The Woman in the Middle: the perfect escapist read from the much-loved Sunday Times bestseller
THE NEW MILLY JOHNSON NOVEL, THE HAPPIEST EVER AFTER, IS OUT NOW!
Shay Bastable is the woman in the middle. She is part of the sandwich generation – caring for her parents and her children, supporting her husband Bruce, holding them all together and caring for them as best she can.
Then the arrival of a large orange skip on her mother’s estate sets in motion a cataclysmic series of events which leads to the collapse of Shay’s world. She is forced to put herself first for a change.
But in order to move forward with her present, Shay needs to make sense of her past. And so she returns to the little village she grew up in, to uncover the truth about what happened to her when she was younger. And in doing so, she discovers that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to find the only way is up.
Praise for The Woman in the Middle:
‘An unputdownable tale of redemption and hard-won wisdom, this is a book that speaks for us all wherever we are in our lives. Milly Johnson always delivers an absolutely cracking read’ Katie Fforde
‘The main characters are wise, loveable and so relatable. The humour is down to earth, the emotions are real and the storyline compelling. No one else writes quite like Milly and, with The Woman in the Middle, she has produced yet another winner’’ Jill Mansell
‘Written from the heart … honest, inspirational and great fun … I loved it’ Janie Millman
‘This book is delicious. As moreish as a freshly made sandwich, full of your favourite filling. It’s well worth the wait and joyous to bite into’ Jo Thomas
‘Immensely relatable, tender and wise; Milly’s magic sparkles from every page’ Cathy Bramley
‘A complex family drama with a big heart, a light touch and lots of surprises’ Veronica Henry
‘The perfect pick-me-up that you won’t be able to put down. I loved it’ Matt Dunn
Praise for Milly Johnson:
‘The feeling you get when you read a Milly Johnson book should be bottled and made available on the NHS’ Debbie Johnson
‘Every time you discover a new Milly book, it’s like finding a pot of gold’ heat
‘A glorious, heartfelt novel’ Rowan Coleman
‘Absolutely loved it. Milly’s writing is like getting a big hug with just the right amount of bite underneath. I was rooting for Bonnie from the start’ Jane Fallon
‘Bursting with warmth and joie de vivre’ Jill Mansell
ASIN : B08T9XJNNC
Publisher : Simon & Schuster UK
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : October 14, 2021
Language : English
File size : 5.8 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 444 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1471199011
Page Flip : Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #770,410 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #3,759 in Later in Life Romance (Kindle Store) #3,982 in Later in Life Romance (Books) #16,298 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)
Customer Reviews: 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (6,881) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
$9.99
THE NEW MILLY JOHNSON NOVEL, THE HAPPIEST EVER AFTER, IS OUT NOW!
Shay Bastable is the woman in the middle. She is part of the sandwich generation – caring for her parents and her children, supporting her husband Bruce, holding them all together and caring for them as best she can.
Then the arrival of a large orange skip on her mother’s estate sets in motion a cataclysmic series of events which leads to the collapse of Shay’s world. She is forced to put herself first for a change.
But in order to move forward with her present, Shay needs to make sense of her past. And so she returns to the little village she grew up in, to uncover the truth about what happened to her when she was younger. And in doing so, she discovers that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to find the only way is up.
Praise for The Woman in the Middle:
‘An unputdownable tale of redemption and hard-won wisdom, this is a book that speaks for us all wherever we are in our lives. Milly Johnson always delivers an absolutely cracking read’ Katie Fforde
‘The main characters are wise, loveable and so relatable. The humour is down to earth, the emotions are real and the storyline compelling. No one else writes quite like Milly and, with The Woman in the Middle, she has produced yet another winner’’ Jill Mansell
‘Written from the heart … honest, inspirational and great fun … I loved it’ Janie Millman
‘This book is delicious. As moreish as a freshly made sandwich, full of your favourite filling. It’s well worth the wait and joyous to bite into’ Jo Thomas
‘Immensely relatable, tender and wise; Milly’s magic sparkles from every page’ Cathy Bramley
‘A complex family drama with a big heart, a light touch and lots of surprises’ Veronica Henry
‘The perfect pick-me-up that you won’t be able to put down. I loved it’ Matt Dunn
Praise for Milly Johnson:
‘The feeling you get when you read a Milly Johnson book should be bottled and made available on the NHS’ Debbie Johnson
‘Every time you discover a new Milly book, it’s like finding a pot of gold’ heat
‘A glorious, heartfelt novel’ Rowan Coleman
‘Absolutely loved it. Milly’s writing is like getting a big hug with just the right amount of bite underneath. I was rooting for Bonnie from the start’ Jane Fallon
‘Bursting with warmth and joie de vivre’ Jill Mansell
ASIN : B08T9XJNNC
Publisher : Simon & Schuster UK
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : October 14, 2021
Language : English
File size : 5.8 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 444 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-1471199011
Page Flip : Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #770,410 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #3,759 in Later in Life Romance (Kindle Store) #3,982 in Later in Life Romance (Books) #16,298 in Romantic Comedy (Kindle Store)
Customer Reviews: 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (6,881) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
10 reviews for The Woman in the Middle: the perfect escapist read from the much-loved Sunday Times bestseller
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Sherri –
Milly Johnson Never Disappoints!!
