Thank you for the copy and opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately I struggled to finish it, I’ll be coming back to it again at a later date

A slow moving book with multitude of characters where I got to see their life and understand their ways of being. I liked Eleanor whose husband Roger was an absolute boor whom I hated.

My first book by the author, I read the story in bits and pieces. The concept was nice, the writing flowed well. I couldn't connect to the characters, but I found the story okay.

Overall, a good read.

3☆ An Endearing Women's Fiction.


Growing Up For Beginners is a story about relationships and family.

I had mixed feelings about this book.
I did enjoy it, but it took me a really long time to get into the storyline due to how many characters there are and the slower pace the story unfolds at.

Each of the characters have a connection in some way, However some of the story is set in the past and I did get way laid a little.

Not all of the characters are likeable especially Roger who I simply despised the whole time, the way he treated Eleanor was shocking... I mean who cuts pages out of a book just to stop their wife reading a certain way!

Eleanor I felt sorry for, she was in a demeaning marriage, in the middle of everyone, trying to please, but she does grow in confidence standing up to Roger and that was wonderful to see.

Growing Up For Beginners is an endearing story about family, relationships, connections, loss, secrets, drama and moving on.
The characters were well written, complex and not all particularly likeable, but I'm guessing I'm not going to be the only one who despised Roger lol
I would definitely recommend reading this book, especially if you enjoy your Women's Fiction to be very Character driven, with a slower pace.


Thank you to Rachel Random Resources for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

I've had to give up on this book, i'm afraid.

At first, although the main characters didn't really have an obvious link to each other, I thought it wouldn't be too long before it all started to come together.

Unfortunately before I could get much further, I became terribly frustrated by far too many characters to be able to hold off and wait for this.

I'm sure that this book deserves all of the praise that has been delivered but sadly, I just couldn't get into it.

This book didn’t go the way I expected it to, and actually it was a better book because it didn’t. There was a lot of depth to it that I hadn’t expected. We spend time with Eleanor, Andrew and Cecilia, watching how they live their lives. Particularly in the case of both Eleanor and Andrew who have had recent changes to their lives and it’s interesting to see how they deal with these.

The story moves at a steady pace which is good as you actually get the sense of the changes happening over a period of time. I really liked the way Roger was written, he is domineering and controlling and it came across really well. As did the troubles Andrew had adjusting to living with his parents again. The characters are all really well portrayed and while I don’t feel the book needs a sequel I did find myself wanting an update on how everyone is doing.

I found this a really thought provoking story on many levels. It showed, above anything, that it’s never too late to make changes to your life and age should never be a barrier to starting something new or rediscovering something from your past.

Firstly I would like to thank Boldwood Books and Claire Calman for my gifted digital copy of Growing Up For Beginners. And, to Rachel for organising the blog tour.

This is my first Claire Calman book, and it won't be my last. Her writing style is effortless and so fluid to follow. With a plethora of characters in the storyline Claire makes light work of building up and developing their stories. I loved how each characters story started to entwine with each other. And, it was great to see the connections form.

At the start of Growing Up For Beginners we meet Eleanor, and I'm sorry to say I took an instant dislike to her for her reading quirk. But, that soon changed as I got to know her better. Eleanor finds herself at a junction in her life where she doesn't really know what next to do. Her children have flown the nest and it's just her and her husband, Roger left in the house. I'll put it out there now that Roger made my blood boil. And, the more I got to know him the more I wanted to throttle him. I struggled to see how Eleanor could stand by her man, so to speak. But, when we get flashback stories to her childhood and her relationship with her mother it kind of starts becoming clear why she allows such things to happen.

Conrad, Eleanor's father is another character that we follow in Growing Up For Beginners. He was polar opposite to Roger, and it was nice to see the two differences in male characters, I also love the tension between these two. Conrad, has a good work ethic, and also believes his daughter Eleanor is holding back and not allowing herself to do what she wants.

We get a past narrative for Conrad also. And, here the secrets start to uncover. We see a different side to Conrad, and I really liked the development of this secret that he harbours. And, the secret lies within a painting that has hung on his wall for years.

