "my most comic play ever, but with some dark bits". Centred on a group of friends gathering to watch the Eurovision Song Contest, the play was a sell-out. That same year, he also premiered Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club. Guiding Star (1998), is a portrayal of one man's struggle to come to terms with the Hillsborough FA Cup Semi-Final disaster, while Hushabye Mountain (1999) deals with a world that has learned to live with HIV/AIDS. Television and film works include: West End Girls (Carlton); Love Junkie (BBC); Beautiful Thing (Channel Four/Island World Productions); the 1999-2001 hit/cult comedy series starring Kathy Burke and James Dreyfus, Gimme Gimme Gimme (Tiger Aspect); Murder Most Horrid (BBC); and Coronation Street (ITV).

He also wrote the book for Closer to Heaven, a stage musical with songs and music written by Pet Shop Boys. Closer to Heaven ran for nine months at the Arts Theatre in London during 2001 and in Australia in 2005. In 2003 Harvey heard the singer-actress Abi Roberts perform and was so enchanted he offered to write a solo show especially for her. Taking Charlie was the outcome, staged at the 2004 Edinburgh Festival with Roberts starring, under the direction of Susan Tully. The piece was darkly comic and focused on the destructive nature of an insecure, 30-year-old addict.

Harvey is a patron of London-based HIV charity The Food Chain and a patron of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. His first novel All She Wants was published in 2012 by Pan Books

Reviews

[Nadja · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars
I got this in a romance book box, still wonder if it was marketed to them as a romance because it is also marketed on the front to be a laugh out loud.
Which for me it wasn't. My humor doesn't include fat-shaming (example: pregnant woman in a uncomfortable taxi with a seatbelt digging into her belly concludes that after that experience she could feel empathy for obese people) also supposedly funny should have been a comment about that she made it out a life of marocco without being raped (yes Mc answered that marocco is not a rapist country) really not funny to me. Also a slightly homophobic joke isn't funny when it comes from a homosexual person.
With that being said this book had diverse characters, in my eyes protrait in a very insensitive way.
I also got annoyed by the MCs feeling to constantly talk about the loo and needing to wee at the beginning of the book. I got it she is pregnant.
With that being said you might wonder why it got 2.5 stars at all. Well I really did enjoy the stolen baby story, although more as a mystery, crime kind of book. And without all the insensitive jokes and that weird humor that really wasn't for me I actually think I would have given it 3.5 stars because overall the writing was good.

[Penne Moschetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

A seemingly enjoyable story of a baby snatching incident and the ripple on effect for those concerned. I liked the alternating 'voices' of the modern day baby aged 36 and that of the snatcher aged 19 in the 1960's. What really took the story to a higher level of enjoyment was the surprise ending which I didn't see coming.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, at first I found it hard to warm to Shirley but as the book went on I warmed to her more and understood her more. There were some parts of the book which unfelt were a bit unnecessary but that couldn’t take away from how good this book was. I loved how it switched between 2017 and 1978\1980’s

My only real complaint is that Pam somehow seemed completely disconnected to the character of Shirley and I would have thought that after so many years she wouldn’t be still running away from what she had done, her death just didn’t seem quite right.

But I still really enjoyed this book and it’s definitely up there with some of my favourite books.

[Rachel E Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read

I enjoy reading Jonathan Harvey books and have done for a few years now.... I wouldn't say this was his best, I guessed the ending, but it was compelling nontheless and you do take to the characters, I think that's what I like so much about his writing, the characters are well rounded you get a feel for them and they are people that you feel you know. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next.

[Laura Boakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10 : A really engaging, funny & interesting piece of fiction. I’ve not read any of Harvey’s books before, but have since added more to my ‘to read’ list. He writes in a very natural way, humour is threaded throughout the book, in subtle but clever ways. I really enjoyed this book, a good, easy holiday read I’d say too!

[KJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this over a bank holiday weekend and it was the perfect companion. Harvey maintains a wonderfully gossipy tone, which is lovely to read but considerably more complicated to write. However, in his capable hands the action barrels along at a fair old pace and the usual winning mixture of humour and darkness prevails.

