Ignoring Gravity – Sandra Danby

Contemporary Fiction
4*’s

I first read some excerpts of this novel on Sandra Danby’s blog and when she got news that this was going to be published she kindly offered me a copy to review, thank you Sandra.

This is Rose Haldane’s story, she is a journalist at the Herald her articles being chiefly of the filler type on beauty products and female medical issues, but Rose has ambition despite her boss’s determination to not only get her name wrong but put her down at every opportunity, even more so when she insults him in front of the team.

Six months after Rose and Lily’s mother Diane dies, they go around to their parent’s home to go through her things for their father John. Going through a box on top of the wardrobe they find some diaries, a flick through these shows that Rose was adopted. This is a huge shock to both women they realise that their differences of opinion on so many subjects are because they are not sisters at all.

Sandra Danby writes a tale that is as much about relationships as it is about Rose’s search for her parentage, a search that quickly becomes an obsession. The relationship between Lily and Rose is subtly altered by this new information and while Lily is trapped in a cycle of longing for a baby Rose is placed in the unenviable position of replacing her mother as a sounding board, a job she feels unequal to not least because Diane and Rose had an uneasy relationship. Could the fact that she was adopted explain this?

Both Rose and Lily are likable characters whilst not being of the sickly sweet variety and combined with a pace that was just right for this kind of tale made for an enjoyable read. The discoveries made by Rose, her relationship with her colleagues as well as a newly-fledged romantic liaison felt entirely realistic. I loved Rose’s desperation to find out more both through the diaries and by interviewing friends of her mother, again a reaction that felt natural. Even better the author allows the reader to put themselves into the character’s shoes, thereby allowing the reading to feel smooth without endless emphasis on how Rose is feeling, what she is thinking etc.

With the contrast between her mother’s life in the sixties and Rose’s in the present day along with a number of twists and turns this was an emotional and enjoyable tale and one that I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read. If this sounds like a tale you would enjoy Ignoring Gravity was published yesterday 21 November 2014 at a bargain price in e-book format at Amazon. The physical copies of this book will be available in January 2015.

I was delighted to hear that Sandra Danby has been working hard with the next two books in this series underway. The next book in the ‘Rose Haldane: Identity Detective’ series, Connectedness, is a sequel to Ignoring Gravity, in which Rose Haldane travels from Yorkshire to Malaga, Spain, in pursuit of the birth child of controversial artist Justine Tree. Connectedness will be published in 2015, followed by the third in the series Sweet Joy in 2016 and I for one am looking forward to these.

Links
Watch Sandra Danby talk about Ignoring Gravity at You Tube:
Watch the book trailer for Ignoring Gravity at You Tube
Link up with Sandra Danby via Twitter: @SandraDanby
Or if you prefer at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sandradanbyauthor