The Mothers of Mersey Square (Mersey Square #2) by Pam Howes
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas
Read: 1st October 2023
Published: 5th October 2023
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Mersey Square, Stockport, 1964. Can she love another woman’s child?
Jane Wilson has just got engaged to her childhood sweetheart Eddie. Although they had a rocky start and Jane is haunted by Eddie’s previous relationship, she couldn’t be happier that they’re back together. But before they can get out the bunting and make it down the aisle, Eddie’s first wife is in a terrible car accident. Eddie’s sweet three-year-old son Jonny is left alone, crying for his mother and inconsolable.
Jane resolves that she must do all she can for the innocent little boy. But at only nineteen, is she ready to be a mother, especially to a child who isn’t her own?
As Jane looks after little Jonny whilst Eddie is away for work, she begins to fall for his cheeky smile and sweet nature, but when she sees old photographs of Jonny and his mother, she realises something is terribly wrong. Jane is sure that Jonny’s mother was hiding a terrible secret. Jane now faces a devastating choice: should she hide the truth forever or reveal what she knows and risk losing her beloved son…
Fans of Nadine Dorries, Diney Costeloe and Nancy Revell will absolutely love this heart-wrenching and gripping historical novel about courage, hope and the strength of friendship.
This book was previously published as Three Steps to Heaven.
MY THOUGHTS:
The British invasion reborn! Sex, drugs and rock and roll entwined with family secrets, marriage, motherhood and a kidnapping...
Though I was born after all this (fictionally) happened, my love of the TV series "Heartbeat" gave me an appreciation for the British invasion of early sixties music - though I'm more a Stones fan that a Beatle. And Pam Howes' love of this era of music radiates through the pages as she charts the teenage boy band The Raiders' rise to fame. As with the first book (originally published as the prequel) I read yesterday, this tale transports me back to an era I've only ever read about or seen played out on TV.
Beginning early 1964 from where "The Girls of Mersey Square" left off, 18 year old Eddie Mellor is trying to settle into married life with Angie after she fell pregnant with their baby son Jonny. But try as he might he still longs for his two loves that he had to leave behind - his band The Raiders and his girl Jane Wilson. He and Jane were making plans to marry when Angie dropped her bombshell and in an attempt to do the right thing, Eddie broke it off with Jane and married the mother of his child. That also meant giving up all his dreams of fame and fortune and becoming a responsible adult by getting a normal 9 to 5 job that pays the rent, puts food on the table and provides for his wife and child.
Heartbroken, Jane falls into the arms of Mark Fisher who has always held a torch for her and though her heart is not in it, she ends up engaged to him when he proposes. She doesn't love Mark but he offers security and her mother adores him never missing an opportunity to compare him to "that Mellor lad who would amount to nothing". Since becoming engaged, Mark's behaviour towards changed and he became more possessive and controlling, disapproving of the clothes she wore and instead buying her new ones from the Victorian age! As her relationship with Mark comes to a culmination at the beginning of the book with a trip to the Lakes District for Valentine's Day, Jane is feeling trapped with no idea how to get out of this farce of an engagement. While Mark wants to control Jane's every move and doesn't care how devious he has to be to keep her. Meanwhile, she continues to work at Flanagan and Grey Records, having been promoted to manager with a charming little assistant in Carl who rises in the ranks further into the story. A job, I'm sure, Mark plans to put a stop to as soon as the vows are exchanged.
Back in Stockport, Eddie's life is getting duller by the second. In a fit of temper and boredom, he chucks in his job at the paint factory knowing the grief it will cause with Angie when he gets home but he doesn't care. As usual, the couple row causing Jonny to burst into tears and he storms out and meets up with the lads instead of going to night school. Roy had called his mum to say he had some good news to tell him and Eddie knew he needed something to brighten his otherwise dull existence.
The news that Jane has broken off her engagement with Mark was music to Eddie's ears and soon the pair are meeting secretly, partaking in a clandestine affair since Eddie was still married. Added to that, the lads want Eddie back in the band. His replacement was never up to parr and before long everyone is happy again. Everyone, that is, except Mark, who continues to rear his ugly obsessive head.
Eddie is going through the process of getting a divorce from Angie when she and her lover are tragically killed and he and Jane move in together to take care of his nearly three year old son Jonny. Their plans to marry are brought forward, no longer hampered by a divorce, and finally after half a decade of hankering after each other they are wed. But their happiness is shortlived when their young baby is kidnapped when the band are on tour and their world comes crashing down. Will they ever see their baby again?
So many questions are raised throughout this story, some of which are carried over from the first. The biggest hangs like a shadow (I thought) throughout and isn't cleared up till the end though it could prove a shock for those not expecting it. I read too many thrillers to be shocked...lol The sixties is an era that is fast becoming forgotten now that it is over half a century ago so it is good to relive the era through these delightful tales penned by someone with an obvious love of the era and its music.
I enjoyed every minute of the journey back in time and invite you step on the back of Eddie's motorbike and be transported back to the sixties for a tale full of love, betrayal, family as well as sex, drugs and rock and roll. Originally published as "Three Steps to Heaven", THE MOTHERS OF MERSEY SQUARE is an enjoyable saga filled with such likeable characters (plus a few shady ones) that you just can't help but enjoy being in their company. Are five stars even enough?
Another cracking read by Pam Howes! Delightful from start to finish.
I would like to thank #PamHowes, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheMothersOfMerseySquare in exchange for an honest review.
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Pam Howes is an ex Interior Designer who loves creating stories, but only started writing seriously about twelve years ago. The idea for her first novel, set in the sixties, came from her time as a teenager, working in a local record store and hanging round with the musicians who frequented the business.
That first novel evolved into a series set in the fictional town of Pickford, based on her home town of Stockport. Three Steps to Heaven; 'Til I Kissed You; Always On My Mind; Not Fade Away, and That'll Be The Day, follow the lives and loves through the decades of fictional Rock'n'Roll band The Raiders.
Pam signed a second contract with the award winning publisher Bookouture with the first novel in her Lark Lane series, The Factory Girls of Lark Lane, published in July 2018. Her first series for Bookouture - The Mersey Trilogy featuring The Liverpool Girls, The Forgotten Family of Liverpool and The Lost Daughter of Liverpool - is also available in E book, paperback and as audio books.
Pam is a big fan of sixties music and it's this love and the support and encouragement of her musician partner that compelled her to write the series. Pam has three adult daughters and seven grandchildren. She lives in Cheshire and as well as writing novels, writes short stories, which have appeared in charity anthologies and online e-zines, and poems, many of which are published.
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