Another fabulous book by Sarah Morgan that is a joy to read. Family For Beginners is set in Manhattan USA and The Lakes England. The story examines the difficulties surrounding new relationships with not only new people but with family and friends and also having to get on with whatever life throws at you along the way.

Flora, a people pleaser, has always wanted to fit into a family as living with her cold hearted Aunt after the death of her Mother left her feeling very much unloved. When Flora meets Jack, a gorgeous guy who recently became a widow to his wife, her life changes with huge challenges. Jack has two daughters Izzy and Molly, Molly is young and accepting of change but Izzy is a teenager who hasn’t dealt with her grief and is determined not to let anyone take over the role of caring for her sister Molly.

I really enjoyed reading how the bond between Flora and Izzy develops as they share in the loss of losing their Mothers. And also that Jack’s deceased wife was not the perfect female she is portrayed as being.

My thanks to Net Galley for the ARC digital copy of Family For Beginners. This is my own opinon of this delightful book.

Another fabulous instalment from Sarah Morgan. Family for Beginners will tug at your heart strings, make you laugh and be unable to put this book down. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can highly recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley, HQ and the author for the chance to review.

Who says you can’t choose your family?

When Flora falls in love with Jack, suddenly she’s not only handling a very cranky teenager, but she’s also living in the shadow of Jack’s perfect, immortalised wife, Becca. Every summer, Becca and Jack would holiday with Becca’s oldest friends and Jack wants to continue the tradition, so now Flora must face a summer trying to live up to Becca’s memory, with not only Jack’s daughter looking on, but with Becca’s best friends judging her every move…

The more Flora tries to impress everyone, the more things go horribly wrong…but as the summer unfolds, Flora begins pushing her own boundaries, and finding herself in a way that she never thought she needed to.

And she soon learns that families come in all shapes and sizes.

I never hesitate in requesting a title by Sarah Morgan, and thankfully she never disappoints me. I can always rely on her books to give me a bit of light relief. Often, I read books that are heavier and more complex, therefore Morgan’s straightforward and linear style of storytelling is a rare treat.

I always find her characters to be likeable, and most importantly relatable, this was again the case in this novel. My one disappointment, and it is only very minor, I would have loved more of Todd and Clare together. I thought the humour of their banter was brilliant!

As always, I devoured this book and highly recommend to Sarah Morgan fans and newbies.

What a lovely, lovely read. This has all the emotions of a family and new family life but the story it tells makes compelling reading, I would have loved it go further than it did. I on#t like to give spoilers so I recommend you get a copy of this and enjoy it. I give this 5 stars, Well done Sarah Morgan for yet another brilliant book..

This is another emotional story from Sarah Morgan, this time about the realities of becoming a step-mother and second wife. In this case the first wife is initially described as the perfect woman with a loving family and great career, but all was not as it seemed. Secrets are revealed, new friendships blossom and a new family comes together. Keep the tissues handy.

Just when you think Sarah Morgan’s book can’t get any better along comes - family for beginners. I absolutely adore this book.
I could visualise the house in manhattan, the flower shop where Flora works and the beautiful English countryside and boathouse on the lake.
Colourful,tender hearted florist Flora meets handsome, single dad Jack when he visits the flower shop where she works to buy his seventeen year old daughter Izzy a bouquet for her birthday. After striking up a conversation with him she finds out that several months earlier, Jacks seemingly perfect wife Becca died from an aneurism leaving him alone with
daughters Izzy and molly
Having lost her own mother at an early age, Flora doesn’t really have any experience of family life. Dumped on a aunt who made no secret of the fact she didn’t want a child, Floras upbringing lacked any form of love and affection.
When she and Jack start dating all Floras hopes and dreams of fitting in don’t quite live up to the reality.
Eldest daughter Izzy isn’t at all welcoming.
Struggling with her mother’s death she has stepped into her shoes with regards to running the house and looking after all younger sister Mollys every need.
She has no intention of letting Flora take that away from her and tries to show her she could never possibly match up to the perfect Becca.
In a bid to bring the family together Jack suggests they all go away on holiday together like they do every year to the lake house in England.
Only trouble is the lake house belongs to Beccas best friend Claire and although she is welcoming to Jacks new love she knows a secret that Becca told her before her death that could rip the family apart.
This book is a visual page turner and I couldn’t put it down, desperate to know what the secret Becca had told was I read it in 2 days and felt lost when it ended.
I fell in love with the delightful Flora as much as the family comes to and defy anyone who reads this book not to love it and the beautifully written cast of characters as much as I did. .

