Spare Brides

Written by Adele Parks

Narrated by Tor Leijten

Hope. Glamour. Independence. A new era has begun… ‘A wonderfully absorbing tale of friendship, rich in period detail’ Stylist

With the Great War behind them, four friends are ready to live again.

Lydia, a society beauty, has everything – wealth, status and a husband who survived the War. All she has to do now is provide an heir.

Widowed Sarah cares for her wounded brother, certain that no one will ever replace her brave husband.

Younger sister Beatrice finds it hard to shine, especially when there are so few men left to shine for…

And independent Ava – who can light any room – is determined to seize the freedom of being a single woman.

But when these four meet the irresistible war hero Sergeant Major Edgar Trent, everything changes…

Spare Brides is a glorious novel about love, loss, change and chances from the Number One bestselling author Adele Parks.

Praise for Spare Brides:

‘A resounding success … a triumph’ Daily Mail

‘A touching novel’ Daily Express

‘You’ll love the drama, the gorgeous dresses, grand houses and in particular, the handsome but damaged love interest’ Good Housekeeping

‘This is the first historical novel from bestselling author Adele Parks and it’s a powerful read’ Closer

‘The great author’s first historical novel and it’s a total smash’ Heat

‘A wonderful novel about a group of women struggling to deal with life after World War One… a heady cocktail of love, class and beaded frocks. Her most accomplished novel yet’ Daisy Goodwin

‘A wonderfully absorbing tale of friendship, rich in period detail’ Stylist

‘A fantastic read’ Fabulous

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Sep 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9780008409128

Adele Parks

Adele Parks was born in Teesside, North East England. Her first novel, Playing Away, was published in 2000, and since then she's had seventeen international bestsellers, translated into twenty-six languages. She's been an ambassador for The Reading Agency and a judge for the Costa Book Awards, and is a keen supporter of The National Literary Trust. She's lived in Italy, Botswana and London and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey, with her husband, son and cat.

Reviews for Spare Brides

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I only bought this because the price came down to 99p on Kindle. Now I'm wishing I hadn't bothered. What a mess! Like Sex and the City in some vague historical setting - the blurb says the early 20s, but I think the author must have switched at the last minute to cash in on the anniversary of the First World War because the anachronisms are ridiculous. I had to laugh when I finally got to the end, after speed reading through half the book, to find a bibliography - all great titles, shame Adele Parks didn't stop to read any. Seriously - babydoll nightgowns, nylon housecoats, doing the lindy hop ten years before time, and talk of 'Inheritance Tax' (death duties) and single women chaperoning debutantes. Is there a prize for spotting the most slip-ups?Time travel aside, my interest plummeted when I realised I was reading a derivative romance novel, and little more a poor attempt to update both Lady Chatterley's Lover and Anna Karenina (I dearly wish Lydia had thrown herself under a train, and taken her walking cliche of a lover with her. Yeesh). Everybody's lives revolve around sex. Lydia is married but has mind-blowing sex with her gamekeeper - sorry, a stranger at a party and can think of nothing else, ever. Also the descriptions of 'love making' are worthy of the Bad Sex Award. I think we're supposed to believe that 'Lid' and Edgar are star-cross'd lovers, but she's randy and he's deranged. Ava is a glittering Mary Sue - sorry, Bright Young Thing, who shags her way through society until one cad beats her up, then she becomes a do-gooder. Sarah was widowed by the war but Still Wants Sex, damn it, and poor ugly, frumpy, too tall, plain, boring, unattractive Beatrice is condemned by the author for not being remotely marriageable, to the point where a blind suitor commits suicide rather than accept her proposal. Seriously. If this was a TV series, not one of these women would pass the Bechdel Test, and I don't care what decade they are supposed to be living in - they are all defined by sex, whether they can get any, whether they enjoy it, and if they can score the ultimate goal of a Husband and a Family. Lid and Mr Rochester get their happy ending, natch, but poor Beatrice doesn't even merit a closing paragraph. What a stinking pile of Mills and Boon.

[lara335 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Abandoned after 100 pages. A first for me. Boring Lydia swooning over a man she has just met for how many pages? All prolonged tell and very little show. Endless repetitions of mind-numbing feelings.

