Flamenco Baby by Cherry Radford a #nospoilers #review
Angel Munoz at Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival, (c) Carole Edrich 2014
There’s a big clue to the plot in the title to this book, so it’ll be no surprise to read that much of the book is about whether the protagonist gets the baby or not. I’d love to be able to call Flamenco Baby a bonkbuster (not least because it might wind up the author) but to be honest that’s extending the truth.
The story takes us into the life of a fairly typical (albeit slightly unconventional) dance-mad Londoner. Once again, having met Cherry Radford I can tell that she has drawn pieces of her life and the people around her into the book, done extensive research (which I believe she delights in) and has extended them, weaving all together in unexpected ways. The book’s end is unexpected too. It’s a shame that she hasn’t written a sequel.
There’s a lot of flamenco in the story quite a lot of Sadler’s Wells and serious music too. It’s authentic and well researched and Yolande (the protagonist) is well-rounded in terms of her outlook on life and the friends she selects.
It is these friends who make her life (and the book) so good, but by their nature they complicate it too. It’s the way that her life and the baby challenges resolve rather than the dance in it that make this book worth a read.
Buy Flamenco Baby
Check my blog this time next week for the opportunity to win both of Cherry’s current books.