Hello,
my name is Anne deBondt.
I am an American living near Ely and have been in England for
over twenty years. It is a peculiarity that I have never lost
my American twang, despite having lived here now for more years
than I did in the states. And more importantly, I haven’t
lost my intolerance of fools… or my fear of saying so.
After raising a brood of children it is a luxury to put my spare
time into writing books (one published and working on another)
and writing an article for the Ely Standard, Ely web site and
now the spanking new Newmarket site.
Between speaking to friends, town folk and just living a life
here in England, I am able to gather information on what is important
or affecting the people in our area. Sometimes the stories take
on a feeling of protest. And sometimes they are humorous.
Whichever, it’s a good way to get to know what the citizens
of this area think.
Hope
to find you
here each week...
And don’t be afraid to voice an opinion… I’m not!
Anne deBondt
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Good
and bad things always happen suddenly for Kate. And her pending
divorce is no different.
Kate
a beautiful girl in her twenties with a fulfilling job finds it
hard to come to terms with the unwanted dissolution of her marriage,
after her husband of four years walked out on her. Kate has taken
an emotional beating.
However, pulling herself together, trying to get the resemblance
of a happy life back together again, she decides she must move to
the cambridge office, where she makes good progress both proffesionally
and personally. She learns to laugh again, to be whole, to trust
and love, but at what cost.
Just when Kate believes she has it all, a man she loves and a comfortable
lifestyle, fate strikes again, her whole life is once more thrown
in to turmoil. She must return to the United States.
Will she ever be happy again, will she be able to overcome the unforgivable
meddling of her mother in her life ?
Kate must first grow, only then can she find the love that has always
being there for her.
Anne's Book is price @ £4.95 and is available from Ely
Book Shops and Heffer's, Cambridge. |
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"Suddenly" by Anne DeBondt
A Review by Natalie Gillett
Suddenly is
a light hearted, but sensitive look at Divorce and the problems
that occur before, during and after. The book is easy to read
with great twists and turns and an unpredictable ending..! I highly
recommend this book especially for women that have "been
there". Anne seems to have a great talent and I am looking
forward to reading her next book.
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"Suddenly" by Anne
DeBondt
A Review by Bob Gilkes
SUDDENLY
is unashamedly a woman's romance. Over-simply put, it is the
story of a young woman's executive's search for true love in
the late twentieth century. The author takes you inside the
head, heart and the body of Kate, the heroine ( yes, heroine)
as she navigates through several years of traumatic relationships
with three men. The rest of her life swims past her like the
view from the window of an express train. The author writes
in a style that is reminiscent of the ebb and flow of a long
conversation between two female friends -- like a conversation
between Kate and herself as she makes this long journey. But
like any good conversation, a listener can be swept up to join
in, and most women will undoubtedly do just that. They will
not worry about the absence of depth in the descriptions of
Kate's work, home, friends, likes and dislikes. What they want
to know is how she feels.
Anne deBondt accomplishes this with grace and skill and insight.
But, before starting this unusual book, male readers need to
know that the author is writing for women and that most men
will not 'get it.' Pity: the effort is rewarding.
Bob Gilkes
http://www.wingedlion.org
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"Suddenly"
by Anne DeBondt
A Review by J.W.Glover
The heart-strings
have the unique ability to go 'Zing', but just as importantly
they are apt to go 'Zong', like the doomy elongated chord of an
especially slack bass string. And Kate, the heroine of Anne deBondt's
novel 'Suddenly', has her heart-strings played with gusto by a
trio of men. After her first setback (a messy divorce) she girded
her twenty something loins together and made the decision to relocate
her youthful (and almost undoubtedly) handsome butt to Cambridge,
England. Not looking to change the world, not looking for a new
England...just looking for another bloke.
Now, in these
days of Argos style, money back if not satisfied marriages, do
you know anyone who's been married more than ten years? I remember
someone warning me; 'marry in haste, repent at your leisure',
and although in my case I'm happy to report this is not proving
to be the case, it is in Anne deBondt's closely observed account
of her heroine Kate's struggle to recover from a failed marriage.
We see her desolation and inability to comprehend how badly things
had gone for her.
As Kate tiptoed
through the minefield of her emotions I was reminded of an old
public service advert. Remember those old British Gas safety adverts
about what to do if you smell gas? As the lady returned home,
laden down with shopping, you just knew there'd been a gas leak.
And as, in super slo-mo, she reached for the light switch you
saw her husband shout, 'Noooooooo!!!' in an effort to avoid the
inevitable 'Kaboom!' Parts of Suddenly are like this. Just as
Kate is approaching a stable part of her life she contrives her
very own gas leak and finds a naked flame - just to keep things
interesting. During a particularly bad decision involving Steve
(the third of the trio and my favourite - I liked Steve) I found
myself shouting 'Nooooooo!!' at the book, but she still went and
made an unwise decision that ranks alongside the miners going
on strike in the summer. Bad.
'Suddenly'
drinks greedily from the Lexicon of Love (if you can drink from
a dictionary) and I found myself captivated by the scenes of 'tenderness'.
The late Auberon Waugh who presided over the 'Bad Sex' award would
have had little to complain about in the scenes that follow Kate's
rejuvenation as she teams up with new colleague Brian. Their lovemaking
more than meets expectations and she begins to realise the truth;
herself and Michael had obviously not been compatible. She's experiencing
fulfilment for the first time. How many fleeting marriages come
to grief for the same reason; why do people not realise that the
person that they have met is Mr or Mrs Right?
Why do fools fall in love?
With emotions
tearing Kate apart, she struggles to recover from a failed marriage,
find love, cope with tragedy and acclimatise to her new surroundings
when...Suddenly. Well, you'll have to read it to find out. I did.
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Now Available
from Ely Book Shops & Heffers, Cambridge..!
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