The Surprise Party - Sue Welfare

I’ve been so lucky that all the books I’ve reviewed so far have been wonderful.  The Surprise Party by Sue Welfare is another brilliant read to add to my collection. 

Sisters Suzie and Liz organise a surprise 40^th anniversary party for their parents Rose & Jack, not knowing that this would uncover some shocking and colossal family secrets which have been dormant for years and that would change their lives forever.  With lives which were poles apart, Suzie is struggling to keep her family in tact while running a business, while Liz, a reality TV star, strives to keep her diva status in her life and her family and purposefully impacts on other people’s lives with her decisions and actions.    This replicates the relationship between their own mother Rose and her sister Fleur who were both very different personalities.  The party that they had been planning for so long, turns out not to be the party they imagined it would be.  You must read this book to learn about family values, love, laughter and absolute drama from all the family members in the story.  A brilliantly colourful plot and fabulous characters made this a really enjoyable experience.  

I’ve not been privileged to read anything by Sue Welfare before, so this was a real treat for me, to learn about another fantastic author who has an amazing gift of being able to create genuine characters and give you a real insight into their personalities and emotions.  I sympathised with the characters and could visualise them all really quickly.  This book gave me incredibly heavy eyelids and is one of the reasons why I haven’t slept much over the last few days.  I’m quite sad that this book has ended and I know that Sue commented to me that she feels the same about the characters when one of her books comes to an end.

Sue has written as Sue Welfare, Gemma Fox and Kate Lawson and is now back to writing as Sue Welfare.   She was born on the edge of the Fens and is perfect placed to write about life in East Anglia.  She has a family, sings in a choir, loves to garden and walk her dogs and enjoys photography and cooking.  She is also a scriptwriter, originating and developing a soap opera for BBC radio, along with the local town panto!   

Check out her website for more information on Sue, Kate and Gemma at www.katelawson.co.uk