‘At 3.10pm every weekday, parents gather at Featherstone Primary in Denbury to collect their children. For a special few, the friendships forged at the school gates will see them through lives filled with drama, secrets and sorrows. When Yummy Mummy Alana reveals the identity of her love-child's father, she doesn't expect the consequences to be quite so extreme.
Ex Czech au-pair Earth Mummy Dana finds happiness in
her secret sideline, but really all she longs for is another child. Slummy Mummy Mo's wife-beating husband leads her down a path she never thought possible, and
Supper Mummy Joan has to cope when life deals her a devastating blow. And what of Gay Daddy Gordon? Will he be able to juggle parenthood and cope with his broken heart at the same time?
Four very different mothers. One adorable dad. And the intertwining trials and
tribulations that a year at the primary school gates brings.’
‘The School Gates’ follows five parents of children attending their local school, Featherstone Primary, in Denbury. First is single working mum Alana, who’s unsure of how to deal with the consequences when the secret of who the father of her little girl is finally gets out. Next is Dana, a stay-at-home mum who’s desperate to earn her own money and not be a glorified au-pair to her husband and son. Then there’s Mum of four Joan, who has a shock in store for her, but needs to remain strong to help support her friend Mo, who’s alcoholic husband is making her and her daughter’s life a misery. Lastly, there’s Gordon, a gay dad devastated when his partner leaves him; can he manage his twin daughters by himself?
As the school year progresses, the parents become closer as they make often unexpected friends and deal with what life has thrown them all as best they can.
From reading the blurb to this novel, I thought it would be right up my street, and I was looking forward to it. When I settled down into the story I found that I enjoyed following the lives of May’s characters, but that the novel was a little on the short side for the moment of action and people packed into it! I would have liked more depth to the storylines, particularly when it came to Mo and her husband, a relationship that I found very interesting. My favourite of the protagonists was undoubtedly Gordon, who was just lovely; I was really routing for a happy ending for him.
What I relished about this story was that the characters were believable, yet entertaining; I especially liked how Joan and Mo helped each other out whenever they could. Having said this though, I was a bit disappointed by something that Joan does, which was so out of character that it didn’t ring
true at all.
Unfortunately, there were a couple of little inaccuracies in the novel, Joan’s baby for example is 11 months old on one page and 10 months old a couple of pages later. There were also several places where the book was quite poorly formatted and line spaces weren’t correct: this could get quite confusing as there were sometimes spaces missing when the break would have been indicating a change in character being followed. There was also some pretty strong language littered throughout the book, which was unexpected and
surprised me a little. I didn’t feel that it was always necessary and it may offend some readers.
‘The School Gates’ was quite a quick read with some very engaging characters, whom I liked following. May is clearly a good storyteller and is very good at keeping excellent pace going throughout her books, which keeps the
action going and makes it hard to put her writing down. Some better editing and formatting would have made this book even more enjoyable.
3 and a half stars
Ex Czech au-pair Earth Mummy Dana finds happiness in
her secret sideline, but really all she longs for is another child. Slummy Mummy Mo's wife-beating husband leads her down a path she never thought possible, and
Supper Mummy Joan has to cope when life deals her a devastating blow. And what of Gay Daddy Gordon? Will he be able to juggle parenthood and cope with his broken heart at the same time?
Four very different mothers. One adorable dad. And the intertwining trials and
tribulations that a year at the primary school gates brings.’
‘The School Gates’ follows five parents of children attending their local school, Featherstone Primary, in Denbury. First is single working mum Alana, who’s unsure of how to deal with the consequences when the secret of who the father of her little girl is finally gets out. Next is Dana, a stay-at-home mum who’s desperate to earn her own money and not be a glorified au-pair to her husband and son. Then there’s Mum of four Joan, who has a shock in store for her, but needs to remain strong to help support her friend Mo, who’s alcoholic husband is making her and her daughter’s life a misery. Lastly, there’s Gordon, a gay dad devastated when his partner leaves him; can he manage his twin daughters by himself?
As the school year progresses, the parents become closer as they make often unexpected friends and deal with what life has thrown them all as best they can.
From reading the blurb to this novel, I thought it would be right up my street, and I was looking forward to it. When I settled down into the story I found that I enjoyed following the lives of May’s characters, but that the novel was a little on the short side for the moment of action and people packed into it! I would have liked more depth to the storylines, particularly when it came to Mo and her husband, a relationship that I found very interesting. My favourite of the protagonists was undoubtedly Gordon, who was just lovely; I was really routing for a happy ending for him.
What I relished about this story was that the characters were believable, yet entertaining; I especially liked how Joan and Mo helped each other out whenever they could. Having said this though, I was a bit disappointed by something that Joan does, which was so out of character that it didn’t ring
true at all.
Unfortunately, there were a couple of little inaccuracies in the novel, Joan’s baby for example is 11 months old on one page and 10 months old a couple of pages later. There were also several places where the book was quite poorly formatted and line spaces weren’t correct: this could get quite confusing as there were sometimes spaces missing when the break would have been indicating a change in character being followed. There was also some pretty strong language littered throughout the book, which was unexpected and
surprised me a little. I didn’t feel that it was always necessary and it may offend some readers.
‘The School Gates’ was quite a quick read with some very engaging characters, whom I liked following. May is clearly a good storyteller and is very good at keeping excellent pace going throughout her books, which keeps the
action going and makes it hard to put her writing down. Some better editing and formatting would have made this book even more enjoyable.
3 and a half stars
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