Andrew, who has just split from his girlfriend finds himself back living with his parents. Who might I add are the best characters ever. They reminded me of the Buckets from Keeping Up Appearances. Mrs Tyler is definitely the boss in that household and Ron just follows suit to keep the peace. I thought it was genius that we never got to know Andrews mother's name.

And our final character that we follow is Cecilia, she is the owner or the tree that brings together a few of the characters. The wonderful tree on the front cover. Cecilia is an extroverted character who has no shame and loves to embarrass her daughter's. But, she also has hidden secrets in her past. A lost letter is the answer.

Growing Up For Beginners is a wonderful tale of discovering life and making decisions. Take the bull by its horns and seize the day.

I throughly enjoyed this book. There were a lot of characters within their own units - Roger & Eleanore, unhappily married. Her dad Connor with his story of his lost love; Cecilia and her two daughters Maddy and Olivia; and Andrew who moved back home with his parents and begins to date Olivia. Andrew works with Conrad at the British Museum and towards the end of the tale unearths a link. I loved the way the story came together.

Growing Up For Beginners is a book about family secrets and how lives entangle in unexpected ways.

I did struggle at the start of the book to connect with the characters and feel involved in their story. I felt that there wasn’t enough of an intro to each of the four characters that the story follows before it swapped to a different character which made it difficult to follow at the start.

However I was soon hooked into their story, wanting to know how Eleanor, Conrad, Andrew and Cecilia’s lives would entangle and the secrets that would connect them.

I went on to love each of the characters and was enthralled by their individual stories as well as their connecting secrets. They were realistic and were facing issues that many people themselves face, or know someone else who is, making them very relatable.

Whilst taking you on the story of unearthing their secrets, the characters also take you on the journey of self-discovery that they are each facing, trying to figure out their place in the world, something that many people have faced themselves.

The supporting characters, Eleanor’s husband, Roger, and Cecilia’s two daughters, add great dynamics, even if you do want to throttle Roger!

There is an underlying humour across the book, especially in the exchanges between Eleanor and Roger, more in the absurdity of his behavior and her reaction to it.
The cover is also an absolute delight!

For me the highlight of this book was the unravelling of the secrets that connect the four leading characters, and it was what had me hooked.

This novel had me at the first paragraph because (and here's a little secret), it described me to a T.

This is such a surprising gem of a novel.  It's very character driven but so cleverly written with threads that cross.  Each character is beautifully developed and not your typical character.  They all have quirks and flaws but are all equally beautiful and engaging.

Eleanor is a quiet and gentle soul, married to a man who just doesn't get or appreciate her and seems to spend all his time trying to change her into a more 'normal' character instead.  Her father Conrad is struggling in retirement, dedicated to his work and finding himself at a lose end since his wife died.  Andrew has been dumped by his girlfriend and is currently living back with his parents; an overly doting mother and a pacifist father.  Cecilia is a colourful and eccentric artist  of a more mature age but very day dreamy and a little out of touch with reality, longing for days of her youth.

The characters are so diverse and wonderfully different but their stories all merge in a gentle way.  It's difficult not to grow fond of each character in the novel as they are all endearing and unique. 

Claire tackles some family issues such as sibling and parental relationships and adultry and completely brings each character to life.

A wonderful character driven novel.

This is a family saga. It starts in the present day and then goes back in time to explain the histories of the people involved.The main characters are Eleanor and Roger and the story involves Eleanor growing up and how her relationships with her family mould how she behaves. There is a sub plot around another family of Cecelia, an artist, and her daughters Madelaine and Olivia
The characterisation of the characters is suburb and you really relate to them. So much so that my dislike of Roger and how he speaks to Eleanor nearly made me stop reading. But I was glad that I persevered.

