Review by Manali_DC -- Small Change by Keddie Hughes
Posted: 12 Dec 2019, 13:32
[Following is a volunteer review of "Small Change" by Keddie Hughes.]
Sometimes it is the smallest decisions that can change your life forever! That decision to meet someone new, the decision to remain silent about an incident, or the decision to have just one drink too many can all come together and set your life on a completely different course. Small Changes by Keddie Hughes is one such novel about the upheavals in an ordinary woman's life.
Izzy is forty-two years old and lives a quiet, comfortable life in Glasgow with her husband, Jim, and son, Dave. After years of domesticity and catering to the needs of a family, Izzy decides to go back to college and get a degree. She also starts volunteering part-time at the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Set in the background of the true events surrounding the scandal involving a major football club, the story is about the fictional Campbell family and how their lives are affected by it. When Jim's company lands a major business deal with the Rangers Football Club, he is elated with his success and very dismissive of the rumors suggesting the Club's bankruptcy. However, Jim has a drinking problem severe enough to cloud his judgment. Izzy, on the other hand, is not so easily convinced about the health of the club's fortunes. Her chance meeting with Sean Docherty, a journalist investigating the Rangers Club, further strengthens her misgivings. She volunteers to help Sean with his investigations, and as the wife of a close business associate of the Club, she is uniquely placed to do so.
Will Izzy be able to unearth any concrete evidence against the Club? Is she prepared to deal with whatever she finds? With Jim's drinking problem taking an ugly turn, Dave planning to leave home and her relationship with Sean deepening into something more than friendship, Izzy finds herself in unchartered waters.
This book is a beautifully written story about the life of an ordinary woman who finds the strength and courage to deal with the unexpected challenges life throws at her. The strength of the story is in the familiarity and the ordinariness of Izzy Campbell- she could be you or me or any woman we see around us each day. Calm, quiet and steady, Izzy is a very likable and relatable character. It is slightly more difficult to like or sympathize with Jim - his drinking habits, his gambling and his neglect of his family just make the reader more sympathetic towards Izzy. Sean is an interesting character who seems to bring out both the best and the worst in Izzy!
With the drama surrounding the football club scandal, and a fair amount of Scottish politics and football rivalry thrown into the mix, the story makes for an interesting read. It is very well edited and I hardly found any grammatical errors. This book has something for everybody, but it would especially appeal to women readers. I give Small Changes] 4 out of 4 stars as I truly enjoyed reading this book and did not find anything I particularly disliked.
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Small Change
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Sometimes it is the smallest decisions that can change your life forever! That decision to meet someone new, the decision to remain silent about an incident, or the decision to have just one drink too many can all come together and set your life on a completely different course. Small Changes by Keddie Hughes is one such novel about the upheavals in an ordinary woman's life.
Izzy is forty-two years old and lives a quiet, comfortable life in Glasgow with her husband, Jim, and son, Dave. After years of domesticity and catering to the needs of a family, Izzy decides to go back to college and get a degree. She also starts volunteering part-time at the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Set in the background of the true events surrounding the scandal involving a major football club, the story is about the fictional Campbell family and how their lives are affected by it. When Jim's company lands a major business deal with the Rangers Football Club, he is elated with his success and very dismissive of the rumors suggesting the Club's bankruptcy. However, Jim has a drinking problem severe enough to cloud his judgment. Izzy, on the other hand, is not so easily convinced about the health of the club's fortunes. Her chance meeting with Sean Docherty, a journalist investigating the Rangers Club, further strengthens her misgivings. She volunteers to help Sean with his investigations, and as the wife of a close business associate of the Club, she is uniquely placed to do so.
Will Izzy be able to unearth any concrete evidence against the Club? Is she prepared to deal with whatever she finds? With Jim's drinking problem taking an ugly turn, Dave planning to leave home and her relationship with Sean deepening into something more than friendship, Izzy finds herself in unchartered waters.
This book is a beautifully written story about the life of an ordinary woman who finds the strength and courage to deal with the unexpected challenges life throws at her. The strength of the story is in the familiarity and the ordinariness of Izzy Campbell- she could be you or me or any woman we see around us each day. Calm, quiet and steady, Izzy is a very likable and relatable character. It is slightly more difficult to like or sympathize with Jim - his drinking habits, his gambling and his neglect of his family just make the reader more sympathetic towards Izzy. Sean is an interesting character who seems to bring out both the best and the worst in Izzy!
With the drama surrounding the football club scandal, and a fair amount of Scottish politics and football rivalry thrown into the mix, the story makes for an interesting read. It is very well edited and I hardly found any grammatical errors. This book has something for everybody, but it would especially appeal to women readers. I give Small Changes] 4 out of 4 stars as I truly enjoyed reading this book and did not find anything I particularly disliked.
******
Small Change
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon