Book review: The Girl Back Home – R.E. Bradshaw

Jamie had it all, a stunning wife, a lucrative job and a luxurious mansion - only to lose it all after an affair with a younger woman. Thrown out of her home and abandoned by her friends, she packed up everything she owned and moved back to the small country town where she grew up. Once there she has her best friend Beth for support, as well as reconnecting with her first ever crush from her youth, a woman she hasn’t seen for 25 years.

Sandy was twenty years old and married with a small child when she met sixteen year old Jamie. Now twenty five years later Jamie is back and this time Sandy can admit to herself that she wants more than friendship. Unfortunately Sandy still has a husband, Jamie is still in love with her ex-wife and Beth is getting suspicious.

This is an interesting book of love between women at the prime of their lives. At seventeen and twenty one, their lives were too far apart to ever contemplate a relationship. Now at forty two and forty six the differences don’t seem as insurmountable. Before that can happen however, Sandy has to sort through her feelings about her marriage and Jamie has to recognise the issues in her past relationship which drove her to the affair. Of course, being a book about the rocky road to love there has to be a lot of drama along the way, yet the characters remain realistic throughout. This book can be long-winded at times but otherwise it’s a good read.

Review by Ida Raine