Book review: There Will Be Better Days by Elizabeth Waite

The emotive pledge – made when she watched her mother scrimping and scraping to raise her three children – will carry Chloe through the rest of her life.

Born storyteller Elizabeth Waite, herself brought up on the streets of south London, returns with her seventeenth novel, a beguiling, drama-packed rags-to-riches romance which will delight her army of adoring followers.

Waite writes her compelling books straight from her heart, and from her own experiences of life’s ups and downs. Here she weaves an enchanting story, written with her trademark sensitivity and packed with warmth and wisdom.

Chloe’s mother leads the toughest of lives, cleaning and working hard for every penny to provide for her and her brothers. It fills Chloe with a steely determination to study hard, get to university and make something of her own life.

By the age of 24, Chloe is living in a penthouse apartment near Brighton’s busy marina and she is a personal assistant to Roger McKinnon, the wealthy director of a firm of diamond merchants.

And she has found romance – albeit a clandestine one – with her boss. Middle-aged Roger’s wife is an invalid and Chloe is his much-adored mistress. Roger has become the centre of a previously unknown world; he lavishes money on her and makes her feel loved, secure and self-assured.

But seeing him only intermittently is increasingly frustrating for her as she longs to be with him full time. When a shocking event takes place, Chloe’s life changes forever and the decisions she has to make may not be as straightforward as they first appeared…

Family, friendship, hope and the unbreakable bonds of love all feature in this charming, life-affirming story… the perfect escape for all true romantics.

(Sphere, hardback, £19.99)