Growing up for Beginners is a diamond of a book examining the lives and relationships of three different families, all interconnected in ways you’ll slowly discover. There are characters in this novel that are wonderfully exaggerated cliches of a type of personality and which make this a pure pleasure to read. Take for instance Eleanor , trapped in an unhappy loveless marriage to a controlling husband Roger,arty bohemian Cecilia, buttoned up academic and Eleanor’s father, Conrad and thirty five year old Andrew who is still being mollycoddled by his mother. With such fantastically imagined characters all with a substantial part to play in this novel it is impossible to decide whose unravelling story you enjoy the most.
Eleanor is the one who will probably capture readers hearts the most and Roger the character you may want to murder!! Eleanor’s submittance to her husband left me incredulous within the first few pages, finding it unbelievable she would allow him to spoil her few little pleasures in life (reading the final page of a book first and swimming in Hampstead ponds). I wanted to urge her to stand up to his bullying, snide and frankly despicable nature but she is the epitome of a woman who has endured years of being subservient,and she no longer knows who she really is. A lifetime of containing her emotions and presenting a calm, composed outward appearance means that her very essence is slowly disappearing. I likened her dwindling spirit to a flame of a candle spluttering just before it’s extinguished, feeling immense sadness for a woman trapped within a marriage that metaphorically has her in chains. Her mantra is that she’s fine, she’s really fine when confronted by family and friends which makes you want to weep. When you learn more of her background you can understand how Eleanor has arrived at this point in her life and so your empathy towards her grows. However much you view Eleanor as a saint, worthy of a medal for enduring Roger’s preposterous and audacious behaviour, I did find their exchanges SO hilarious. There are too many to list but I think the coffee pot Christmas present sums up their marriage perfectly.
The dry humour in this novel is what makes this such a delicious treat to read and so before long I was totally engaged with these peoples lives. Andrew and his mother are set up as perfect characters for ridicule and I loved the pair of them. At thirty five and finding himself living back at home with his parents, Andrew is incapable of growing into a fully fledged adult, socially awkward and mollycoddled by the forever hoovering Mrs Tyler. Again the exchanges in this family were spot on, excellent examples of a prim and fussy woman married to a long suffering mainly silent husband , finding it impossible to treat her son as a grown up. I can guarantee these scenes will make you laugh out loud.
Conrad, Eleanor’s father is the link that ties all the characters together and without divulging anymore of this expertly woven storyline, he is also deserving of your empathy, having led a half live, submerging his true feelings, in order to do what is the ‘right’ thing. So in many ways Conrad and Eleanor are extremely alike and if anyone can learn a lesson in how not to live your life, Eleanor only needs to look to her father for guidance.
The writing is superb and I was taken completely by surprise at how much I enjoyed this tale of love, loss and regret. It’s poignant and sad and funny and hopeful. How all the threads of the storyline come together are so naturally and effortlessly engineered that you can only marvel at the author’s ingenuity. Sometimes the best novels are the ones that catch you unawares and Growing up for Beginners did exactly that for me. I will be recommending this to all my fellow book lovers and putting Claire’s first novel to the top of my reading pile. BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT!!
My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read.

Thank you to @rachelsrandomreaources for inviting me to the blog tour and to the author and @netgalley for a copy of the book.
I was really looking forward to this book and was really attracted by the cover and description.

This book is a lovely story based around family and relationships.

However there are several characters and I found myself getting quite confused for a big part of the book.

The characters are well written and you always have one you despise......Roger! He made me hate him from the first few sentences!

Once you get your head around the characters it’s an enjoyable read.

So sorry but this book just isn't for me. I found the multiple points of view with no real links yet frustrating and confusing. Life is much too short for me to continue to try to read it in the hopes it will get better. The first chapter or two are fine but then it goes down hill as far as I'm concerned. This is going to be one of the very few books I've started reading but not finished. Others may well enjoy it, it may be that I'm just not in the right frame of mind for it, sorry.

What to say about this wonderful book? A cast of characters that all become inextricably connected in the most poignant of ways.

Eleanor likes to begin a book by reading the last page. It exasperates her husband Roger, and spitefully, he cuts out the last page of any new book she buys. This sets the tone for this absolute arse of a man who I shouted at throughout the book.

As we go back in time to Eleanor's childhood, we see how the seeds were sown for her subservience. But now her children have grown-up and left home, she begins to question her whole life. With every small rebellious act I was rooting for her to tell Roger where to go.

Her father Conrad, reflects on his lost love, who he has never forgotten.

Andrew, depressed and living at home with his loving but despotic mother, and downtrodden father, has given up on love - until he meets Olivia that is. And this meeting of two souls, is going to join the cast of characters together in the most beautiful of ways.

