#BookReview: Wishbones by @virginiawrites

 Feather Tucker has two wishes:

1)To get her mum healthy again

2) To win the Junior UK swimming championships

When Feather comes home on New Year’s Eve to find her mother – one of Britain’s most obese women- in a diabetic coma, she realises something has to be done to save her mum’s life. But when her Mum refuses to co-operate Feather realises that the problem run deeper than just her mum’s unhealthy appetite.

Over time, Feather’s mission to help her Mum becomes an investigation. With the help of friends old and new, and the hindrance of runaway pet goat Houdini, Feather’s starting to uncover when her mum’s life began to spiral out of control and why. But can Feather fix it in time for her mum to watch her swim to victory? And can she save her family for good?

I was brought up in Germany, France and England by a mother who never stopped telling stories. From the moment I was old enough to hold a pen, I set about writing my own, often late into the night – or behind my Maths textbook at school. My maiden name is Virginia Woods: I was named after two great women, Virginia Wade and Virginia Woolf, in the hope I would be a writer and a tennis star. My early years were those of a scribbling, rain-loving child who prayed for lightning to strike my tennis coach.

After studying at Oxford, I started writing regularly whilst working as an English Teacher and Housemistress. I now write full time for both adults and young adults. My fiction tackles contemporary issues, often through the lens of family life. 

My debut novel, 'What Milo Saw,' came out in 2014: it reflects the humour and tragedy of contemporary Britain through four very different voices: 9 year old Milo, 92 year old Lou (Milo’s Gran), 27 year old Sandy (Milo’s mum) and 24 year old Tripi (a Syrian refugee). It explores a range of issues from the nursing home crisis in the UK, coping as a single mum, being a refugee to living with a disability - Milo has a degenerative eye condition called Retinitis Pigementosa which means he has no periphery vision - but, paradoxically, he picks up on more of what's going on than those around him, especially in his Gran's nursing home.

My second novel, 'The Return of Norah Wells' came out in 2016: it tells the story of a mother who walked out on her young family and came back six years later expecting to pick up where she left off . The novel takes place over a May bank holiday and, like Milo, is told through several points of view: Willa (7), Ella (14), Norah (The Mother Who Left), Fay (The Mother Who Stayed) and Adam - the dad. It's a real family drama and I hope that it will lead to some interesting discussions amongst my readers about what it means to be a mum today.

My third novel, 'Born To Be Yours', tells the story of seven year old Jonah, a Kenyan boy abandoned at Heathrow airport. He is taken in by social services and matched with Rosie and Sam Keep, a British couple who long to have child to call their own. As the three of them are brought together they are thrown into a drama which will challenge their notions of what it means to be a family and Rosie and Sam have to confront the hardest question of all: how far are they prepared to go for someone who isn't their own child? 

I'm working on my fourth novel for adults, 'Forgetting You', about a man found in Regent's Park with no memory of who he is or where is from. This will be out in 2018. 

In 2017 I published my first Young Adult novel, 'Wishbones'. It's been a dream of mine to write for both adults and young adults. The story is also contemporary: it's about fourteen year old Feather Tucker who lives with her morbidly obese mother who has been given six months to live. Feather sees it as her duty to save her mother's life but as she begins to dig into her parents' past to find out why her mother got so sick, Feather's life and that of the people in the small village where she and her family live, change forever. 

I live currently live in Concord, New Hampshire, with my husband, Hugh, my two little girls, Tennessee Skye and Somerset Wilder and a wonderful white dogcat (he comes on walks with us), Seb. I love to write in coffee shops and I walk every day, which is as much part of my creative process as putting words on the page. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that readers are enjoying my stories so please get in touch and share your experience of reading my novels.

This was a pretty empowering book. I went through this book fast than I probably should have but I just couldn't put it down. I felt so connected to Feather. Her struggle and hope and wants felt like mine and I was cheering her on! I wanted her to be happy and for her mother to be better. Feather is the girl I wish could be and a great role mode for young girls.

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Posted in: 4 Stars, Review, Young Adult