HOW DOES SHE DO IT?! Amanda Prowse has once again written a wonderfully evocative book that feels as though she has delved into my soul, creating characters and scenarios that will speak to so many women out there. Be warned that the tears will fall and for me personally, a scene at about 60% into the storyline absolutely broke me.

Rae-Valentine is a woman that I know many of us will relate to. The “girl in the corner”, the people pleaser who hates confrontation and is always there for her family, putting their happiness at the top of her priorities. But Rae-Valentine discovers something terrible on the night of her 25th wedding anniversary that sends her off on a journey of “self rediscovery” with her very best friend Dolly. And as she relaxes, looking back at the decisions she has made during her life, she re-evaluates the person she has become versus the woman she thought she would be.

Every woman will take something from this insightful domestic drama. Amanda Prowse has an in-depth understanding of how women react to the various ups and downs of married life and is able to portray the full spectrum of emotions that come with relationships. She creates relatable and realistic characters and is able to weave convincingly authentic plots around them. But what she does best is being able to pull out all those feelings in her readers that they didn’t even know were hiding in them! And this is why she is the First Lady of contemporary women’s fiction! For me personally, it was like looking at my own experiences reflected back at me and that hit me hard! I think that’s why I wanted more for Rae, for her to break out of her mould and create the life that would mean putting herself first-with or without the people who have always surrendered her.

I loved this book. It’s probably my most favourite that Amanda Prowse has written in recent years and I had a major book hangover when I finished it. Plus very red eyes!

Highly recommended by me!

Really enjoyed this book - definitely could empathise with Rae - Valentine and many of the relationships issues involved. Good narrative with a twist in the tale at the last moment.

I am sorry to say that I found this book very disappointing. It is a story about the minutiae of family life but is really just a few characters repeating the same thoughts and feelings many times through out the book. I would not have continued if I hadn't agreed to read this for Netgalley. I feel that nothing happens and I just wanted to get it finished.
Hard for me to recommend this.

Well I quite liked it. But I didn’t love it.
Rae Valent8ne describes herself as the quiet, shy socially anxious girl in the corner. Then she meets the vivacious Dolly on her first day in college. And eventually marries Dolly’s brother Howard and she ge5s absorbed into Latimer family life. Which she loves. But then she finds out Howard has cheated so goes on holiday with Dolly to decide what she wants. Etc etc etc. It’s too too long. It’s not a happy book. I usually enjoy this authors writing but this one? Not so much

Loved this book About a mother who loved her family did everything for her family to be devasted by a secret . A book about love, loyalty & friendship and how one secret can spoil everything .

Something a little different from Amanda but it still had her honest, heart warming yet heart breaking feel to it.. probably why I loved it as much as I always love reading her books! A 180 twist topped it off.

Fabulous book. I bumbed The Girl in the Corner up my Netgalley TBR list realising that the Kindle version was released a couple of days ago ahead of the paperback on 20th December. So very pleased that I did. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Amanda Prowse is so gifted in the way she presents characters. I felt I knew them, and felt for them throughout. Highly recommend The Girl in the Corner.

Rae and Howard - happily married for 25 years. Until the night of their anniversary party when Howard confesses to a two week fling with another woman. What should Rae do? Forgive or move on?

A great real life story which makes you wonder what you’d do in the same situation. Great read and a great ending

Another best seller from Amanda. I loved her style of writing. Its a book that many of us can relate to personally as we all have at one time sacrificed a lot us for other people and then left with a feeling that somewhere along the line we have lost a bit of ourselves and have trouble recognising the new person standing in front of us in the mirror.

Thanks Netgalley, Publisher and the Author. This was an entertaining love story with some great characters.

Another masterpiece by Amanda Prowse. The plot is simple, family, best friends and betrayal. The characters are rich and full bodied, thoroughly likeable and real. For me this is a tale of self discovery, and of female empowerment. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the diverse relationships the main characters has with her different family members, her husband and with herself. A brilliant read and as with all of Amanda Prowse's books there is pain but always positivity. I didn't want this book to end..

Another wonderful book from Amanda Prowse. Well written and captures the dynamics of a loud extrovert family who fully absorb any quieter people, who enter into the family, to their way of life. The closeness of the boisterous family cover any cracks that are there but they are controlling and used to things going their way. I can certainly relate to Rae, the main character as the quiet girl married into this tumultuous family, she's in awe and wants to fit in with the family she's found herself in rather than follow her innermost voice and dreams. The doesn't question and is glad to be accepted. As a result she's put upon, always to be relied on and, although, much loved my everyone begins to question her role and future after secrets, threatening her comfortable security of marriage, are revealed.

Deserves to be another bestseller from this author.

Lovely, lovely story that needs to be read by everyone! This author has delivered a big hit yet again. Definitely recommended to those readers who enjoy reading this type of story.

I love the storyline of being the quiet one who eventually steps into her own confidence and adventure but only after alot of serious thinking.

