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Lucky Woman
To do: Call in on Onion, check she has enough heroin…
To do: Tues pm. Tescos: pizza bases, frosted Shreddies, Coke. Is football kit clean?!
To do: Wed. Dress Mrs Golightly’s ulcers, new patient, check Onion last thing, tkd.
To do: REPORTS!
I was chugging along, just keeping up with everything: miserable git of a mid-list writer husband; two pimply oafs who had once been my darling little boys; rabbit.
Too many patients. Too much work. Too much bureaucracy. Never enough money. The last chink of light was the martial arts.
Then Tattoo rode into town on his Harley and my life blew up. Literally.
To do: Tues pm. Tescos: pizza bases, frosted Shreddies, Coke. Is football kit clean?!
To do: Wed. Dress Mrs Golightly’s ulcers, new patient, check Onion last thing, tkd.
To do: REPORTS!
I was chugging along, just keeping up with everything: miserable git of a mid-list writer husband; two pimply oafs who had once been my darling little boys; rabbit.
Too many patients. Too much work. Too much bureaucracy. Never enough money. The last chink of light was the martial arts.
Then Tattoo rode into town on his Harley and my life blew up. Literally.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 6, 2013
22 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Finney
83 books124 followersAKA P.F. Chisholm and Grace Cavendish
Patricia Finney's career started with a bang when her first novel A SHADOW OF GULLS was published before she went up to Oxford aged 18 to study History, back in the mists of time, when dinosaurs roamed.
Having found out early what she could do, she has kept doing it. To date she has (mainstream) published:
the Sir Robert Carey Elizabethan crime novels under the pen name PF Chisholm - eight of them so far;
three Elizabethan spy novels as Patricia Finney;
two Elizabethan noir novels as Patricia Finney;
one contemporary romantic thriller - LUCKY WOMAN - under Finney;
three children's books about Jack the daffy Labrador in Doglish (Finney) and various odds and sods including the sequel to GULLS and WRITERITIS, about how to write a novel.
You can find most of her work on http://www.climbingtreebooks.com except for the Sir Robert Carey (PF Chisholm) novels which are published by Poisoned Pen Press (USA) and Head of Zeus (UK).
Her dayjob career has been... complex. At the moment she is living in Hungary and learning Hungarian and writing a non-fiction book about her mother's adventures as a child in wartime Hungary. She is really enjoying not doing a dayjob at the moment.
Go to my website, read my blogs and reviews and sign up for my email newsletter - at http://www.patriciafinney.com
Patricia Finney's career started with a bang when her first novel A SHADOW OF GULLS was published before she went up to Oxford aged 18 to study History, back in the mists of time, when dinosaurs roamed.
Having found out early what she could do, she has kept doing it. To date she has (mainstream) published:
the Sir Robert Carey Elizabethan crime novels under the pen name PF Chisholm - eight of them so far;
three Elizabethan spy novels as Patricia Finney;
two Elizabethan noir novels as Patricia Finney;
one contemporary romantic thriller - LUCKY WOMAN - under Finney;
three children's books about Jack the daffy Labrador in Doglish (Finney) and various odds and sods including the sequel to GULLS and WRITERITIS, about how to write a novel.
You can find most of her work on http://www.climbingtreebooks.com except for the Sir Robert Carey (PF Chisholm) novels which are published by Poisoned Pen Press (USA) and Head of Zeus (UK).
Her dayjob career has been... complex. At the moment she is living in Hungary and learning Hungarian and writing a non-fiction book about her mother's adventures as a child in wartime Hungary. She is really enjoying not doing a dayjob at the moment.
Go to my website, read my blogs and reviews and sign up for my email newsletter - at http://www.patriciafinney.com
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 20, 2019
This is an absolutely amazing book and I recommend it highly! I bought it on a fluke at Amazon, because I love Ms. Finney's historical suspense/mystery series and thought I'd give this a try. (Plus, it was cheap.) Well, much to my surprise it turned out to be an amazing page-turner (or whatever the e-book equivalent is) and I was barely able to force myself to stop in the middle to get some sleep last night.
This is a drama. It contains romance, and is suspenseful. But it doesn't fit well into any of the boring old genre stereotypes. What it is most similar to, imo, is those old gothic romances. Yet, it's modern, and believable, and I really liked (and respected) the main character. Her pragmatism and dark sense of humor really rang true to her profession as hospice nurse, and I just plain liked her. Her POV was the high point for me.
