I enjoyed the Secrets of Primrose Square and was delighted to read the second book based in the Square.

Circumstances force Violet, Frank and Emily to become reluctant housemates. Violet appears to be a bitter old lady disliked by all; Frank has been asked to leave the family home when a secret is revealed, and Emily is a recovering alcoholic who is trying to make amends.

This is an excellent book dealing with a difficult subject matter which is dealt with in a sympathetic way by the author. A strong storyline with an excellent cast of characters which made for a heartwarming read.

Such is the strength of the story writing, you don’t need to have read the book before this. Skilfully written with believable characters, I loved it.

I really enjoyed The Secrets of Primrose Square so I was really happy to see Claudia Carroll had based another book here. Although the location is the same we meet some different but fascinating residents with some great stories with merely a nod to the past book so this could easily be a stand-alone book too, at the very least I didn’t need to remember the previous stories to enjoy this. I was amused how Frank didn’t work out why literally everyone was busy on the night of his birthday however I didn’t see how that was going to turn out! His story and that of his wife Gracie were sympathetically told, I could have happily read just about these two as the story of their family could easily have filled the book and I’m glad Amber dealt with things as she did, children are genuinely able to cope with the truth. Emily and Violet were both prickly characters with good stories, Violet’s was horrifying but Emily’s whilst upsetting would have benefitted from a little more back story. These characters all developed well throughout the book and the storylines were solidly written, this is a lovely warm hearted read.