Adar o’r Unlliw - Catrin Lliar Jones
I’m feeling very privileged to have been given the chance to read this book before it arrives in the shops. I’m not going to lie in order to stay in Catrin’s good books, I’m going to give it my completely honest opinion … so here goes.
For anyone that read "O Mam Bach’ (read that one here Maintenance - SaySomethingin ) that came out a couple of years ago you may remember Catrin’s short story about Luned, a mum of two trying to survive a day at the Denbigh eisteddfod with a hungry month old baby … well this is the follow up to that. Life is never, and probably will never, be easy for Luned but with a loving, caring husband and a couple of close friends now in her life she’ll get through it. A young lady called Shoned in the next bed in the maternity ward decides to try to build a friendship with Luned (despite Luned’s efforts), and despite their differences there’s a connection that can’t be ignored.
This story starts off quite high paced with a lot of laughs, I was very amused by Shoned’s million mile an hour way of speaking, her dialogue is brilliant (reminded me of Mel, the new character in RaR, Kelvin’s GF). There’s a lot here to keep you turning them pages, the pace doesn’t slow down much through the whole book. I love how we see the unusual, not always straightforward, way that friendships can grow.
In the couple of weeks since reading this I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I love the way that it’s made me think about my family unit. How time with loved ones is precious. How supporting and showing love to your kids is the most important thing in the world. A lot of long lasting insecurities start during childhood in the home. Maybe I got it wrong but that’s my take.
I genuinely enjoyed reading this (I know I was asked to but that’s not the point! 
) and couldn’t wait to get to the next chapter. It will truly deserve its place on my Welsh book shelf amongst my other favourite authors.
It’s been written for an adult audience so expect the language to be more advanced. I believe Catrin is going to create a vocab list to help with reading this as a learner … so less need to keep looking in a dictionary.
