Bronwen’s historical romances always make the top of my reading list!

This tale is poignant, heartwarming and readers may be reaching for the Kleenex once or twice before the breathtaking ending

A page-turning, sensual adventure

Vibrant and compelling - Dinah Jefferies perfectly captures the flavour of colonial Ceylon

I was spellbound from beginning to end

A wonderful book, deeply touching and an unforgettable read that swept me away. I loved it.

Dark secrets lie at every turn, hidden beneath layers of 1920s racism and the fearfulness of a crumbling colonial power, making for a thoroughly gripping tale. But what I loved most of all. . . is the moving way in which Dinah writes about the loss of children and the redemptive power of love.

A terrific emotional and atmospheric read

Deeply atmospheric and utterly engrossing

Rich and incredibly evocative, historical fiction at its best...it's just spellbinding

A full-blown escape into the past

A gripping tale of love, jealousy, greed and tragedy

Brilliant story about love, secrets and lies

An easy, relaxing read, perfect for a sunny afternoon

Fans of Marian Keyes and Cecelia Ahern will love Lucy Robinson's giggle-inducing humour, relatable characters and her ability to tackle tough topics in the most engaging way. With a twist that will leave you speechless, The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson is a must

Magnificent…a luminary of historical fiction…writing history from the margins, the personal stories behind the era, she delivers profound, poignant stories that stir the emotions.

All the intensity and lyricism of Hope’s debut, Wake

The Ballroom confirms her as a novelist of immense power...Exquisitely good. Sensitive, engrossing and highly recommended

The Ballroom is a beautiful, gripping, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking book. I was so enthralled, I read it in an evening, unwilling to put it down.

An atmospheric and thought provoking love story

An absorbing read from beginning to end . . . I'm already excited to see what Anna Hope does next.

This novel is at once romantic, thought-provoking and extremely poignant, with a rich narrative and an ending that moved me to tears

Gripping final chapters ramp up the suspense towards a hearth-wrenching conclusion ...explores the tensions and trials of the human condition with grace and insight.

Absolutely fantastic . . . I'm in real awe of her writing.

Fates and Furies is a dazzling novel, its people and its prose wondrously alive from page one. At once intimate and sweeping, this is the story of a marriage as parallel myths-- flaring with passion and betrayal, with redemption and retribution, with the sort of heart-breaking, head-slapping secrets that make you want to seek out someone else who's read it. Lauren Groff is a powerful and graceful writer, one of the best of her generation.

Audacious and gorgeous…Deliciously voyeuristic but also wise on the simultaneous comforts and indignities of romantic partnership…In her previous work Groff proved herself a deft prose stylist, translating the familiar into the remarkable and transcendent. Fates and Furies further showcases this talent…In Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff has taken the struggles and pleasures of marriage and turned them into art, and in that artfulness she reminds us of the dangers and omissions that any storytelling requires.

Fates and Furies is devastatingly good, with the most satisfying ending I've read in a long time. The writing is gorgeous, the plot twisting, and the characters are almost too real – the only thing that keeps it from being the Platonic ideal of a novel is that it can only be read for the first time once. The only response that seemed sufficient in the hours after finishing it was to send several dozen roses, a cake, and my heart to Lauren Groff.

[Fates and Furies is] an engrossing portrayal of a marriage and of life – or how a marriage impacts a life – and is packaged into a deeply poetic and engaging novel of two halves… With frequent asides and a love letter to literature, theatre and art in its pages, Lauren Groff has created something truly incredible… It’s a clever, thought-provoking novel that questions the very notion of how possible it is to ever know someone entirely, all told in such a beautifully crafted way that I’m sure many new readings will be found with each much-deserved re-read.

In a swirling miasma of language, plot, and Greek mythology, Groff weaves a fierce and gripping tale of true love gone asunder…Groff's prose is variously dewy, defiant, salacious, and bleak – a hurricane of words thrown together on every page. Yet so much of the power in this book lies in what's unspoken…It's an intoxicating elixir.

Fates and Furies will keep you gripped until the end. It’s a fascinating study of how relationships are sustained and sacrificed…it is sumptuously written at every turn. For an autumn read to get firmly stuck into, look no further.

An absorbing story of a modern marriage framed in Greek mythology. Groff’s sharply drawn portrait of a marriage begins on a cold Maine beach, with newlyweds “on their knees, now, though the sand was rough and hurt. It didn’t matter. They were reduced to mouths and hands.” This opener ushers in an ambitious, knowing novel besotted with sex – in a kaleidoscope of variety – much more abundant than the commune-dwellers got up to in Groff’s luminous Arcadia (2012). The story centers first on Lancelot “Lotto” Satterwhite, a dashing actor at Vassar, who marries his classmate, flounders, then becomes a famous playwright. Lotto’s name evokes the lottery – and the Fates, as his half of the book is titled. His wife, the imperial and striking Mathilde, takes over the second section, Furies, astir with grief and revenge. The plotting is exquisite, and the sentences hum; Groff writes with a pleasurable, bantering vividness . . . An intricate plot, perfect title, and a harrowing look at the tie that binds.

Fates and Furies captures the vagaries of passion and marriage in ebullient prose.

Like a classic tragedy, Groff’s novel offers high drama, hubris, and epic love, complete with Greek chorus–like asides. A singular and compelling literary read, populated with extraordinary characters; highly recommended.

Comparisons to Gone Girl seem on the surface to fit perfectly. We have a golden couple, Lotto and Mathilde, we have a dark past – like Amy, Lotto is an heir to a large fortune. Yet Fates and Furies is far more subtle – Groff is considering the very nature of story-telling itself… I was reminded more than anything of Macarthy’s The Group... The fates and furies who narrate the novel are never intrusive, their interventions are rare and they pass on the whole unnoticed, but I felt that this worked better than a more grandiose presence might have done. Through them, Groff channels a grace for her protagonists – this is not a story of heroes and villains but rather of humans who long to be better than they are.

An exploration of marriage that turns expectations upside down, all told through the snarkiest omniscient narrator since Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.

A really powerful novel

Fates and Furies is a lyrical and, at times, astonishingly beautiful account of how little it is possible to know about those closest to us

[An] edgy symphony.

[An] ingenious novel…buttressed by real emotional power.

There are two sides to every story and the author delivers both of them with brilliant authenticity. A must read.

My favourite book of 2015 was Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies (although I’m sure lots of people will pick this one!). I was given it by a friend and devoured it in two days. I felt as though I could have gone on reading it forever.

Fascinating...a joy to read.

A truly brilliant book which I completely fell in love with.

A forensic dissection of marriage, lyrically told.