This paperback was given to me by my daughter-in-law who has already read and enjoyed it. The book has travelled to the Maldives and back on 6 aircraft plus a few buses and boats.

It tells the story of 21 year old Joy who meets and marries a handsome naval officer in 1950's Hong Kong. She quickly leaves to travel the world but soon discovers that married life is not all that it seems...….

REVIEW:-" In general I really enjoyed this book which was very good for a debut novel. I felt it was a little over-long and also over dramatic as so many different problems were played out between the three generations of women. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been written in chronological order as lots of jumping around in time confuses and annoys me. It sounded very stilted when Sabine -a modern young lady- referred to her grandparents as grandmother and grandfather. Almost like Little Red Riding Hood!
Having said all the above I did enjoy the book and have previously read and really appreciated several later novels by this author. It was well worth a read.

This book will be sent to ChocBrownie as part of the Wishlist Tag game.

To the finder:-
Welcome to bookcrossing -you have found a travelling book. Please make a journal entry now to say where you found the book in case it has been moved. Then, when you have read it, please come back and make a further entry saying whether or not you enjoyed the book and why. It is now yours to do as you like with it, pass it to a friend or just leave it somewhere different for someone else to find and help it with its' journey. Of course if you can't bear to part with it at the moment then keep it, but please let me know that you have found it. If you join bookcrossing, which is free and spam-free, you can follow the book on its' travels as you will get an email each time it changes hands, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too. Please also say what you intend to do with the book next. Thanks for coming onto the site to let me know you have found the book.

I already have books travelling in many countries around the world-a list can be found on my bookcrossing profile.

When re-releasing this book please be aware that airports are not a good place to leave books unless they have a specific book exchange shelf or area, due to security problems, so they may well just be disposed of. Also charity shops may well discard books that have been labelled in any way and they mostly chose only the books in the very best condition
to place on their shelves and discard the rest-so another bad release option.

Just arrived. Thanks daffodil-2 😃

I agree with daffodil-2 that Jojo Moyes later books are better than this debut, however I still enjoyed it. Moyes relays the non-pc times in 1950s Hong Kong and incorporates the controversial topic of fox hunting which is still legal in Ireland (it was banned in England in 2004, 2 years after this was published) where the modern half of the story takes part. Would Sabine, a vegetarian, really have given in to taking part in a hunt so easily?

Posted to another bookcrosser who had it on their wishlist - enjoy!

Thank you so much for this wishlist book!

It took me a while to get into this book, probably because I was expecting something like Jojo Moyes’ later books. Not that this debut is completely different, but doesn’t read as easily as, for instance Me Before You.

It is the story of 3 generations of women in an Irish house. Changing back and forth between flashbacks of Joy, the grandmother, and current life of Sabine, the granddaughter, you unravel how everyone ended up in their current emotional situation. I liked the characters, although I personally felt very little sympathy for Kate, the mother. I felt very strongly that this woman should be less egocentric and put the needs for her kid first, providing a safe and stabile home.

I liked how the story enfolded in the end, with some unexpected twists in the flashback story. I wished this happened earlier in the book, as I felt the first half really lacked in pace and the last 50 pages were racing through all kinds of big life events and revelations.

I picked this book for the winner of the Weather sweeps, mainly because I saw that there was another Jojo Moyes book on their wishlist. I know the profile said that Romance books were not preferred, but this book is about complicated family relations & family history. It is definitely not a "boy-meets-girl" kind of novel (I wanted to specify this, because the cover looks like a typical chicklit, but I don't think it is), even though it starts off with the grandmother meeting her husband. So hold on after you finish reading the first chapter :)

Hope you enjoy this book and the others you will recieve!

I always try to post my controlled releases with real stamps. If you are not a collector yourself, you might want to check out this post on the forum about a stamps sweeps that I organised (now closed) or this one about Bookcrossers who collect stamps. A lot of Bookcrossers collect stamps for charity, so it’s nice to find them a good home!

Thank you for sending me this Book, I've unfortunately already read this book as part of the book club I'm a member of so will release it soon.

When I did read this book I found it very thought provoking and a very emotional roller coaster

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***Please Note***
When re-releasing this book please be aware that airports are not a good place to leave books unless they have a specific book exchange shelf or area, due to security problems, so they may well just be disposed of.

**** Also charity shops may well discard books that have been labelled in any way and they mostly chose only the books in the very best condition to place on their shelves and discard the rest-so another bad release option. ****