Poppy Jenkins

Poppy Jenkins is a joyful story of love, intrigue, passion and mysterious meanderings through a tiny mid-Wales village where we all live, no matter where we live. Clare Ashton has charmed her way into readers’ hearts with three previous award-winning stunners (Pennance, After Mrs. Hamilton, and That Certain Something), but she’s damn near going to cause a fan-girl and fan-boy riot after they read Poppy Jenkins. Casual on the face of it, Poppy Jenkins, is a multi-layered odyssey of such subtle, sophisticated telling that one doesn’t know if the pages are flying by because one wants to know what happens next or if one is having an existential crisis of life-altering magnitude. Turns out it’s both! The book opens as Poppy, the main character, experiences the re-awakened jolt of wildly thrashing mixed feelings when she sees, for the first time in years, Rosalyn Thorn. Rosalyn, Poppy’s once best friend, rejected Poppy years earlier in the kind of memorable disconnect that makes “ghosting” look cordial and polite. Thorne didn’t so much ‘get away’ as ‘go as far away as possible.’ And now, this many years later, Ms. Thorn, in her black Jaguar, has come back to the village to visit her parents. And drive Poppy crazy. At first blush, Poppy Jenkins, the young woman, is a pastoral dream come true. But Poppy, it turns out, in classic Clare Ashton subterfuge, has a shadow side easily perpetuated by her convenient lapse in memory bolstered by a willingness to shelve her own heartache…

As soon as I got to the end of Poppy Jenkins, I turned to page one and started reading it all over again. It was even better the second time because I noticed all of the subtle reactions and side actions that I had missed the first go around when I focused on Poppy's POV. The story is about two best friends who grow up in a small town in Wales but who for unknown reasons at the time part ways in an ugly manner. They connect years later, each having chosen a different path after university, one living the big city life and the other moving back home to be with family. It's a warm hearted, very funny and charming story, chock full of great secondary characters and the leads of course are delicious. The descriptions of the small town and the lush natural setting are so gorgeous and intimate, I just know the author had to have grown up there. I would highly recommend if you love witty writing, great characters, steamy romance and the small town story telling similar to Fried Green Tomatoes and the movie, Mystic Pizza. I will definitely read more books from Clare Ashton.

Clare Ashton writes such enchanting novels. I love her turn of phrase which, is done sparingly so that it does not become tedious. The main character was quirky and loveable, although annoying at times. I liked the way the author weaved the back story all through the main narrative. It worked. I was, however, disappointed that the structure mimicked another of her novels, and which was therefore predictable. That being said, I do not at all regret purchasing this book. It's cute, colourful, light, and honestly a delightful read. I fully intend to read it again, and maybe again after that, simple because, with all the nonsense bombarding us in the world today, it's fantastic to sit and read something as feel-good as this novel was.

Slower than slow, which is perfect if you like a long wade through much angst, but ...lots of hilarious moments, quirky characters, dreams, hopes, broken hearts, love renewed, love lost, lusty lesbians, small town politics, big hearts. Poppy's mother has Super Powers of intuition and timing, so always look for those moments-- some tender, many laugh out loud funny. Very well written and a great story, but be patient as characters teeter back and forth for a. very.long.time.

Clare Ashton is a marvellous writer, one who trancends the genre of lesbian romance. Two of her previous works - 'Pennance' and 'After Mrs Hamilton' - are astonishingly good literary works of art. Both of these earlier novels contain sympathetic yet flawed characters who are so realistic, they feel like people I might know. The 'happy endings' in these books are not unequivocal, they are tempered by the pain and difficult experiences of the protagonists. On the surface, Poppy Jenkins is a somewhat lighter romance story than Ashton's previous work and more firmly centred in the romance genre. However, that's like saying than Jane Austen is just a romance writer, rather than the amusing, subtle, gentle, yet clear-eyed observer of her social environment that her books reveal her to be. Like Austen's novels, Ashton's 'Poppy Jenkins' is also an accurate portrayal of the society that the protagonists inhabit. I particularly enjoyed Aston's acute observations that people respond to others differently, depending on how those others treat them and how much they like them. 'Poppy Jenkins' is consciously referential to Austen's novels and includes aspects of the storylines of 'Pride and Prejudice' as well as 'Persuasion', but it's also a finely-wrought modern novel with a love story that includes the requisite passionate sex scenes of its genre. I read a lot of lesbian novels, and I especially enjoy a well-written romance. Regrettably, these are few and far between. Too many books…