And as Roger sets off for his cruise, he is yet to know that Eleanor is not going to join him. Her email is to the point and I wanted to high five this gorgeous woman who truly knows why 'sometimes the end is the beginning'.

I absolutely love to discover new authors and Claire Calman is certainly a new author for me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Growing Up For Beginners' but more about that in a bit.
I have to be honest and say that it took me a little while to get into this book, which has more to do with the fact that I was tired when I started to read the book and shouldn't be taken as a criticism of the author. Once I got 'into' the story then that was it, I was away. I wasn't able to read the book over the course of a single day because things like life got in the way, but I did manage to binge read the book over the course of a few days. I was under this book's spell from the moment I first picked it up and the spell lasted until the moment I read the last word on the last page. If I wasn't reading the book, I was thinking about the book and if I had to put the book down for any reason then I would immediately look forward to being able to pick the book up again. I loved the insight into the lives of the main characters and how they were affected by certain things. I seemed to race through the latter half of the story as I had to know what secrets the characters were keeping and how they could possibly be connected to each other.
'Growing Up For Beginners' is one of those books that take you on an emotional rollercoaster through the ups and downs that life has to throw at you. Claire got my attention with the eye catching synopsis and I loved the way in which she created characters, who you can relate to. That's how I felt at any rate. Claire describes the characters so well that they seemed just as real as you or I. I literally felt as though I was part of the story myself and that's down to Claire's very vivid and realistic storytelling.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Growing Up For Beginners' and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. This book had a bit of everything- drama, emotion, love, heartache and well you get the picture. I will certainly be reading more of Claire's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 4* out of 5*.

In some ways, a quite uncomfortable book to read, but as we dig deeper into the lives of the characters I was able to find some heartwarming moments. This is the kind of story that will resonate with some readers, but the focus on a variety of characters allowed us to focus on the myriad ways in which people can find themselves trapped in situations.
Our cast is large, and this is a little daunting at times. Certainly initially it took some time for the voices and experiences of each character to really develop. We have Eleanor, daughter of Conrad. She is married to Roger, the kind of man it’s all too easy to loathe and despise. We have Andrew, a man in his thirties who works with Conrad and who has recently been dumped by his girlfriend so he’s moved back in with his parents. Andrew develops a relationship with Olivia, the daughter of a neighbour. She has a vibrant mother, Cecilia, who has a secret love - but circumstances never quite made it a safe option to reveal her feelings.
These seemingly disparate stories are obviously linked and, as we read, the links start to become clearer. Each of these characters is searching for something and has some growing up to do. They help each other (albeit unwittingly) through these shifting times and as we learn more about each it becomes just that little more significant. Perhaps the resolution is somewhat cliched, but it would take someone quite churlish not to find it appealing.
Thanks to Netgalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.

This is the first book I have read by Claire Calman and I found this an easy book to read.
The story is told from different points of view and starts with Eleanor who has had a difficult upbringing with a brother who was a problem boy always getting into trouble whose mother idolised him. She then married a man who is horrible and controlling in a very sly underhand way. She spends her life telling everyone she is fine.
Conrad her father was himself in a loveless marriage and met and lost the true love of his life deciding he had to for the sake of his son to keep him from trouble.
This was a lovely book with a story told really well in a different way.
Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced copy.

I don't know what I'd initially expected from this book, but this wasn't it. I'd really enjoyed the description the book given in the blurb, but the book didn't live up to my expectations at all. I read 35% of the book before I decided to DNF this. I desperately wanted to enjoy it and kept trying to plod on but I wasn't just enjoying it.

Here were my main issues with what I read. There were so many characters in this story that were swapped between that it became completely confusing. It kept swapping whose perspective we were reading from and my mind felt like it was in a jumble barely remembering the first characters at all. If I could have finished this, I may have enjoyed seeing how these characters lives crossed paths, which I assume they must do at some point. It just felt so slowly paced and hard to work out who was who that I wasn't invested in the story enough to want to carry on. Maybe at some point I'll try and read this again and see if my feelings change, but right now this wasn't the book for me.