I really wish I could find more books like this as I am almost entirely burnt out by the stupid and shallow romances I'm coming across lately. (In particular, I mean those that are unsatisfying and, frankly, lazily written.) This is not one of those books. Apart from a few typos scattered throughout, Finney writes compellingly. She knows how to tell a story.
I have a feeling Diana Gabaldon fans might like this. And, if like me, you've enjoyed some of Joan Aiken's adult romantic suspense like Blackground or Beware of the Bouquet/, this should be right down your alley.
Please...if any readers out there can point me to authors who are writing books of this calibre, point me in their direction in the comments!
Cover art: Appropriate, but not compelling. Don't let it sway you away from the novel inside. The book is much more interesting and multi-faceted than the cover art leads you to believe.
This is a drama. It contains romance, and is suspenseful. But it doesn't fit well into any of the boring old genre stereotypes. What it is most similar to, imo, is those old gothic romances. Yet, it's modern, and believable, and I really liked (and respected) the main character. Her pragmatism and dark sense of humor really rang true to her profession as hospice nurse, and I just plain liked her. Her POV was the high point for me.
I really wish I could find more books like this as I am almost entirely burnt out by the stupid and shallow romances I'm coming across lately. (In particular, I mean those that are unsatisfying and, frankly, lazily written.) This is not one of those books. Apart from a few typos scattered throughout, Finney writes compellingly. She knows how to tell a story.
I have a feeling Diana Gabaldon fans might like this. And, if like me, you've enjoyed some of Joan Aiken's adult romantic suspense like Blackground or Beware of the Bouquet/, this should be right down your alley.
Please...if any readers out there can point me to authors who are writing books of this calibre, point me in their direction in the comments!
Cover art: Appropriate, but not compelling. Don't let it sway you away from the novel inside. The book is much more interesting and multi-faceted than the cover art leads you to believe.
February 16, 2020
This unusual contemporary romance is a departure for Finney, who is known for her historical mysteries, which I like very much. This novel begins well enough, but the tone of the book bothered me and the story becomes increasingly unbelievable as it progresses towards a truly bizarre action scene at the end.
Anna is a nurse in Cornwall who cares for terminally ill patients. She is married to a slovenly, clinically depressed writer (of historical mysteries) and possesses two slovenly delinquent teenaged sons. Her life is relentlessly grim, until one day she encounters a mysterious, dodgy man with face tattoos who is visiting one of her patients. They spend some contentious but unexpectedly pleasant time together, and then she learns his identity, and then after a shocking discovery at home she runs away to London with him and becomes immersed in his glamorous life. At this point the story begins to go sour for me, and not only because she abandons her children.
The tattooed man is meant to be an arrogant rake who is reformed by the love of a feisty woman, but I found so much to dislike about him that I was not happy that Anna would continue their relationship under the circumstances she finds in London.
This is told from a first-person POV and Anna often addresses the "dear reader" directly. A lot of her narration is bitter, and much of that is understandable, but some of it is jarring. She resents thin women, and denigrates anyone who eats less heartily than she does. She rants extensively about how much a depressed person inexorably pulls down the people around him. She makes a dig at people who check out books from the library instead of buying them, which sounds like it comes straight from the author.
There’s a certain realism to Finney’s writing which I like, but this particular story did not please me.
Anna is a nurse in Cornwall who cares for terminally ill patients. She is married to a slovenly, clinically depressed writer (of historical mysteries) and possesses two slovenly delinquent teenaged sons. Her life is relentlessly grim, until one day she encounters a mysterious, dodgy man with face tattoos who is visiting one of her patients. They spend some contentious but unexpectedly pleasant time together, and then she learns his identity, and then after a shocking discovery at home she runs away to London with him and becomes immersed in his glamorous life. At this point the story begins to go sour for me, and not only because she abandons her children.
The tattooed man is meant to be an arrogant rake who is reformed by the love of a feisty woman, but I found so much to dislike about him that I was not happy that Anna would continue their relationship under the circumstances she finds in London.
This is told from a first-person POV and Anna often addresses the "dear reader" directly. A lot of her narration is bitter, and much of that is understandable, but some of it is jarring. She resents thin women, and denigrates anyone who eats less heartily than she does. She rants extensively about how much a depressed person inexorably pulls down the people around him. She makes a dig at people who check out books from the library instead of buying them, which sounds like it comes straight from the author.
There’s a certain realism to Finney’s writing which I like, but this particular story did not please me.
