Daughters-in-Law: Book summary and reviews of Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope

Daughters-in-Law Summary

As Anthony and Rachel Brinkley welcome their third daughter-in-law to the family, they don't quite realize the profound shift that is about to take place. For different reasons, the Brinkleys' two previous daughters-in-law hadn't been able to resist Rachel's maternal control and Anthony's gentle charm and had settled into their husbands' family without rocking the boat. But Charlotte - very young, very beautiful, and spoiled - has no intention of falling into step with the Brinkleys and wants to establish her own household.

Soon Rachel's sons begin to think of their own houses as home and of their mother's house as simply the place where their parents live - a necessary and inevitable shift of loyalties that threatens Rachel's sense of herself, breaks Anthony's heart, and causes unexpected consequences in all the marriages. Then a crisis brings these changes to the surface, and everyone has to learn what family love means all over again.

Daughters-in-Law Reviews

"Though genuinely caring, the characters slight each other as they tumble toward individual crises. There's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a decent fix for family drama addicts." - Publishers Weekly

"While some of the characters are not fully fleshed out (this reviewer would have liked more backstory), Trollope fans and readers who enjoy domestic fiction will not be disappointed." - Library Journal

"Daughters-in-Law is most successful in its set-pieces... Trollope uses her undoubtedly brilliant observational powers to illuminate brightly the absurdities of modern English life." - The Independent (UK)

"[S]omething as grim as Greek tragedy is played out around the cosy family dinner table." - The Telegraph (UK)

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Joanna Trollope Author Biography

Joanna Trollope was born in her grandfather's rectory in the Cotswolds in December 1943, and although her actual childhood was spent in the Midlands and in Surrey, she always felt that her real "home" was her birthplace. Joanna says — “It gave me - still gives me - not just a sense of rootedness, but a capacity to value landscape and weather and the rich life of smallish communities. It wouldn't matter where I lived now, I'd always carry that centred feeling of having come from somewhere very well defined with me.” Joanna is the eldest of three, the mother of two daughters and the stepmother of two stepsons — and — now a grandmother. She once saw a car sticker in the States. It read: “If I’d known how wonderful grandchildren were going to be, I’d...

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