A Love Like No Other by Nicola Gill

Absorbing, Intriguing, Emotional

Contemporary Fiction/Family Drama

‘That’s Just Perfect’ by Nicola Gill 👰🐈

A daughter who feels she has been deserted by everyone, a father who has always shied away from responsibility and difficult situations….and a gullible grandmother who is trying to convince herself that her instincts are right, and that everyone else’s are wrong. Three generations of the same family, neither one willing to reveal their current difficulties to the other, wrapped up entirely in their own situations, not interested in exploring how precarious life has become for their daughter, father, son, mother, grandmother. Each feeling they have a justification to act the way they do, accept what the other is offering, or to demand what they want, with little thought to how their actions may be affecting the other. Will one of them have to reach breaking point before they realise the importance of their bond?

Although I have so far made this book perhaps sound quite sombre and serious, the author does manage to lend a comedic lilt to this narrative in places. Particularly with Ed, who is a bit of a hopeless drifter, albeit with good intentions, divorcing Emily’s Mum, then returning at a time of crisis and leaving again before that time of crisis had come to its inevitable conclusion. Leaving Emily as a young adult to put herself and her life back together, has left their relationship broken and stilted, apart from when alcohol comes into play. Both father and daughter seeking to forget about their tragedies for an evening, only to have find them multiplied the next morning. When Ed presents himself on her doorstep, forty eight hours after another key person in his daughter’s life has departed with little explanation, and she is fearful that her job maybe at risk, she is not in the head space required to deal with his flippant approach to life and suspects that there is more to his visit than just a passing partiality to exercise his paternal instincts. In this assumption, she isn’t wrong, as Ed is facing financial ruin and is hoping that by making amends with Emily, his mother Liz, may be more amenable to assisting him with the latest in a long line of, but perhaps the most serious of his cash flow crises to date. Together with his incorrect assumptions about Emily, brought about by her deciding not to appraise him of the latest happenings in her life, he assumes that the current state of play still remains as it was the last time they spoke, and that the only right and proper thing to do is to fulfil his fatherly duties, even if it means spending money he doesn’t have, plus seven days to ensure that his condo that he part owns with girlfriend Shona in Tampa, Florida, isn’t repossessed. Ed is also unaware of just what his mother Liz, has been up to. Temporarily residing in a residential home and having been encouraged by her best friend Judith to dabble in online dating, she has met and fallen for Peter. A successful businessman with the main hub of his property empire sited in Spain, the couple had been planning for him to settle in England with Liz in her bungalow, the former home of her and her long since departed husband, Ed’s father. However, life had had other plans and Liz had fallen over (not had a fall, as the carers in the home were keen on labelling it, making her feel old), and Peter had had to fly to America for a family emergency. It is at this time that he asks Liz to lend him money. Liz is so besotted by her new online love, that she eagerly agrees, but as she reveals what she has done when Judith visits, who is extremely sceptical about the man that Liz has yet to meet in person, the doubts start creeping in for the independent, yet stubborn matriarch. Just how far will Emily continue with her charade and how much longer can Ed keep up his pretence and placate the woman he loves...and how will Liz react when she delves deeper into Peter’s nefarious dealings?

A dramatic, intricately woven psychological family drama that takes the reader through all the emotions, a novel that I personally, found hard to put down. The culmination to Liz’s story was a little disappointing as I expected it to demonstrate the strong willed lady that I perceived her to be, and it took a much more dramatic turn than I was expecting. All in all though, a gripping, thought provoking read.