Disappointing[return][return]Not having read any of the other books in this series, I suffered greatly. Speech in the early chapters was laden with paragraph long backfill ("Yes, love, back 10 years ago, when you were madly in love with your husband Davie it was different, but ever since he died a terrible death a year ago, leaving you in this horrible place with 5 kids, no money and no support......" type of thing).[return][return]She marries John, the father of her brother in law, who has a thing for young girls, to the point where he starts sleeping with his adopted granddaughter. Meanwhile Evie's 12 year old son is having a little sexy fling with the same girl.[return][return]Money is spent, dont know who has a job (if anyone), and some of the family have a bit of a "gift"[return]which keeps getting alluded to but not much happens with it, so you kind of wander why she keeps bothering to mention it. Supporting characters come in and out, never to be seen again, and again you wonder why she bothered, and if they had a bigger part in other books. For instance, pages are devoted to Franny Jean and Lizzie about 1/3rd of the way, in intricate detail, and they never appear again.[return][return]Whilst the first part goes into fairly deep detail over a few months, the second half covers nearly 10 years in the same number of pages. Bear in mind this is only 300 pages long which gives the second half a rushed pace. [return][return]Will not be looking out for any others in the series ( )