The Peacock Emporium

The Peacock Emporium

by Jojo Moyes

2.67 out of 5 (3 ratings)

Format:
Paperback 
Pages:
448 
Publisher:
Hodder & Stoughton General Division 
Publication Date:
10 January 2008 
Category:
Modern & Contemporary 
ISBN:
9780340960370 

Description

In the Sixties, Athene Forster is the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she is also beautiful, spoilt and out of control. When she agrees to marry dashing young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme her parents breathe a sigh of relief. But within two years rumours have begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman. Thirty five years on, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her glamorous mother's legacy. At odds with her father and his second wife, struggling in a stalled marriage, she returns to the place of her birth to find that the ghost of her mother, in differing ways, still haunts them all. The only place she finds comfort is in her shop, The Peacock Emporium, a coffee shop-cum-curio store, decorated in her own image, which provides a haven for other misfits in the town. There she makes perhaps the first real friends of her life, including Alejandro, a male midwife, escaping his own ghosts in Argentina.But the spectre of Athene and the shop itself combine to set in place a chain of tragic events, forcing Suzanna to confront the feelings she has disguised for so long - and her family, in their varying ways, finally to deal with the events of the past. And Suzanna discovers the key to her history, and her happiness, may have been in front of her all along.

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Showing 1-3 out of 3 reviews.

  • For me, this was an enjoyable light read. I enjoyed the description of the shop, countryside and characters.

    3.00 out of 5

    Secret7

  • Very just OK. Story begins with Vivi and her deb ball hoping to snag rich, wonderful Douglas Fairley-Hume who only has eyes for Athlene Forrester. Vivi is patient, however.Then we move into the present day with Suzanne Peacock who moved to Dere, England and opens a shop in the small town where she employees a young woman Jesse who lives with an abuser.Very light beach reading, nothing more. Can't say I want to read any more by JoJo.

    2.50 out of 5

    coolmama

  • MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.The book starts with a random chapter about a woman giving birth, that seems to have no relevance to anything else. I found myself wondering if the midwife was going to be Athene perhaps, or Vivi. But it turned out to be a man who only enters the story about a third of the way through.There were one or two other random chapters like that, which I presume were supposed to be the stories for the life story things at the shop. But overall I found the way the book was put together to be very disjointedThe blurb on the back is misleading because it makes it sound like the book is very much about Athene and Suzanna, but I did feel Athene to be an almost secondary character because she's hardly in the story, and even Suzanna is overshadowed by other characters at times. And I thought Suzanna was an unlikeable character really.I didn't think it was very plausible that throughout her life, nobody had let slip to Suzanna about the circumstances of her birth, and that she only found out when Mrs Creek mentioned it. I did love the sound of The Peacock Emporium though - it sounded like a lovely little shop.Reading this hasn't made me want to read any more of JoJo Moyes' books, but there were parts of it that I did like.

    2.50 out of 5

    nicx27

Reviews provided by Librarything.

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