The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge
Now in her third year of living the rural dream, starry Instamum Issy Smugge is up against it. A single parent of four with an award-winning brand, a gin-swigging mother convalescing upstairs and a distraught relative craving a shoulder to cry on, her diary and listed Regency home are bursting at the seams!
Of course, she can count on lively support from the colourful playground mums – and then there’s always Tom, the startlingly good-looking vicar, and his angelic wife, Claire.
But as pressure begins to mount, long-buried memories surface and difficult decisions need to be made. How will our heroine cope with painful emotions? (Clue: no filter!) And when the influencer needs influencing, who will show her the way?
I so enjoyed this latest installment. Ruth crafts such vivid scenes and the humour flows throughout. Highly recommend this and all the others in the series. Natasha Hodge
Writing another story in a series is never easy, but The Continued Times is more than a worthy successor - it is a triumph, fulfilling the expectations of a legion of Issy Smugge and Ruth Leigh fans. Our heroine is on a steep learning curve and displaying more and more excellent human qualities, but she is still hilarious. This reader particularly enjoyed her barbed remarks on the subject of caddish Johnnie's latest squeeze. Not wishing to pile on pressure, but can we hope for a fourth? Aggie C