A review by brughiera
Balancing Act by Joanna Trollope

3.0

This is vintage Trollope, the author gives us another dose of what she does so well, depicting the stresses and strains imposed on a modern family by their changing lives. Susie has successfully developed her own business and it has further expanded as a family business, employing her three daughters and one of her sons-in-law. The stresses within the family and between the generations develop in part out of Susie's inability to relinquish control, but it wouldn't be Trollope if there weren't other personal issues exacerbated by the arrival of Susie's father, who had abandoned her as a child. Trollope's handling of dialogue is masterly serving to both delineate the characters and rush the plot along to its satisfying conclusion where a new 'balance' is achieved.