The Ludlow Ladies Society by Ann O'Loughlin

I was completely taken by surprise by this book, when I first started reading I thought it was going to be a bit of a miserable read but I soon got completely sucked in to this fictional world.  Yes, a lot has happened to these women and not every negative is turned in to a positive, the author allows their trauma to affect them and leave wounds and scars whilst still giving the reader a sense of hope.

The conceit to bring them together is the creation of the Memory Quilts for the Rosdaniel Fair and as a device it works beautifully.  It allows Hetty to finally open up about the reality of her marriage, Eve to move on from her husband's suicide when they lose Ludlow Hall and for Connie to start coming to turns with the loss of her daughter Molly.  Each of the three suffered in their marriages, each being abused in different ways, but have outlived their husbands and are struggling to forge forward with life.

This could have been an entirely depressing tale but somehow the author makes it feel uplifting and generates a real sense of hope that the future can be better.  It's not an easy journey for any of them but for Connie and Eve they really go through the wringer as new facts to light that send their accepted views of the world in a tailspin.  With the support of each other and, to a lesser extent, the Ludlow Ladies Society, they manage to exorcise some of their demons and start to move forward.  Poor Hetty doesn't seem to want to move any further forward but she does seem to be content in her new, solo life and that's okay too.

Told at a gentle pace you have to wait for each of the women to reveal their particular heartbreaks.  There are a couple of "surprises" along the way that the reader does see coming (or at least has an inkling about them) but I never felt cheated by the obvious being revealed.  The story itself grips you and the leisurely pacing makes it somehow more absorbing, allowing you to feel that you really get to know the characters along the way.

Ann O'Loughlin was a completely new author to me and I am so glad I stumbled across this book.  I am now going to have to take a look at her previous books as if this is indicative of the quality of her writing how could I not?