[Shaun Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Harvey, absolutely BRILLIANT.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of Jonathan Harvey’s brilliant books. This is his latest and was, as usual, a great read.

And as usual, just when you think you’ve got it, bang!

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d been looking forward to this since I saw it was due to be released, I even broke my book-buying ban to get my hands on a copy.

The story has a split chronology which works well, no real surprises and the denouement was given away too easily near the end and it didn’t seem authentic. Harvey has a great voice though so worth picking it up so some of the biting one liners.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm vacillating between three and four stars for this. Mostly enjoyable though the middle section dragged a bit and it was only just before the "twist" was revealed that I had any notion of what was coming. Double narration and double time scale was neatly done though as both the central characters were essentially selfish it was hard to warm to them.

[Madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel a little confused with this book, I guessed the twist and I don’t love the ending but it was well written, and took place in areas that I know well so it was weird in a way to see these places written about.

It did take me a while to read as I didn’t fall in love with the story but I do think it was a good read and would recommend it!

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two and a half stars. It was 'OK' but the ending was unexpected (but not in a good way). I was expecting a much twistier ending where it turned out that the 'mother' who had died was actually Shirley ... the ending in the book just didn't seems to make any sense emotionally. I am yet to read a book of this sort of genre where a male author writes convincing female characters.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and different. Dark, but had humor and was told in a way that didn't make the reader worry too much. I saw the plot twist coming, and the ending felt rushed to me, but I liked this one well enough that I will try to seek out other books by this author.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it's because I've read a lot of books that jump back and forth in time, I found the parallel stories a bit annoying and just wanted to find out what happened.
I had worked it out by then, too, though not in all the detail.

[Lorna Badrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing

I found this story to be rushed, predictable and meaningless. All of the characters were unpleasant and difficult to understand as there was not enough depth to them. It could have been so much better.

[LindyLouMac · Rating 3 out of 5]

An agreeable and easy read with plenty of twists in the story, although I did guess the eventual outcome before the end. Humorous yet with a serious theme, I can recommend this novel to those that enjoy contemporary fiction.

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[Steve Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two stories which combine at a point. Trouble is it takes so long for the connection to become apparent. Once it does the story moves at a good pace., and is enjoyable.

[Calvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. So naff.

[Cath Hughes · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only reason i contined to wade through this book full of unrelated and u amusing waffle was the promise of a twist at the end.
Don't bother!!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, I took a star off because I did feel a bit sorry for Shirley in the end.

[Alison English · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I found the storyline a bit disturbing i loved Jonathan's style of writing

[Tracey Pearce · Rating 3 out of 5]

It said on cover laugh out loud. For the subject it didn't make me laugh out loud and this from guy who wrote one of my fav comedies

[lahraeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

riveting plot & interesting character arcs

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 -review to come

[El 📖 · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a fairly good book it is quite a good on to read, better than i expected,plot twists,i was a bit confused at the beginning but its a good book

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d head of Jonathan Harvey because of his theatre and TV work but had no idea he’d written novels too. I want to read his others now because I love the way he writes; full of humour but a great warmth and humanity too. This is the story of two women set in two eras: Shirley, who stole a baby in 1981, and Rachel, the baby she stole, now pregnant herself, in 2017. Shirley’s character is particular is a work of genius; she’s a monster, with naivety bordering on stupidity, but I couldn’t help sympathising with her. The author is at his best when portraying monstrous characters- Rachel’s boss and Pam the neighbour are great comic creations. The only reason I didn’t give this five stars is I didn’t feel so strongly about Rachel, and would have liked to hear more of her early relationship with her mother and Pam. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic page turner with a killer twist.

[Donald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harvey's books are always well written, witty, and down to earth, but no matter what 'twist' he ends with, it's always signposted miles off and completely obvious to anyone with half a brain. That said, it never ruins the story, and the one liners more than make up for it.