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The Queen of Bloody Everything

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The Queen of Bloody Everything

By: Joanna Nadin
Narrated by: Kelly Hotten
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Joanna Nadin's first novel for adults, The Queen of Bloody Everything, is about mothers, daughters and how we can make many choices in life but can't choose where we come from.

As Edie Jones lies in a bed on the fourteenth floor of a Cambridge hospital, her adult daughter Dido tells their story, starting with the day that changed everything.

That was the day Dido – aged exactly six years and twenty-seven days old – met the handsome Tom Trevelyan, his precocious sister, Harry, and their parents, Angela and David.

The day Dido fell in love with a family completely different from her own.

Because the Trevelyans were exactly the kind of family Dido dreamed of.

They were normal.

 Coming of Age Contemporary Contemporary Romance Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Romance Small Town & Rural Women's Fiction Funny Heartfelt Witty Tear-jerking
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Critic reviews

Heartfelt . . . A wonderful example of Spangles Lit
I bloody adored this perceptive, funny, unflinching novel about growing up, love, sex, mothers and everything (Kate Eberlen, author of Miss You)
You’re in for a treat with this one
A bittersweet delight. Perfectly captures the awkwardness and longing of those who don’t quite fit in (Sarra Manning, author of After the Last Dance and House of Secrets)
An enchanting, heartfelt and nostalgic read
Funny, poignant and absolutely brilliant (Rachael Lucas, author of Wildflower Bay)
Tender and with a wince-inducing evocation of adolescence, you’ll fall for the awkward Dido as surely as she falls for the boy next door
A must-read
Nostalgic, funny and charming
A powerful, nostalgic, beautiful book, whose characters will retain a small place in your heart even after you finished it (Ronnie Turner)
A lovely story of bewilderment and belonging
A brilliant read
I loved everything about this book. The writing, the characters, the details through the decades and the story of a girl, Dido, who just wants to fit in
Cleverly crafted and beautifully written, this is a story to lose yourself in
Don't miss!
A captivating story throughout . . . Charmingly nostalgic . . . [and] an essential and important read
Achingly romantic and painfully real, [and] one of the best accounts of the mother-daughter bond that I have ever read (Ruth Ware)
Such a lovely read . . . An amazing story
All stars
Most relevant
Reminiscent of my own childhood,I adored this book , feeling as if I was there ! The voices were so apt,accurate and realistic.A brilliant performance.Thank you and I will never forget this book, Joanna Nadin. xx
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Wonderful

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A brilliant, funny and heartwarming book. Amazing story and so well read. Read it and weep with embarrassment, laughter and sadness!

Bloody fantastic

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I loved this - it's a fantastic achievement by Joanna Nadin (her first novel for adults) to follow Dido through from childhood into early middle age with the mass of crystal detail of each passing decade. How can Nadin remember so clearly all those 1970s things that children said and did with such accuracy? Dido lives with her truly awful ex-hippie-ish utterly selfish alcoholic mother when the Trevelyans move in next door - apparently the perfect family. Dido and Harry (Harriet) become best, best friends, she falls in love for ever with Tom her brother - and comes to love Mrs Trevelyan with all her silly tight-lipped ways more than her own hopeless chaos of a mother. But all families are chaotic, just some more than others.

I can't explain the plot without giving it all away - but it's completely absorbing, the sort of book you don't want to end. It avoids all conventional novelistic cop-outs - these are real people with real lives making the real mistakes we all make and doing the best they can to be happy - and usually failing. These are real people..Ultimately what lifts the whole book is that it's about accepting people with all their messy faults; it's about forgiveness and love.

Kelly Hotten's narration is superb - she captures Harry's affected nonchalance, exactly and the languid, uncaring drawl of Edie, Dido's mother.

Brilliant!

Brilliant!

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This tale of a mother and daughter relationship had me crying at times but there was always a sense that, however bad things were, whatever awful things were said and done, here was a mother and daughter bond that could never be entirely destroyed. As Dido grew older and wiser, she stoically bore the pain of unrequited love, and allowed herself to be used and abused before she finally found her place in the world. Great empathy from the author and perfect narration.

Bittersweet story of love and sacrifice.

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A moving tapestry of emotions entertwined in the mother daughter relationship. A testimony to love.




heart warming A moving, tapestry of emotions .

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