Our Tiny Useless Hearts By Toni Jordan

[amazon_link id=”1760293814″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]‘Our Tiny Useless Hearts’ is the latest book by Toni Jordan.

Henry has ended his marriage to Caroline and run off with his daughter’s teacher, Martha. Caroline, having shredded a wardrobe-full of Henry’s suits, has gone after them.Craig and Lesley have dropped over from next door to catch up on the fallout from Henry and Caroline’s all-night row.And Janice, Caroline’s sister, is staying for the weekend to look after the children because Janice is the sensible one. Then Craig enters through the bedroom window expecting a tryst with Caroline and finds Janice instead, Lesley storms in full of threats, Henry, Caroline and Martha arrive back from the airport in separate taxis – and let’s not even get started on Brendan the pizza guy.Janice can cope with all that. But when her ex-husband Alec knocks on the door things suddenly get complicated…

What can I say about this book? Only that the author has managed to write a story with so many unlikable characters that I regularly found myself tutting in disgust at their antics and unable to put the vibrant book down.

The story is seen solely through the eyes of Janice, who happens to arrive at her sister’s Caroline’s house just as her husband comes clear about having an affair with his daughters teacher. He runs off with his mistress only for Caroline to chase after him leaving Janice to look after her nieces. Meanwhile Caroline’s neighbours, Craig and Lesley are very quick to offer their advice on their perfect marriage.

As Janice looks after her nieces, the bossy and inquisitive Mercedes and her younger sister, Paris who hasn’t spoken since her father’s departure, she begins to reflect on her own life and question the decisions she made, particularly the one where she divorced the man she still loves.

This story has the most eclectic range of characters, all with huge, overbearing and self absorbed personalities, Janice was the only the person who had a sense of empathy towards the pain that her nieces were feeling and is a kind and gentle soul in the sea of egos and pain. As a scientist, Janice is a thinker and logical always there to offer a solution when problems arose. She’s a quiet person, who puts others before her and this is reflected in how her life has turned out.

A soul searching tale of love and sisterhood, ‘Our Tiny Useless Hearts’ is a poignant and witty story about the complexities of life, the struggles that we encounter along the way and how what happens in our childhoods moulds into the person we become in life. Witty and observant of life’s relationships, this book was riddled with drama and shocking characters and was a delight from start to finish.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”1760293814″ target=”_blank” ]Our Tiny, Useless Hearts from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.