March 31, 2022
2022/39: Lucky Woman -- Patricia Finney
This is why middle-aged mothers like I was then go to watch movies like Lord of the Rings or King Alfred or Gladiator, full of noble stoical men who fight and get knocked down and then get up again, about men who are competent, who don’t run away or whine or hide, who keep their promises, whom you can trust. Mythical beasts, of course. [loc. 350]
When I bought this (in 2014) it was entitled Love Without Shadows. As a teenager I'd obsessively reread Finney's two novels about an Irish bard in Roman Britain, A Shadow of Gulls and The Crow Goddess: later, I'd enjoyed her 'Elizabethan noir' novels, Firedrake's Eye and the rest. I was intrigued by what she might do in a contemporary setting -- though, obviously, not intrigued enough to read this novel as soon as I'd bought it...
The setting is, I think, the early years of the 21st century, or possibly the late 1990s. There are mobile phones and VHS tapes and indoor smoking. So much smoking! Anna Clements lives in south Cornwall: she has a husband (successful author of historical fiction, when he's not in the throes of depression) and two teenaged sons, and works as a community nurse, caring for the terminally ill. In her spare time, she's a karate instructor. She's pretty much given up on there being more to life, untilhen a visitor shows up to see one of her terminal cases -- a big guy with a bike and a facial tattoo, whom Anna thinks of as Tattoo -- and Anna finds that there can be more to life after all.
Obviously it's not that simple or straightforward. Tattoo has something of an identity problem, and Anna, though she's tough and competent, does not always act in her own best interests. It turns out that while she's keeping secrets from her family, they're keeping secrets from her, and Tattoo (or whatever his name is) has a few things to sort out before he can be truly honest with Anna.
This wasn't the sweet rural romance I'd expected from the first few chapters: a great deal changes for Anna, and there are some pretty brutal moments. Anna is as self-sufficient as the heroes of the films she loves, and remarkably forthright: we get a lot of her opinions. The story was well-paced until the last 10%, when it all became a bit melodramatic, hectic and over the top. My eye also snagged on a few typos and names spelt differently from one page to the next. Made me want to visit Cornwall again!
Fulfils the Book with an Alternate Title prompt of the '52 books in 2022' challenge.
June 19, 2021
A tae-kwan-do instructor married to a self-absorbed historical novelist supports their family by working as a community nurse caring for the dying in rural Cornwall. When a tattooed biker arrives to help care for a woman dying of cancer, she instinctively mistrusts him, but agrees to allow him to join her evening classes. As she and "Tattoo" find themselves mutually attracted, she discovers her husband cheating on her with a barmaid. Tattoo invites her to run off to London, where she discovers he's an Australian filmstar. By the book's ending she's been offered a job as a stunt coach, fallen in love, delivered a baby in an London alley, and been kidnapped by her estranged husband, who attacks both her and Tattoo, tying them up & setting fire to the house trailer in which he's holding them. A well-written, riveting romance.
September 18, 2021
"Lucky woman" just scratches the surface!
This is a book that grabs you as soon as you read the first page and doesn't let go. I had to read it one go and only got to bed at 2am! It is one that I'll read again and again and see other things. It's funny in places, sad in places and thrilling at the end. Thoroughly recommended.
This is a book that grabs you as soon as you read the first page and doesn't let go. I had to read it one go and only got to bed at 2am! It is one that I'll read again and again and see other things. It's funny in places, sad in places and thrilling at the end. Thoroughly recommended.
September 23, 2021
She’s one lucky woman
All I can say is…if your husband is a schmuck, and your kids are lousy..take the hint already!. But that’s just me…
All I can say is…if your husband is a schmuck, and your kids are lousy..take the hint already!. But that’s just me…
March 21, 2023
Slow start but action packed at the end! I really enjoyed it.
July 30, 2023
Great book
Loved the whole book. Very unexpected! More of the same please. I've only read the historical to date. My library squat
Loved the whole book. Very unexpected! More of the same please. I've only read the historical to date. My library squat
September 5, 2021
Absolutely fantastic
I've been having a hard time lately finding a good book to read. I'd finally gotten to the point where I decided it must be me. And then I found a really good book. I will happily read anything Patricia Finney would care to write. This book is wonderful. And 20 more adjectives, all positive. Doesn't matter what genre you normally read, you'll like this one because it's wonderful.
I've been having a hard time lately finding a good book to read. I'd finally gotten to the point where I decided it must be me. And then I found a really good book. I will happily read anything Patricia Finney would care to write. This book is wonderful. And 20 more adjectives, all positive. Doesn't matter what genre you normally read, you'll like this one because it's wonderful.
May 21, 2016
The multi-talented Patricia Finney produces a contemporary novel every bit as good as her
wonderful historicals.
wonderful historicals.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews