The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club

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The characters are what make this a beautiful and enthralling read and you can't help admire the three protagonists who each have very human, believable problems, trials and tribulations but the setting is also part of the magic too. The allure of the Irish coast beckons as several people work out life challenges in the picturesque town of Ballycove. I loved the closeness of the women and their strength and courage as they faced the ups and downs in their individual lives. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Aria and Aries for providing a digital ARC of The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club by Faith Hogan for review.

Throughout the story it is the friendships and support characters give to each other that make it a beautiful, heartwarming read that I have no hesitation in highly recommending. Elizabeth has an epiphany when she begins to join Jo on her evening skinny dips in the freezing Irish Sea where they chat about life and support one another and soon Lucy joins the midnight swimming club too. Those of you who are familiar with the west of Ireland, will recognise Ballycove as a hybrid of so many little places dotted along the north west Atlantic coast. Now, I can barely handle California ocean swims and yearn for the warm east coast waters and summer vacations of my youth. Leaving her city life, and past demons, behind, Lucy is determined to make the most of her fresh start.I saw the writing on the wall for one subplot from early on in the novel, making it all too neat, but then I thought, Why Not? Their relationship had been hard work and distant for some time, but after he dies Elizabeth is left reeling when she discovers that he had a gambling problem and has left her thousands of pounds in debt. A very charming, touching and inspirational read, The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club is another gorgeous read from the wonderful Faith Hogan.

It's a story about friendship, family, village community, and finding the truth about oneself in an unexpected place. As life slowly begins to resemble something normal for the three women, Jo’s world is turned upside down when she receives some shocking news.Dan looked once more at the building, mostly boarded up, apart from the occasional window where storms had blown away their covers, revealing stained glass that would have been striking once.

Elizabeth’s closest friend, Jo Harris is addicted to the natural high she gets from swimming at midnight in the icy Irish Sea off Ireland’s west coast. In a state of anxiety and confusion, Elizabeth decides to confide in lifelong friend Jo about everything that is happening, secrets she has, until now, kept private. This one started out with the idea of Elizabeth, but then, somehow it grew into something far greater than I had imagined for any of the women on the page. Set in a small seaside village in the West of Ireland, The Ladies Midnight Swimming Club tells the story of three women, all looking for answers, all looking for peace in their lives. This is an amazing read, an emotive story set in a small seaside village on the West coast of Ireland with friendship at its heart.

On the background of Ireland’s awful legacy of the Catholic homes for unmarried mothers and forced adoptions, Hogan’s story also touches on the toll taken by laws against homosexuality, and the overwhelming imperative to maintain the veneer of respectability in a small Irish community. Haunting and atmospheric, but real and authentic, with love and loss, humour and sadness, this poignant and thoroughly enthralling and captivating novel will completely draw you in.

It also presents what he sees as the last chance to find the birth mother who gave him up thirty years earlier.Conscious that Niall does not want to leave his friends and his social life in Dublin, she strikes a deal with him that this will be just a short visit. Great characters you could get into and a storyline that was great to read - the sign of a perfect book!