CATCHING up with old friends is always a joy but when it’s
the City Girls who won our hearts in three entertaining books from much-loved
Irish author Patricia Scanlan then you know it’s going be extra special!
Yes, the City Girls – three Dublin friends who have shared
their romantic, domestic and professional triumphs and traumas with a worldwide
fan base over three bestselling books and three decades – are back and it seems
fair to warn that laughter and tears are most definitely guaranteed.
City Girls Forever follows on from the much-loved trilogy, City Girl, City Woman and City Lives, and stars Devlin, Maggie and Caroline whose friendship began when they shared a house in Dublin. It was a friendship that soon became their lifelong emotional anchor as they faced the kind of dramas, love-life disasters and family changes that are all so familiar. A wise author who can peer into the soul, Scanlan (pictured below) doesn’t put a foot wrong when writing about the problems that so often beset women’s lives and in this new visit, we find the friends older and wiser but now wrestling with mid-life challenges like menopause, ageing parents, adult children, broken relationships, and unexpected new loves.
Devlin Delaney’s iconic gym and spa, City Girl, is the ‘poshest’ in Dublin and she is preparing to mark the big 35-year anniversary with a fabulous party where she and best friends Caroline and Maggie can put their problems behind them and do some serious celebrating. But Devlin’s past has returned to haunt her with a shocking revelation relating to her misogynistic, cold-hearted and controlling ex-boyfriend Colin Cantrell-King who brought her only tragedy and suffering.
Caroline, labelled ‘a total workaholic’ by her friends,
turned to psychotherapy work following a marriage that ended in despair and a
hard-fought battle with alcoholism. A subsequent failed relationship, with a
man she thought could be her forever love, left her with no faith in ever
finding happiness. Still unable to face up to her own long-suppressed issues, Caroline
has a new man in her life but will she ever let him become more than a friend?
For successful author Maggie, it’s her family that is driving her mad. Her daughter Shona is getting married and as she doesn’t get on with her dad, Maggie’s ex-husband Terry, he most definitely won’t be giving her away. That leaves Maggie ‘slap-bang in the middle’ and with an alarming discovery about her elderly mother’s financial affairs, Maggie has the urge to just run far away. One thing is for sure… sparks are going to fly, and some people are going to get a lot more than they bargained for!
From Dublin landmarks and Devlin’s stylish gym to family
kitchens and the bracing country air of County Wicklow, Scanlan takes us on a
whirlwind journey of discovery through some painful real-life ordeals,
emotional storms, and tender moments of heartwarming poignancy.
Devlin might now be ‘ticking the fifties box’ and battling
her menopausal ‘brain fog’ but remains the superwoman that readers of this
vibrant, eternally enchanting series have come to love. For Maggie, family
matters loom large with her daughter’s wedding threatening to re-open old
battle lines but, as always, she tackles problems with humour, heart and gusto.
Caroline, meanwhile, is still throwing herself into work, taking on board other
people’s problems through her psychotherapy sessions but unable to fully
process her personal history.
Scanlan is on top form as she weaves together the trials and
tribulations of these three charismatic women whose lives we have shared down
the years. And if you haven’t before met Devlin, Maggie and Caroline but have
fallen for their authentic charm, fear not… City Girls Forever can easily be
read as a standalone, although discovering the books that chart their earlier
days could well be an irresistible temptation!
(Simon & Schuster, paperback, £9.99)
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