Overview: The challenges of everyday life, love life, and setbacks as three women’s lives are forever changed, having sought solace at the door of psychic medium Mrs. Lamper. They say, Every dog has its day. Will these three women have theirs?

Verdict: Early in 1990, three women of different ages and lifestyles cross paths in the most innocent way. Ivy, a lone spinster whose fantasy world gets out of hand; Clara, an employee at Georgie’s hair salon, who finds herself alone and pregnant; and Georgie, whose choice of men brings loan sharks to her doorstep.

Their worlds become interwoven, as conflict arises between them due to white lies and unusual occurrences. Ivy feels that she is wasting her life, following the death of her mother whom she lived with all her life. But soon she discovers that her deceased mother is guilty of an unforgivable betrayal and her world comes crashing down around her, as her beloved mother becomes the subject of her wrath - the cause of Ivy’s life of missed opportunity and fulfillment.

As Ivy becomes a regular at Mrs. Lamper’s weekly seances, she returns to seek solace as she struggles with despair and years of being kept in the dark. Georgie Robinson also seeks help from Mrs. Lamper, as her world spins out of control. And Clara’s pregnancy, fathered by Georgie’s feckless ex-partner, further complicates Georgie’s life, as loan sharks close in and use covert means to access the women’s lives.

None of the women is aware of the others’ contact with Mrs. Lamper. But with a little help from the other side, this connection will send them on a roller-coaster journey where actions have consequences. But where will the journey end?

In what is a most enthralling new novel from author Julie Conrad, being a man, going in I thought the aforementioned female-skewed subject matter would have me dragging my reading heels, so to speak, but far from it. For it caught my imagination’s curiousness almost immediately and through a most engrossing series of linkages and construed twist and turns I found myself knee deep inside a world that I truly felt was real. As if I were simply reading a journal article about these three women and the variety of ongoings that befall them.

It actually turned out that To Everything There Is a Season is as gripping, as effectively intelligent a read as anything I have had the pleasure to pick up in the past year or more. For this isn’t just a story of three women bumbling about, life aimlessly befalling them to enable the plot to meander towards its reader preordained finish line.

Far from it, as what we have here is a tautly captivating psychological thriller, if you will, and one that from the beginning to its very twisty-turny end means that its diligent captivational skills will make this a hard book to put down once each chapter comes to a close.

About the Author - Julie Conrad lives in Cheshire, UK. When she isn’t writing novels, she enjoys painting with acrylics and is a member of the Altrincham Society of Artists. A retired social worker and Regulatory Inspector, Julie was also a Practice Teacher in the training of student Social Workers.

Julie has featured in the Manchester Evening news and Wigan Observer and has been interviewed a number of times on local radio station, Radio Alty. Julie loves nature and supports animal charities, RSPCA, PETA and other grass root charities, and believes in kindness to all.

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