I loved, loved, loved this book. Listened to it on Audible in the car and hated reaching my destination.
Fabulous Book Fiend –
Multi-layered
This was quite different from what I was expecting. When you read the premise of this book you get the main idea of what is going to happen to our ‘Woman in the Middle’ but you have no idea how we’re going to get from the beginning to the end and what depths we’re going to go to in between. This book is a wild ride. I was left quite exhausted from everything poor Shay had to go through. It was a journey and it is testament to Milly Johnson’s writing that she got me through in one piece!Yes Shay is the woman in the middle but she is so much more than that. As well as being someone who cares for her parents, her children and her husband she is also lacking in anyone who actually hears her or supports her. She has skeletons in her closet that burden her on a daily basis and I’m surprised she had not already snapped and thrown in the towel. At points the book was pretty stressful because of all that Shay and her family go through and it was sometimes a tough read.The structure of this book is very interesting. Whilst it does take place in chronological order, as I have already mentioned, it’s so much more than just Shay and her sandwich of parents and children. So many of the things that affect her are explored fully in this book. Each tangent we go down gets it own time and attention and I did sometimes wonder if we would ever get back to Shay’s previous issues but everything just weaves round and round and back together and so you have to ensure you’re concentrating. It must have been a nightmare to keep track of whilst plotting and writing.I did enjoy the fact that we have a previous character from a Milly Johnson novel pop up in this book and we return to a setting we had been to before so as you’re reading make sure that you keep an eye out for those easter eggs! I listened to this book on audio and whilst the narration was good, I like that the narrator of a Milly Johnson novel always has a norther accent, there were some issues with chapters being cut off part way through. Thankfully I had my beautiful hardback to fall back on and I have heard that the problem has been fixed so if you were thinking of downloading the audio you should be fine now!Whilst I didn’t laugh as much with this book as with previous novels from this author, she really does tackle some real world issues within the pages of the novel and it gave me pause for thought. She has still included her usual strong women, people getting their comeuppance and of course a good dollop of Yorkshire spirit. Despite the audiobook issues I do recommend the audio but the hardback is also really stunning!
Bookworman –
I liked it!
I love Milly Johnson’s writing; she’s one of my favorite authors and one of the few where I order her books as soon as they’re available instead of borrowing them from the library first to make sure I like it enough to own it.So, I liked this book, especially after I read the story for a second time. However, I didn’t totally love it the way I did many of her previous books. Even though Johnson tends to deal with some pretty serious subjects in her stories, this one felt much darker than many of her prior books. I put it in the same category with “Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage” and “True North” both of which I like but aren’t the books that I return to again and again like I do with “The Magnificent Mrs. Mayhew”, “Here Come the Girls”, and “The Queen of Wishful Thinking”.I liked it enough that I will buy the ebook and audiobook when it becomes available in the US and, who knows… I may end up liking it more in the future.Some profanity.
Scarlettleigh –
Unlikeable characters
Lots of build-up to conflict, and then poof, it is over. Characters weren’t really likeable, and the character growth unbelievable.
Kindle Customer –
A favorite author
Shay was the good daughter, and friend . And then a cruel incident in her teens had changed her life. Now celebrating her wedding anniversary with her drunk husband she feels overwhelmed with her life. She is a great character and I liked this book.
melisa –
Milly Johnson is my favourite author and so far, I have never been failed by her magic with words. Her characters (probably like I imagine Milly herself) are very down to earth and are just like me or you – they are probably people that you may know.She describes her main character, Shay Bastable as part of the sandwich generation – caring for her parents and her children and supporting her husband Bruce and holding them altogether. The slight issue we come to realise though – just who is holding Shay together?Shay is a wonderful character who gives her all to the people that she loves which leaves very little time for herself. Sadly her mum Roberta has dementia and is struggling with her new neighbours who are intent on rebuilding the house next door. When a skip arrives on the drive of next door, it sets off memories with Roberta and a chain of events that makes Shay realise that she maybe doesn’t know her family as well as she thought she did.Throughout the story, we learn about Shay’s childhood with her parents, her resentful sister and an event in Shay’s life has left her scarred and made her family leave their comfortable village life abruptly. Although this may sound like it is all doom and gloom – it really isn’t! It is a positive, heartwarming and upbeat story that makes you realise it isn’t too late to find that spark and above all, it isn’t selfish to take time away from the everyday hustle and bustle of life!Milly Johnson just seems to get better with every book she writes and manages to make you feel emotions that you maybe didn’t realise that you had – probably much like Shay herself.I absolutely adored The Woman in the Middle and can’t praise it enough as it was an absolute joy to read!
Isabella –
Simply outstanding. Milly Johnson is one of the best novelists around and she keeps getting better. Long may she write.
Marinus Pieck –
Great reading
Mary Meier –
With twists and turns, plus a good dose of present travails, Shay’s story will keep you going until the happy end (for those who deserve it!).
OzBookWorm –
Milly Johnson is as comforting as a bowl of hot soup on a cold night. I always enjoy how her books are warmly familiar but with unique plots and storyline’s.