Overall, it's a slowly paced book with far too many characters to keep track of! It had great potential and I loved the first couple of chapters, I only wish they'd stuck with two or three perspectives rather than multiple.

I have no idea if Claire Calman is one of those authors who does her planning on post-its, but – if she does – they must have covered an entire wall for this one. This was such clever writing – three apparently unconnected stories, each tremendously engaging and featuring wonderfully drawn characters, with Conrad’s life story threaded through and drawing them together. The way in which they’re connected is very slowly revealed, with perfect pacing and wonderful writing: this book had me intrigued and 100% engaged from beginning to end, when I reluctantly set it aside and wondered “how did she do that?”, with not even the smallest thread left untied.

I’m really afraid of giving away too much of the story if I say too much – this is one you really need to discover for yourself, follow it through and feel the same moments of joy, shock and sadness that I did. But I can’t resist telling you about some of the characters.

I grew particularly fond of Eleanor – every reader will identify with her love for novels, her moments of escape from a marriage that no longer makes her happy and probably never did. Her husband is a monster, but entirely real and recognisable – there was more than one occasion when he filled me with uncontrollable rage.

And then there’s Andrew, so wonderfully awkward and so ill-equipped to be the adult he is – when he returns to live with his parents, you live his nightmare (and, if you ever stay with your parents, might just identify with some of his experiences). And it’s not just the main characters who are superbly drawn – his mother with her smothering love and vacuum cleaner and his long-suffering (and rather lovely) father are just two of the wonderful slightly expanded vignettes I thoroughly enjoyed. And then there’s Cecilia, now elderly, a constant embarrassment to her daughters with her graphic telling of stories from her wilder youth.

Conrad – whose story threads through it all – is Eleanor’s father, and we learn about his life and the difficult choices he’s sometimes had to make. There’s a deeply moving love story at its heart – beautifully told – that really moved me to tears. But the tears certainly aren’t the entirety of this story, wherever you might find them – there are times when its quite gloriously funny, the humour ranging from a titter of embarrassment to more than one full-on belly laugh, but with a touch of poignancy never too far away. The book’s themes are many – I liked the focus on being a parent, particularly the different takes on fatherhood, and that whole area of “adulting” and recognising what makes you happy.

Now, I haven’t said too much, have I? I see the publishers are calling it “a wonderful book club read”, and I couldn’t agree more – I think I’d really enjoy discussing this one. Who might it appeal to? It really did remind me of Rachel Joyce’s writing – and perhaps if you enjoyed Lisa Jewell’s books (The Third Wife, or The House We Grew Up In) before she turned to thrillers? But Claire Calman’s style is very much her own, and I’m already looking forward to seeing what she does next. I really loved this one – it might well be one of my books of the year.

(Review copied to Amazon UK, but link not yet available)

I found this book to be a really entertaining read, full of characters that you either find yourselves cheering for on their journey, alongside those who'd you clearly love to throttle!! The patience shown by some towards their 'loved' ones is worthy of a gold medal at times! But that's like life, and I think this book captures the little moments many of us face throughout our lives - searching for meaning, looking to move on and finding the strength to break free from what we have become accustomed to.

And that applies in spades to Eleanor, one of the main characters we follow, as she has been married to Roger for 20 years! I think I'd struggle to stay married to him for 20 minutes! In his world it is his way, or no way! And Eleanor has gone along with his way of thinking to keep his moods quieter for the sake of her children, and her own sanity. But as the children fly the nest, she is facing that time in her life when she has to put herself first, follow her own passions and how difficult she finds it to think of herself for a change. He really is something else when faced with his wife wanting her own little bit of happy!!

The book goes backwards and forwards in time, surrounding Eleanor and a number of other characters - Conrad, her father, Andrew, the man who is restoring a painting for Conrad, and Cecilia and her 2 daughters who are all quite different in personalities and outlooks.

There are many aspects to this story that made it a fascinating read - the things parents do for their children throughout their lives, the sacrifices, the selfish behaviours on both sides, and how people deal with overbearing people in their lives . Maybe they mean well, but the controlling influence they inflict on their nearest and dearest can have serious consequences on the mental wellbeing of those they love.