'Writes with shimmering grace about homeland and exile, passion and loyalty...A richly textured story, sensuous and haunting'

'Ghost Heart is Samartin's debut novel and it has all the ingredients of a literary masterpiece and a bestseller. Her characters are alive and the descriptions of Cuba are enough to make one want to catch the next flight out there. An enchanting read, not to be missed'

'I dare anyone not to be moved...the book is ultimately uplifting - a testimony to the strength of love and the human spirit'

Infallibly elegant... All this lies beneath the sparkling, well groomed surface of a novel which could quite easily be read as a light diversion for an idle afternoon. But look more closely and something as grim as Greek tragedy is played out around the cosy family dinner table

As ever, Trollope writes about family life with wit, intelligence and verve

A poignant tale about a mother watching her children grow up and marry, and her sadness as they drift further away. Joanna's descriptive writing expresses true wrought emotion and hurt

The author's psychology, as always, is sound, the plotting secure and the pacing brisk and page-turning. Another winner

Sociologically and psychologically as observant as ever

Book of the Month: An intuitive and sympathetically observed piece of writing

Trollope writes with customary compassion and humanity in this heartwarming and engaging novel

A very superior work of women's fiction... an exceedingly skilled analysis of the relationship between different generations of women and how the power shifts as the old, as they must, get old and the young move on... it is a story told beautifully

The legendary Ms Trollope triumphs yet again, with her latest slick of classy chick-lit

This thoroughly engaging, intelligent, literate novel

The brilliantly observed portrayal of family life is wonderfully compelling - and a story many will be able to identify with. ****