Book Review: Jumping in Puddles by Claire Allan

Rathinch is a small Irish town with a lot of people who aren't necessarily friends, but Detta is set to change all that with her 'Single Parents' group. She wants to get them all talking, and despite their initial reluctance, they soon find themselves making steadfast friends and suprising themselves along the way too.

Niamh has just lost her husband Seán in a car accident, leaving her alone with their young twins... but is it all as it seemed for Niamh and Seán? Ruth was left along when her husband James ran off with a younger woman, leaving her mothering their 3 chilren alone... but Ruth is hiding a devastating secret she won't let get out. Liam is a single dad as it was his wife who ran off with Ruth's husband, but the pair don't talk as Liam wants his wife back. Finally, teen mum Ciara makes up the group and is unsure about hanging out with people her own mum's age. Ciara is keeping her baby's daddy a secret but is it for good reason, and will the older adults help her let go of her demons?

Can Detta help these people find friendship and confidence once more? And what is Detta's secret too?

I read and loved Claire Allan's second book Feels Like Maybe earlier this year and I absolutely loved it, so I jumped at the chance of reading Jumping In Puddles which is Claire's 3rd book. It was published in September by Irish publishers Poolbeg, and its gorgeous bright cover screams "chick lit", something I love! The book focuses on a group of friends who have their own problems, but how talking them through just might help them to get through the worst of it. Claire has the knack for writing believable characters who you can imagine are real people, and stories that are very realistic as well.

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Author Interview: Claire Allan

Irish author Claire Allan recently caught my eye when I read her second book, Feels Like Maybe. I loved it, and was excited to see that Claire has another book out this month, Jumping In Puddles. Claire was nice enough to grant us an author interview and we chatted about her experience of motherhood, where she gets her ideas and her new book too! Read on...

1. Tell us about your latest book in a sentence.
Feels Like Maybe is all about friendship, babies, infertility, sexy gardeners and feckwit exes.

2. In 'Feels Like Maybe', you approach the journey of motherhood from two very different viewpoints. How much did you draw on your own personal experience to write these storylines and characters?
Aoife's birth scene was scarily like my own first time around - although I did have my husband standing beside me.
I think experiences of motherhood, especially in those early days are universal in a lot of respects. You feel sore, exhausted, paranoid about your appearance and yet a little blissed out by your knew baby. With Beth's story I spoke to several woman who had experienced or were experiencing fertility problems to make sure I set the tone just right. My first book 'Rainy Days and Tuesdays' examines post natal depression - and I did use my own experience to write that.
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Book Review: Feels Like Maybe by Claire Allan

** Read our exclusive interview with Claire Allan here **

Aoife is in an on/off relationship with Jake, but things hit the skids permanently when Aoife finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. Jake doesn't want to know so she is left to deal with the hormones of pregnancy and shocks of birth all alone. She hasn't even got her mum because they don't get on, and they're back home in Ireland while she's in London.

On the other hand, her best friend Beth and husband Dan have been secretly trying to get pregnant with no success, and they're devastated. They put on a brave front to Aoife, but inside they're falling apart. Why can't Beth just tell her best friend of her woes? Will Aoife and Jake work it out, or is someone special lurking around the corner?

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