Bad Relations

Eve
I was not expecting to enjoy this book - as war is not my favourite subject. The book was slow to start with but became more interesting as we got to know the characters.
It is an unusual thing to say, but I felt that the book could have been longer and more detailed. I would like to have heard more about Alice, her life in Australia and how it led back to England also Stephen, the girls and his work in Cornwall.
An interesting book, I would give it an 8

Kirsty
I must admit when I first picked this up I was dubious as to whether I was going to enjoy it but as always and being an eclectic reader I kept an open mind. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I really enjoyed it! I love how the author tells the story in 3 parts from several different perspectives. The first part takes us back to they year 1855 is told from the perspective of William Gale who goes to fight in the Crimea War. I originally really liked William but after he returned from the War I was disgusted with how he treated his wife Alice. I really enjoyed reading an insight of a soldier in the Crimea War which I did not really know much, if anything really about. The story then moved on to the year 1977 and we are taken to Cornwall where we meet the distant relatives of William from both Alice's side and Sarah's. Stephen Nolan goes to stay with the 'Clarke' side where we meet Nick and his wife Celia as well as their children Georgie and Cass. We see what the three youngsters get up to where there is drama, romance and tragedy. I could not abide Celia who was an absolutely horrid person and my heart went out to Stephen. The final part takes the author between Melbourne and Cornwall from the year 2015. We learn about Stephen's sister Hazel as well as revisiting the Clarke's when Hazel meets up with them. Cass and definitely become like her mother as she had grow older and I disliked her also. I really enjoyed seeing how William's actions rippled through the years going from generation to generation. I definitely think this was an intriguing concept to see the butterfly affects through the generations and I enjoyed the storyline which was engaging as well as interesting. I enjoyed the historical aspects as well as seeing what came of the characters in each of the generations. I ended up reading the book in one sitting and would definitely be interested in reading more books by this author. It is very well written with vivid descriptions which really set the scene for the reader and put them in the storyline with the characters. I would rate this 7/10

Carolyn
I liked the book although I would never have read it if I had picked it up from the shelf. The cover would have put me off
I liked the first part about the Crimean war best. Mrs Lockwood was very manipulative convincing William that he wasn't the father of his baby son. The middle part was less interesting but I liked the ending too. I thought it was well planned out with the medal accidently going to Australia and then coming back and ending up in the museum.
I score it 7.

Helen
I enjoyed the book and found it well written. I was glad that the author chunked the different eras rather than flicking backwards and forwards between them as I found this much more coherent in style. I would have liked to know more about Alice and her life in Australia but we were given enough information to piece her story together. Although the actual events in the story were very low key, I still found the story engaging and I think the way the author ended the book was sympathetic and reinforced the different themes and personality traits of the family well. I would give this 8/10.

Mabe
I enjoyed beginning chapters and end chapters .
I give it a 7

Arleen
I really enjoyed BAD RELATIONS. I found this book really interesting from start to finish. Starting with WW1 and continuing throughout the story of family history. I would read this book again and also recommend it to friends. It is well written and certainly worth reading. I wasn't too keen on the front cover as I felt it didn't do justice to the story. I would give this book 8/10

Chris
Although I did enjoy this book and found it to be well written I felt that the second section was too long and not really relevant to the story. The first section on the Crimean war was really interesting and I would have liked more information on what happened to the families afterwards.
I will give it a 7.

Sonia
I thought this was a well written and interesting book slightly let down by the middle section. I liked the fact that it was divided into three distinct sections but could have done with a family tree available to keep in touch with who was who across the generations. The first section dealing with the Crimean war and it's aftermath in England was the most interesting and I would have been very happy for the book to have concentrated on William and Alice and life after the Crimea. I thought they were by far the most interesting characters and I would have loved more information about their lives later but the story was primarily about the medal, the Victoria Cross, and it's journey across the generations to its eventual resting place. I thought the middle section was largely irrelevant and I would not have missed it had it not been there. The characters and the story in this part were the least interesting and the writing not as good. The final section was better and although by that time I was really quite confused as to who was who it did end fittingly in my opinion. One thing that everyone was agreed upon was the very poor book cover which seemed to bear no relation to the story and would have actively turned us all off from reading it under different circumstances.
I would give the book a 6 based on the first and last sections.

