Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: 6th July 2023
Set in New Zealand, Lioness by Emily Perkins published by Bloomsbury tells the story of our protagonist Therese Thorne, a fifty-something woman who came from a normal background and married into a wealthy empire building family when she married property developer Trevor Thorne. Therese, with Trevor’s backing and investment built her own homeware brand that is now super successful and well known and now Therese wants to expand into Sydney. Trevor is having one final construction and development hurrah and is building a hotel, the plan being he will see it through and then move with Terese to Sydney to start to wind down, being now in his seventies.
However, a scandal involving the permissions for the building and how quickly they were passed is thrown into the public eye and work on the hotel abruptly stops whilst Trevor and his councillor contact are investigated.
Terese at first is a little shocked and unnerved but Trevor reassured her that it’s all a storm in a teacup and will blow over soon enough, adamant that he’s done nothing wrong. He then has to prove the same to his adult children.
Terese is a very held together, poised and professional woman. She panders to Trevor and his children and their families, making sure their holiday home is welcoming for them all and that they are all happy and cared for. She is impossibly polite and agreeable and is very good at putting on a united front at all their social gatherings and parties.
Therese starts to form a friendship with their downstairs neighbour Claire, a woman who says what she thinks and doesn’t care if it’s brutally honest. Claire tells Therese that her and her husband have effectively swapped roles, he deals with the cooking, cleaning and all the emotional support of their daughter whilst Claire deals with the maintenance around the house and the jobs which have traditionally been considered a male role. This fascinates Therese and she becomes increasingly obsessed with Claire and the way she lives her life. One night Therese finds herself in Claire’s apartment and they end up ‘in the zone’….
The story of Trevor’s past business dealings start to unfold and Therese starts to transform her behaviour and untether herself from her polite and agreeable moorings under Claire’s influence.
I read this book in one sunny weekend and was utterly hooked in. I was so invested in this family’s life and fascinated by Therese’s slow but sure transformation. It deals with themes of family ties and what you would do for your family. It also deals with the power of female friendships and their transformative nature.
I loved it!
Thank you to Beth Farrell and Bloomsbury for my review copy.
See you all soon.
Amanda – Bookishchat x
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