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    The Food of Love
    The Food of Love
    The Food of Love
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Food of Love

    Written by Amanda Prowse

    Narrated by Amanda Prowse

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A loving mother. A perfect family. A shock wave that could shatter everything.

    Freya Braithwaite knows she is lucky. Nineteen years of marriage to a man who still warms her soul and two beautiful teenage daughters to show for it: confident Charlotte and thoughtful Lexi. Her home is filled with love and laughter.

    But when Lexi’s struggles with weight take control of her life, everything Freya once took for granted falls apart, leaving the whole family with a sense of helplessness that can only be confronted with understanding, unity and, above all, love.

    In this compelling and heart-wrenching new work by bestselling author Amanda Prowse, one ordinary family tackles unexpected difficulties and discovers that love can find its way through life’s darkest moments.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateDec 1, 2016
    ISBN9781531864071
    The Food of Love
    Author

    Amanda Prowse

    Amanda Prowse likens her own life story to those she writes about in her books. After self-publishing her debut novel Poppy Day in 2011, she has gone on to author twenty-five novels, including the number 1 bestsellers, Perfect Daughter and What Have I Done, six novellas and a memoir. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages and she regularly tops book charts all over the world. Remaining true to her ethos, Amanda writes stories of ordinary women and their families who find their strength, courage and love tested in ways they never imagined. The most prolific female contemporary fiction writer in the UK, with a legion of loyal readers, she goes from strength to strength. Being crowned 'queen of domestic drama' by the Daily Mail was one of her finest moments. Amanda is a regular contributor on TV and radio but her first love is, and will always be, writing. You can find her online at www.amandaprowse.com, on Twitter or Instagram @MrsAmandaProwse, and on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/amandaprowsenogreaterlove

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    Reviews for The Food of Love

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      An inside look into a hidden disease that lurks in our neighborhoods. My only challenge with the book is that I just didn't have insight into the characters.
    • 3/5
      A three and a half star rating.A normal, happy family or is it? That's what it looks like from the outside. Mum, Freya, dad, Lockie and their two teenagers Charlotte and Lexie. All is going well until Lexie becomes anorexic. A harrowing story with plenty of detail of what happens, what it is like to have share a house with someone suffering from this illness. The reader almost feels they are living there too as there is so much information about what goes on. I realise we are meant to sympathise with everyone but this family was really annoying - so many pages where one of them was "shouting" (even before their troubles began), "yelling", "screaming", "screeching" and banging things around. Freya who thinks she knows best about everything, even more than the experts, refusing to listen to anyone else when she should have got a grip. This book is a definite eye opener to an awful situation that you wouldn't want anyone to have to go through, so this book is worth reading for that alone.
    • 5/5
      Fighting the evils of anorexia.This is the first Amanda Prowse book I have read since Poppy Day, her debut novel. At the time I thought the story a bit far fetched but the author's writing was excellent. I was thrilled to receive this copy from NetGalley and to get an opportunity to see how her writing had changed over the last five years.This is the story of one perfectly ordinary, happy family, whose life is shattered by anorexia in one of the teenage daughters. While it paints an excellent picture of this devastating disease it also shows the effect of the illness on the sufferer's family. I suspect these reactions would be similar for other debilitating diseases too.I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but there were a few aspects that I struggled with. As mentioned by other reviewers, Freya's insistence that Lexi stay at home with her, rather than getting the hospitalisation that she so desperately needed was infuriating.I jarred at the frequent use of the phrase 'my little girl' and the ending was, well, quite frankly, missing. I can't say more about the ending without giving too much away but unless the arc is different to the final copy, there seemed to be at least five chapters missing before we jumped to the epilogue.I felt a lot of sympathy for Charlotte, Lexi's older sister, who was seriously overlooked in the fight to get Lexi to eat, and the relationship between Freya and her husband, Lockie was interesting too, and quite believable.Amanda Prowse is one of the most prolific authors currently writing novels. In the five years since Poppy Day she has penned 16 novels and 6 novellas, which is pretty incredible. Maybe a little longer spent on The Food for Love would have earned it five stars but it's still a book I'd recommend.
    • 3/5
      -- What's it about? --Freya and her husband, Lockie, are happily married with two teenage daughters. Both are creative types - Freya's a food writer and Lockie's a photographer - who enjoy their life and have good relationships with their daughters, built on honesty and trust.When Lexi's school suggests she has a problem with food, Freya is dismissive and offended. She's a good parent who knows and teaches her daughters about healthy eating and exercise. Besides, if Lexi had a problem, she'd tell her mum. Wouldn't she?Soon Lexi's problems worsen and Freya is forced to admit there may be a problem, but she and Lockie have different approaches to resolving the situation. As the tension mounts and Lexi's health suffers, the family try to support each other as best as they can while learning about the horrors of anorexia.-- What's it like? --Honest. Emotional. Dramatic. In the prologue a young Lexi jumps off a pier, throwing caution and common sense away in her pursuit of life. On an initial read through it's the act itself that's shocking: sudden, dangerous and oblivious of the peril she places herself in, Lexi frightens her family badly. As the story progresses, the nature of the shock is transformed. Where did that bold, fearless Lexi disappear to? What happened to her? The contrast between her youthful energy and her anxious weight-watching is shocking in itself, even before we learn about her weight loss methods.Sometimes this feels a little like a primer on anorexia. Freya is shocked when informed about the various tactics her daughter may employ to avoid gaining weight and the discussion around pro-Ana and pro-Mia websites was a definite case of an author telling instead of showing. Although this information is accurate and Prowse has clearly done her research, the story-telling is stronger when Lexi is given the opportunity to put her struggles into her own words.However, Prowse's real interest is the emotional core of her characters and exploring how they respond to Lexi's illness. Lockie, Freya and Lexie's big sister, Charlotte, all struggle to know how to act around Lexie and how best to support her. Crucially, they also struggle at times to support each other; Prowse's depiction of a family in crisis is utterly convincing.I found Freya's dismissive attitude irritating at times, probably because it is completely the opposite of my approach to anything involving my children. I've always tackled problems by trying to find out more information and by considering all the options available. Freya prefers to characterise her daughter's mental illness as a 'blip', is deeply concerned about what it means for her status as a 'good' parent and wants to 'fix' Lexie all by herself - even as it becomes clearer that she can't.-- Tell me more --At the end of each chapter Prowse builds our concern by including a few pages focusing on a countdown in hours towards something the family are dreading doing. It feels easy to guess what the countdown is leading up to, but you're likely to be surprised.Prowse is fond of adjectives and we are made fully aware of characters' dress, appearance and setting:'Miss Burke entered a bland, square office with closed, grey, vertical blinds and a large map of the world on one wall. A clock ticked loudly. The woman took a seat behind the empty desk and opened her palm, indicating a chair on the other side of the varnished, blond wood.'Final thoughtsThis is an emotional insight into a family struggling to live with the extremely challenging illness that is anorexia. Prowse effectively explores how each family member responds to the situation and each other in a story that builds towards a dramatic finale. The epilogue is perhaps a little anti-climactic and feels cut-off from the rest of the narrative, but I imagine it'll please most readers.Prowse's strength is the completely realistic characterisation and depiction of family interactions, and that's what made this so easy to read despite the inherent sadness of the material.This would be a great choice for fans of Jodi Picoult and other authors who use their writing to tackle topical issues.Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.