New Beginnings by Fern Britton

3 Star

Christie Lynch′s life is about to change - for ever.
A journalist and single mother of two, she can′t believe her luck when she is spotted by a talent agent during an appearance on daytime TV show, Tart Talk.
Soon the nation′s sweetheart, Christie can′t help but love her new job and, for the first time in years, she can mend her leaking roof and buy her kids, Libby and Freddie, a few treats. But as her career soars, Christie′s forced to spend more and more time away from her kids and from Richard - the gorgeous single dad she recently met at the school gate.
Can Christie find a way to balance her role as a mother with her increasingly demanding job? And will she make it in the cut-throat world of TV? Whatever happens, Christie′s going to give it all she′s got...

Amazon Kindle Kobo Nook

Kathryn - 3 Star

I picked up New Beginnings in England during my visit this fall and had never read anything of Britton’s before but was attracted to the cover as well as the synopsis on the back!

I found the dynamic of the family convincing and was happy that there seemed to be some distance between the death of the father and the present storyline and yet his passing was not completely glossed over.

The mother and daughter links were especially good, I appreciated the one between Christie and her mother, the frustration between them being simply because they are completely different personalities (from an outsider’s perspective this is obvious).  It was good to have their miscommunications next to Christie and her own daughter- having them side by side actually made the latter seem a lot easier to handle.  I also loved Christie and her sister, obviously they’re very close and loving but they fall out typically in a moment of frustration, and make up just as easily.  They made me smile.

The career storyline for Christie was actually a good percentage of the novel- the balance between her work and her home was well done and her conflict between tending to the two was obvious.  New Beginnings was a good who-done-it type of aspect to her agent also which definitely gave the whole novel some bulk as I found the romantic plotline a little obvious.