[anissaannalise-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent read. Definitely a 4.5 (why is there still no way to grant half stars on Goodreads?!) This was the first historical fiction that I've read by Adele Parks but I've read plenty of her contemporary fiction and I like her style. I wasn't disappointed with this book and she continues to have a way of writing women and their relationships, dreams and lives, in a way I find witty, poignant and true. I actually liked each of the women portrayed in this book so that was new (I usually find there's always one I don't much like in Parks' books but I still find them terribly interesting to read about). I completely bought in to their individual desperation & how they each went about achieving their goals. Life following WWI was a bit grim if you were a woman looking for a male mate and it was clear in this story that many were. I won't spoil here but I will say that I didn't think I'd root for Bea as much as I did. She came off as a bit bitter to begin but then I'd feel for her because of her unfortunate looks, cankles and grim finances. She's worse off than Edith Crawley and it hurt to watch. Even though everyone else was suffering in their own way, I felt she'd suffered enough at the starting gate. so the added indignity of "maiden aunt" status was more than I wanted her to bear for too long.

I think this would be a great read for book club and should it come up in any of those I'm a member of, I'll be happy to read this again & look forward to the discussion. It's not a hard read but it can be engrossing so while it's not a chore to get through, you may experience aggravation at having to put it away during a commute or reading lunch. I don't consider books lengthy until they reach the 500 page mark but I do know some book club reads around the 450 (this one is around that) or so mark can be considered a bit long & too much of a commitment with a looming deadline. I still think this one is worth the read.

[dubaireader · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What happens to the women left over after The Great War?This is a fascinating era, still reeling from the impact of the first world war, where so many young men were lost or maimed. The four main characters are all well-to-do ladies who are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and live with the devastation of The Great War.Sarah and Beatrice (Bea) are sisters whose brother has lost an arm and both legs and now hides away suffering with depression. Sarah's husband was killed in the war and Bea, who lacks both riches and looks, is desperately searching for a man, almost any man, to become her husband, so she can fulfill the destiny she has been raised to expect. Their friend Lydia, on the other hand, has everything, vast riches and a husband who served 'from a desk', and so remains uninjured. Finally there is Ava, a fascinating character, a bit of a wild child, daughter of newly rich parents and not interested in marriage at all.The four attend soirees and parties, with varying levels of enthusiasm. Ava attracts men like flies but her favourites are the married men, who only want one thing and then pass on. Bea, on the other hand, is more of a wallflower and struggles in a society that has lost so many of its finest young men. Sarah is more of a mediator, she's not looking for anyone to replace her lost Arthur, father of her children. But it is Lydia whose story dominates the book, when she behaves completely out of character and causes chaos within her circle.I felt that this book offered much, but in the end, failed to deliver. There were many lost opportunities; the issue of Marie Stopes offering contraceptives to poor families to help reduce unwanted pregnancies, the suggestion that giving free boots to employees children would increase loyalty amongst staff, the effects of inheritance tax etc. All were mentioned but then glossed over in favour of a rather Mills and Boon love affair.The unanimous opinion of my book group was that this was a rather fluffy book, an easy read, but failing to explore the issues that it presented. It was also quite an eye-opener that women could still be quite so vacuous after all the losses.

[nicx27 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Spare Brides is, I know, a complete departure from Adele Parks' normal fare. I think maybe she should have stuck to what she knows as I'm afraid I found this book a bit of a bore. It's the story of four women in the 1920s dealing with life after the Great War. Ava is a fast-living society queen who has no desire to settle down. Lydia is married to Lawrence, who managed to avoid death or serious injury during the war by doing a desk job, something that Lydia finds almost repulsive. Sarah and Beatrice are sisters. Sarah lost her husband but Beatrice never married and now there are so few men left that she knows she is unlikely to do so now.Most of the story revolves around Lydia, her feelings about her husband and about another man, Sergeant Major Edgar Trent, but the other three women are by no means just supporting characters. Unfortunately I neither cared for any of them or their lives. I found the writing one-dimensional and it was a long book to wade through. All rather disappointing really.