Sarah Morgan doesn’t fail to deliver another one of her beautifully written sagas! I love the way she writes, and the way that each character comes to life gradually on the page. I was delighted to review this one for Netgalley, as she is one of my favourite authors. If you haven’t read any of her books this is a great one to start with – and if you have read them you’re going to love this one!

A lovely story, well written and full of poignant moments. When Flora & Jack meet the pair of them hit it off immediately and quickly fall head over heels for each other. However, Flora finds it extremely difficult to be accepted by Jack’s two children and to develop her relationship whilst in the shadow of the completely perfect Becca, Jack’s first wife who died unexpectedly several months earlier. The story of how the four of them begin their lives together, in particular when they face extreme opposition from Jack’s teenage daughter who tries time & again to put Flora off is a great read, I really enjoyed it.

I really loved this book. Each character’s experience of grief, loss and all of the other emotions that goes with it is explored. But there’s always light hearted parts and a love story to go along with it too.

I really enjoyed Family for Beginners, which is both a family drama and romantic novel. Jack is grieving the recent death of his wife and struggling to buy a birthday gift for his daughter when he meets Flora, a florist. The characters were sympathetically portrayed and each had a complex relationship with the idea of family and family itself. Secrets run throughout the novel, but there is also a lot of hope - this isn’t great literature, but it was an enjoyable read.

I say it over and over but I do love Sarah Morgan's books. This was an enjoyable read though maybe a bit more like her earlier books than the last 2 or 3 she has written. Although I was personally a bit less emotionally drawn in, it was more of a 'sit down and escape for a few hours' which was no less of a treat for that.
I look forward to Sarah's books and often find that I re-read them after a while, as I find her characters so realistic. I finished it in one happy afternoon.

Another great book from Sarah Morgan. A bit of a slow beginning as you got used to all the characters and how they interacted with each other but as the book progressed, you really started to get engrossed in it. Some very good characters (once you get into them) and a good storyline with a nice pathway.

What a lovely story! I found it very visual, I could picture it all as I read. It was very realistic, You can imagine it all happening, Sarah is so good at writing family interaction.

Flora is a florist, working in the same shop that her mother worked in before her. She had a difficult childhood after her mother died, she loves her job but lives in a horrid rented apartment, and has few friends. She is quite a lonely person, with only a few friends. One day a man walks into the shop looking for inspiration for a present for his daughter, who is just about to celebrate her seventeenth birthday. There is a spark of interest between them. They go out for coffee, then dinner, then eventually Jack invites her to his home to meet his daughters, Izzy and Molly. Think being invited into the lion’s den!

Further misfortune occurs for Flora, but all is smoothing out and she agrees to go on holiday to the Lake District, in England, with the family. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but ... the touch paper is lit, and all the continuing problems come to the boil, and explode! Nothing like a good explosion to clear the air, and bring out a thoroughly satisfying ending.

This is an easy, and satisfying read, well worth the time.

I would like to thank HQ and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book before realise. I am a massive fan of Sarah Morgan's story telling and couldn't wait to get stuck into this book.
This was another book I read while on holiday in Austria. Family for Beginners is an outstanding read that kept me turning the pages well into the night, which is why I gave it a Chells and Books three leaf rating. The themes that run through the plot are all deep routing issues that occur within families and Sarah writes about them with great knowledge but with her warmth guiding the reader through so it still feels like a light fun read. The settings are stunning and really come to life, as in all of her books the settings really seem like a character in there own right, as you get to know them.
In Family for Beginners we meet Flora who after a chance meeting finds herself part of a family needing to impress, Jacks daughters, while deciding what this relationship with Jack is going to turn into.
I liked the opening of this book, giving you a hint of whats to come but when it is explained later in the book as the story unfolds I was brilliantly surprised at the outcome. The story is told by different characters giving great depth to the plot but easy to follow the story line and keep up with events. I adored the way that Flora and Jack met and the moments they have as their journey unfolds. I found myself smiling at parts and at others wanting to hide behind my hand as I could imagine what might happen at some of the moments between Jack and his daughters or with Flora. My favourite character has to be Claire who is living my dream life in the Lake District but I also liked the eldest daughter who I could so relate to as a teen.
After reading Family for Beginners, I was struck by how complicated family life can be but with all the different shapes, sizes and complexity of family, family is the one thing that everyone needs in life. Sarah Morgan has written a well thought out book which I loved and made me want to reflect on myself.