Average score : 7 out of 10

A family saga focusing on three generations of a fractured family, dispersed across the globe. William Gale fought in the Crimean war but the atrocities that he saw there had a detrimental impact on him and also on his family back at home in England. Jump forward to the 1970s and William’s descendants invite a distant Australian cousin, Stephen, to spend the summer with them and their somewhat bohemian household in Cornwall. This does not end well. Half a century later, one of Stephen’s relatives makes the journey from Australia to England to investigate her roots and to return an object which features heavily throughout the novel.

This is a beautifully written book. It is slow and contemplative, yet never boring or dull despite the lack of action. Somewhat unusually for a book spanning different time-frames, this book is written chronologically – a welcome relief as far as I am concerned!

For me, the part that let the book down was Stephen’s story. I’m not going to elaborate because it will give too much away but I just felt the issues that arose once he left Cornwall came out of nowhere and would have benefitted from a more detailed build-up.

I had not come across this author before but will certainly look out for more of her work as she is clearly an accomplished writer. Recommended for a wide audience.

Took me quite awhile to get into this one, as it wasn't immediately clear how the various timelines were connected. By the time we were in the final story, however, I was properly invested, with a deep-rooted love (or hatred) for the various characters. Connolly does an excellent job of presenting well-rounded, realistic characters, all with their own flaws and quirks. While there are no villains in the story, exactly, there are definitely a few realistically-horrible people I was very much hoping would eventually get their comeuppance.

Overall, it's a bit slow-moving, and I feel like the Crimean War section didn't connect as well to the more modern sections as I would have hoped, but I really appreciated how it came together at the end. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys historical novels bridging multiple timelines.

A historical family saga covering several generations. The book is split into three parts, each set in a different era. The author cleverly uses different writing styles in each story. I really loved how the different story strands wove together, and was so engrossed in this book that I finished it in two days. A joy to read.

Starting in the Crimean war, through to the 1970s and finally the present day this book takes you through pivotal moments and then concequences of the actions and the secrets of the past in one families history.
A interesting read, I like how the author set out the timeframes then brought it all together, with a twist.
I felt compelled to keep reading, it's quite an addictive book.

This fictional story spans a century and involves two bereavements. The first is set on the battlefields in Crimea, and the second in Cornwall in the 1970s.

The story intertwines the two deaths nicely, however, I found the story a little bit too contrived and a bit disjointed. For anyone interested in history and families, I think they would probably enjoy this book very much. It is well written, although in parts I found the story dragged a little and was too wordy. There were parts I felt didn’t add to the story and could have been tightened up. For me, I wanted a tighter story line. Without giving too much away, it was a nice twist with the Victoria Cross medal.

Having said all of this, it’s a good book that I would recommend; however, I found it to be based on a somewhat thin premise that was hard to really believe in.

A very satisfying novel, one of those books you know will stay with you and makes you immediately look up the author's other works.

What impressed me most about the novel was how much Connolly squeezes into 280 pages, with enough material to fill the doorstop length more common to multi-generational family saga. Some readers might regard this brevity as a negative, that it makes the reader work to make connections and extrapolate the impact of past upon present, the cascading effects of love, war, loss, grief. I love a thick juicy read but one that leaves its reader wanting more shows writerly assurance.

I admire too the skill with which Connolly depicts three very different time periods: uptight Victorian England at the time of the Crimean War, mid 70s Summer haze in a Cornish farmhouse idyll, modern day (upper middle class) England and down-to-earth Australia. Each part has characters to love or loathe. Three captured my heart...no, make that four, three women, one man (boy). A very English book for all the Aussie interlude.

I loved how everything comes together at the end, believably, appropriately. One character says, Families don't always bring out the best in people. Our lives are fragile and short. Past wrongs impact upon those who come after, cannot be undone but sometimes it is possible to put it right for those in the here and now, and that's enough.

I quite enjoyed this multigenerational story, set across three different time periods. The three sections are very separate, and you have to use your imagination a bit to connect the characters in the later section with their ancestors who were featured in the first section. It’s clever, and there’s an impressive historical event and ‘item’ running throughout and tying the book together. However, I found it a bit disjointed overall and I didn’t really engage with the characters as well as I might have liked.