Our December book club meeting was held at Primavera Italian restaurant and was also our Christmas get together. We all ordered food and drinks and then found out that only five out of ten of us had read this month's book - The Stranger in my Home by Adele Parks. There had been some difficulties in buying the paperback copy, as it doesn't come out until February. After eating a delicious meal we decided to split the group and those of us who had read the book began to discuss it.
We talked about the characters in the book. The main character Alison is faced with the trauma of finding out that her 15 year old daughter was switched at birth and she has been raising someone else's child. Pauline felt that Alison was very overprotective of her daughter because of her own unhappy upbringing. We talked about Alison's feelings of guilt due to her having to give up a child when she was 16.
We all agreed that we had suspicions of Tom. Some of us guessed that he had taken Katherine. However we were not convinced that Olivia's 'pregnancy' was a necessary part of the story. Joan felt that the ending was too much of a happy ending and we agreed that it was too perfect.
The book was easy to read and we could picture the characters easily. The baby swap storyline was a bit far fetched, but it was a good story with a twist. We all agreed that we enjoyed the book. Joanne B said that she was not sure if she would read any other books by the same author. Pauline had read Spare Brides by Adele Parks and said it was OK.
We rated this book 3 1/2 stars.
We had decided at our last meeting that we would give a secret Santa gift of a favourite book. We exchanged these gifts and are all looking forward to reading these in preparation for our January meeting. The books we received are as follows:
Lynda - The Hypnotist's Daughter by Liane Moriaty
Joan - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Susan - Fool Me Once by Harlon Coben
Sharon - The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Jeanette - A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
Emma - Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann
Anne Marie - The Minaturist by Jessie Burton
Joanne - Dissolution by CJ Sansom
Pauline - The White Princess by Philippa Gregory
Joanne - The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I had previously read the book I had received and so I chose to read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce.
Our next meeting will be at Jeanette's home where we will choose our next book.
The Christmas tree at Barter Books, Alnwick
