Snag Heaven And Helen Conceived By Rochelle Jones Softcover

low volume publication I think, bought from a local paper but available from internet sites as well, Anyway the cover looked interesting and maybe initially I judged it from that, But the book is a good read! This book is in two parts, the first part is follows the fortunes of Helen Cliften and the second is about her children.
At the beginning I thought that the story was going to be quite a light hearted story as Helen tries to show what she is made of, But the story gets darker and in places grim reality sets in as it progresses, I found this to be quite a realistic story with a genuine feel for its Victorian setting in the first part, where women are trapped into conformity, and those that try to break out of those social norms more often than not find they cannot escape.
Because the story does not have many of the modern traits almost expected for women these days even in historical novels the story seems much more realistic for it.
Helens struggles are the struggles that many faced in that time, Once I got into the book I wanted to know what happens to Helen, and what becomes of her children and do they find out what really happened to their mum Its definitely not a light hearted story

and like a soap you need to keep going otherwise you are left wondering.
. Heaven and Helen spans three generation, starting with Helen Clifton who leaves the secure life she has with her aunt to prove that she can make something of her life, but ultimately she finds her life on an increasingly downward spiral.
Yet, in the midst of the difficulties she experiences she finds love and desperately tries to make a life for herself and the new found companionship, Ultimately her loves doomed downward cycle becomes impossible to support and she finds that she must decide whether she will break with her new life to save herself or follow him into the drunken oblivion that must surely be his destiny.
When pregnant with her first child she realises that she has no choice, Despite her pregnancy Helen eventually marries and settles into family life with a husband who she cannot love, but none of it will fill the void left by her first love.
Increasingly her life feels empty and full of despair, again she must leave the secure life and family that she has made, it is a decision that will have consequences that she cannot control and risks sending her own life down a spiral of ruin.


Helens children grow up unaware of their mothers past and yet they come to realise how their lives were affected as they grew into adulthood, Particularly affected is Helens eldest daughter, Arabella, or Bell, Born to a father she never knew, and knowing nothing of his past, yet knowing that the circumstances of her parents had been of a scandal that had profoundly affected her mother and this drives a wedge between her and her sisters such that she could never be close to them.
In the years that follow the tragedies of loss in one and then another world war sees Helens children come to realise that they must come to terms with the affects that the legacy of their mothers life has had on them.
As the next generation grows however it is Arabella who finds that as she tries to escape the legacy left by her mother that she cannot settle no matter how far away she moves from her past.
As she seeks for herself a life that has meaning will her ambitions for one of Helens granddaughters lead her down a similar road towards self destruction

Ranging from nineteenth century Hampstead and Whitechapel to mid twentieth century Hollywood, Heaven and Helen tells the story of selfwilled, impulsive Helen Clifton, her own worst enemy and her three daughters and granddaughter all so different from each other, yet all equally affected by the legacy of Helens strange life.

For more information then go to antrobuspages. com/Rochelle .