I stayed up till the early hours to finish this book to see how it ends

This is a beautifully written novel which understands the complexities of family life and how the things we do make it work or collapse. 

Rae is sympathetically drawn; a mum who thinks she has married her one true love and had twenty five wonderful years with many more to come. She has sadnesses in her life but knows she can cope with most things with her husband Howard and her sister in law and best friend Dolly's support. Then her world falls apart and she is shocked to discover she knows as little about her family as they do her.

This is a tale of self discovery in which the heroine doesn't come out all guns blazing but instead takes the baby steps most of us would find the most manageable in these circumstances. There were many parts which resonated with me and in none of them did I find myself disagreeing with Rae's choices.  It made me cheer for and sympathise with her in equal measure and I felt happy for her at the end as she put her decisions into practice with a hard won confidence in her future and those of the family she loved.

I was able to read an advanced copy of the book thanks to Netgalley in return for an unbiased review and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys family based stories with considerately written characters, satisfying storylines, and a reason to cheer for the underdog.

Rae-Valentine met her husband through her best friend, Dolly. Dolly knew that her best friend and her brother would hit it off, and she was right. Rae and her husband have been married for twenty-five years and have two children together. After anniversary party, Howard drops a bombshell on Rae. His shocking betrayal leaves Rae reeling. She is shocked, hurt, angry and sad.

Shocked and heartbroken, Rae looks back on not only her marriage but the things she gave up when she got married at the age of eighteen. Needing some time apart to think, Rae goes on the trip to Antigua, not with Hoard as planned but with his sister and her best friend, Dolly. The two friend’s reminiscence and talk about their lives. Dolly can see that Rae is troubled and eventually the truth comes out.

This was a very fast captivating read that gripped me right away. Prowse knows how to grab the heartstrings and she does so in this case. I immediately felt for Rae and her situation. I was invested in learning what decisions/choices she would make. This is a book that while I was reading, I also wondered what I would do in that situation. What choices would I make? I appreciated that Prowse had Rae taking the time to think. I also found the conversations between Rae and Dolly to be realistic. There is shock, anger and hurt there as well. Rae needs the support of her best friend. A best friend who is the sister of the man who hurt her. Dolly is put in a situation to want to support her best friend while at the same time root for her brother. This made for some sticky and emotion filled exchanges. How will this affect their friendship?

This was a well written book about love, loss, friendship, family and following your dreams. A fast read that evokes emotion and left me questioning what I would do. I thought I knew how this book was going to end and I was wrong. Another book where I can say that I did not see that coming.

Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinion expressed in this review are my own.

Another couldn't put it down story from the wonderful Amanda Prowse. I've loved every one since I read my first, What Have I Done, almost 6 years

Rae-Valentine (love the quirky name), like all of Amanda's characters, could be any one of us at a cross roads in life and not knowing which way to go.

You had me sobbing again Amanda, but nothing beats a good cry and I didn't expect but loved the ending!

What sounded like a great story, sadly I really struggled, it's lacked something but I'm not sure what, I couldn't take to any of the characters and felt the story wasn't going anywhere.

I like Amanda Prowse as an author but this one had something lacking for me. I did not fully connect with the characters and only really engaged in the story over half way through. The ending was unbelievable in my opinion. I would still read her next novel as I usually enjoy them.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.

Rae-Valentine and her husband married at 18. As a quiet shy girl marrying into the crazy, loud, wealthy Lattimer family, Rae is bedazzled by the lifestyle. Rae and Howard have a rock solid, dependable, loving marriage. And over the years, Rae falls into a routine, becoming the selfless, tireless, reliable, "answer to everyone's problems" mum, wife, aunt, sister and daughter, forgetting herself and her own needs in the midst of it all. Celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, a bombshell is dropped on Rae that rocks her entire world, and her belief in herself. Can she come back from it?

I have to say I am an absolute whirlwind of emotion having finished The Girl in the Corner. This book made me laugh and made me cry several times. I am sure many passengers on my commute will admit, crying on the bus on the way home from work is not a good look!

I sometimes think that certain books come into our lives for a reason and when I started reading "The Girl in the Corner" that is exactly how I felt about Rae-Valentine's story on a personal level. I identified with Rae a lot and her story touched me in a way that I haven't experienced in a while. Her decisions throughout the book, how she handles the "bombshell", her need to find the way back to herself, to have a label other than "mum", "wife", etc., her feeling like a bit of a doormat and rebelling against that a little, is something we can all identify with from time to time. I enjoyed Dolly as a character too, but at times felt like I wanted to shout at her, "give Rae a chance to think for herself"!!

Ultimately though, Rae-Valentine is a kind, generous, care-giving person who is left reeling from the shock to her world, and without giving too much of the story away, Amanda Prowse has written a beautiful story that reminds us all to not lose hope, to stick with our dreams as it is never too late, to have courage and faith that it will all work out the way it is meant to, to remain true to ourselves and to celebrate that which we hold dear as it could all be gone in an instant. Loved it.