Tuesday 4 December 2007

It's all about Him by Colette Caddle

(Pocket Books €??)


WORRIED mother Dee has it all together. Her home cooking is selling like hotcakes, and her big house has been turned into a crèche, solving the problems of single parenthood.

She has a nice boyfriend - a farmer who's able to turn his hand to anything - and his parents, happily retured and running a bookshop, love her.

Her son Sam, always sickly with asthma and eczema, is turning into a happy, bouncy kid.

Boyfriend Conor seems committed, but isn't waving any ring boxes under her nose.

Life is going on, fairly ho-hum, with the odd money problem. The only excitement is when a reporter corners Dee in the supermarket and she becomes a local expert on food additives and their effect on vulnerable children who eat packaged foods.

Dee knows her stuff because young Sam reacts dangerously to common additives.

It's a rather sedate story so far.

Then one day in walks Sam's father Neil, an addictive gambler and liar who stole from her and abandoned her when she was pregnant. He promises that he's now reformed.

Dee must choose between the life she's made for herself and the chance of Sam having a real father.

It's all about Him is a slow-moving read, ideal for those who don't want any sudden wild surprises, but like novels of ordinary life.

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