Well what can you say, Sarah Morgan books are perfect escapism. Not put off by tackling the relevant issue, coping with grief, moving on and blended families. Sarah manages to weave these topics into a romantic novel where you fall in love with the characters and are routing for them all. Highly recommend.
Thanks to Netgalley and Sarah Morgan for the advance copy.

It's very difficult to review something when you don't have a strong opinion either way. And, unfortunately that's exactly where I find myself with this book. There was nothing not to like - it was a well-written, warm-hearted read - but at the same time it didn't quite capture my imagination either.


This was the story of Flora embarking on a relationship with widower Jack, and the emotional challenges that come hand-in-hand with a father of two - it's not just him but the whole family who needs to fall in love with you too. As such it wasn't meant to be a love story but a story of family dynamics.

However, to go from Jack and Flora accidentally meeting, to being introduced to the family and moving in together all within the space of a few chapters seemed way to quick. I wanted the build-up as without it, like Izzy, Jack's teenage daughter, I just couldn't believe in the relationship and see how the two were remotely compatible and understand why Jack would knowingly upset his fragile family dynamic for someone he'd only just met.

That said I did like the fast pace. The book started with the lure of an untold secret about Becca, Jack's dead wife, and so needed to progress quickly through Flora trying to live up to this image of Becca as the perfect, wide, mother, friend and career-woman, to the big reveal that Becca was actually as flawed as the rest of them. Every page and word were relevant - there was definitely no filler.

I also loved the ending and the reveal, which without wanting to give too much away showed great depth and likeability to Jack's character - it was just a shame that we had to wait until the end to see it and understand him or his relationship with Flora. And, this was the other problem in that whilst I really liked Izzy, I didn't warm to either Jack (for the reasons just given) or Flora. Izzy described Flora as someone you don't want to but can't help liking because she's so nice. But, I had no such problem, for me Flora was too nice, too much of a people-pleaser, too vanilla to really champion.

All-in-all this is a nice story realistically portraying the highs and lows of family life as well as love and loss without ever becoming too downhearted or sad. However, once again its very much a nice read rather than a must-read.

Family For Beginners was such an amazing story!
It cleveley deals with how we learn to move on after going through the loss of a loved one, and of how a ready made family copes when an outsider enters and brings chaos to their seemingly perfect world .Flora and Jack's story is a very moving and emotional one. I loved everything about it, from the original backstory of two childhood friends that grew up entwining their families over two different continents, to the present day plotline of Flora meeting Jack after the loss of his late wife Becca.

Flora constantly feels like she is trying to compete with the ghost of Becca, who she thinks was the perfect wife, mother and friend, while Jack is oblivious to what is really happening in his own house right in front of him. This was such an interesting read, I loved all of it's characters and each one of them touched me in a very different special way. The writing was so very good and easy to read, it was an engaging and thought provoking story that made my heart hurt at times because of all the dilemmas that they had to face.

This was a different kind of romance to the norm but I loved it even more for its originality and for its ability to deal with sensitive subjects written well.

A lovely heartwarming read. Great characters and chemistry between them, with good storylines flowing between them. Nice easy reading, five stars.

Another gem from Sarah Morgan. I turn to this author when I need an absorbing read that will draw me in and absorb me into the life of the characters. I felt for the female characters in the book... Flora, Izzy and Molly and best friend Claire.

Mostly set in Brooklyn and in the latter part in the beautiful Lake District, this is a book that makes you look under the skin of what’s going on and analyse the relationships. Some of the book was more melancholy than I’d have liked but ultimately it was uplifting as the characters began to work through their issues...

An enjoyable read, with some heartfelt moments. I’d have liked to hear more about Izzy and Claire’s son Aidan, but other than that the last part of the book was gorgeous even through the characters’ tears.

4.5* a lakeside delight

Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

I started this and was immediately drawn in. I loved the meeting of Flora and Jack. It was so beautiful and wonderfully written.

What I couldn’t get my head around initially was the jump from asking Flora out for a coffee to suddenly they’re in a relationship. I wanted the build up. As I progressed through the book, I understood the jump. The book wasn’t about hike their relationship started, more about how Flora becomes part of this family.

The ups and downs of trying to have a relationship with an already established family unit was interesting and the way it was handled makes good reading.

Once again Sarah Morgan has given us a well written, well thought out novel and I different take on love and relationships. Not just the one between a couple, but the one between friends, and parents and an outsider into a new family.

Love!