A Clean Sweep

 by Audrey Davis

Goodreads

Amazon  US / UK

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A CLEAN SWEEP is a laugh-out-loud tale of love, lies and second chances.

Love comes around when you least expect it. Fifty-something widow Emily isn’t expecting romance. Nor is she expecting a hunky twenty-something chimney sweep on her doorstep.
Daughter Tabitha knows something isn’t quite right with her relationship, while her boss – Abba-loving Meryl – thinks she’s found the real deal. Are they both right, or pursuing Mr. Wrong?

Emily’s sister, Celeste, has the perfect marriage … or does she? Can a fitness tracker lead her down the path to happiness or heartbreak?

Susan is single, overweight and resigned to a life of loneliness. There was the one who got away but you don’t get another try, do you?

Prepare for a rollercoaster ride of emotions in a book that will grab your heart, make you smile and wish you had a chimney to sweep.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

She hoped it was a passing phase. Her daughter had been through more phases than the moon. With a few total eclipses along the way.

Up Yours Chimney Services… they were members of the European Federation of Chimney Sweeps, which sounded very impressive. Perhaps they all met up once a year in The Hague or Brussels. She imagined a giant table around which sat dozens of men – perhaps women too – comparing brush lengths and discussing the merits of coal versus wood. Maybe having a sing along in Mockney accents.

Emily had known for weeks now that the tap was a nuisance but had pushed it to the bottom of the pile of jobs that needed doing. Like her taxes and shaving her legs.

“They can be a handful at times, but they’re adorable really.” Privately Tom thought they were about as adorable as a dose of genital herpes but wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

“She’s not the cause, just a symptom.” Which made this other woman sound like a rare medical condition rather than a brazen hussy who’d snaffled her man.

As Celeste still regarded exercise with trepidation and loathed having to wear trainers – so unattractive – she always opted for the park. At least it was flat there and she didn’t have to contend with disgustingly healthy individuals bounding past her while she wheezed red-faced up a slight incline.

My Review:

I smirked my way through this crisply written, delightful, cleverly amusing, and sweetly heart-squeezing tale. Written in the third person omniscient POV for multiple characters of both sexes, I adored the humorous observations and inner musings of the outstandingly quirky cast of characters. And there were plenty of them, all uniquely distinct, flawed, and endearingly bent. Each household was experiencing significant transition, which included and was not limited to excitement, heartbreak, disappointments, new love, lost love, and remarkable gains and losses. The storylines were rife with scandals, stressors, secrets, scares, shames, surprises, and scams. And I relished them all. I also added collywobbles to my Brit vocabulary list, which means a nervous or upset stomach and is a fun word to roll off the tongue. I am eager to put it into usage, although, hopefully, not in reference to myself.

Author Bio

Audrey Davis survived secondary school on the West coast of Scotland. Rubbish at science but not too bad at English, she originally wanted to be an actress but was persuaded that journalism was a safer option. Probably wise. She studied at Napier College in Edinburgh, the only place in Scotland at that time to offer a journalism course.

Her first foray into the hard-nosed newspaper world was as a junior reporter in Dumfriesshire. Duties included interviewing farmers about the prize-winning heifers to reporting on family tragedies. She persuaded her editor to let her launch an entertainment column which meant meeting the odd celebrity – or just the downright odd. From there, she moved to the loftier rank of senior reporter back in her home patch. Slightly more money, less farm animals but a higher crime rate. As Taggart would say: ‘There’s been a murrrrder!’

After a stint in London on a video magazine – yes, she is that old – Audrey moved to Singapore with her fiancé. She tried valiantly to embrace the stinking heat, humidity and lack of jobs, although she did work briefly on a magazine which was banned by the government for ‘artistic’ use of naked men’s bottoms.

Next on her adventures was a land Down Under where her main focus was raising Cost Centre One (aka firstborn) and coming to terms with the imminent arrival of Number Two. Still, she loved the Aussie way of life – BBQs, beaches and bring your own booze to restaurants – so it came as a blow when OH announced a move back to the UK. Not a job between them, the climate a possible deal breaker and an Exorcist-style vomiting infant on the flight home didn’t bode well …

Always a survivor, Audrey sought out similar-minded friends (i.e. slightly bonkers), got the children into a good school and thought about taking up writing again. Sadly, thinking about it was as far as she got, unless you count shopping lists. Then, hubby drops another bombshell. Switzerland. As in – it’s packing time again. Off to the land of cheese, chocolate, scarily efficient trains and a couple of teeny, tiny issues. Like driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road and speaking a foreign language (French). The former was conquered fairly quickly (we’ll skip over the wall demolition in week two), the latter remains an ongoing battle of the hopeful against the hopeless. At least she provides amusement for the local workforce.

It wasn’t until 2016 that Audrey rediscovered her writing mojo with an online Writing Fiction course. From there, her first novel – A Clean Sweep – was born, although it took a bit longer than nine months from conception. A short, darker prequel – A Clean Break – followed, and in November 2017 she published the first in a novella trilogy, The Haunting of Hattie Hastings Part One. Part Two is published on 21 March 2018, with the conclusion following in May/June. After which she might have a wee lie down …

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