I have read a few other Joanna Trollope books and I have always enjoyed them for the slice of family life and the characters that she builds and this, Daughters-in-Law was no exception.  Rachel is the mother of three sons, who has always ruled her roost with an iron hand gloved in velvet until her youngest son marries.  Charlotte upsets the balance of power, refusing to cede to how things have always been done, while this drama is occurring Ralph, the difficult-to-place son, and his wife have a crisis of their own.  Soon the four couples, parents and the sons and their wives find themselves having to readjust their dynamic and come to terms with new relationships.

I enjoyed this as a quick summer women’s fiction type read.  I did find Petra a difficult character to take and have any sympathy for at all.  I think we were supposed to in the end see that everyone’s side had some merit and her view was just as important, but frankly she was some hippy, dippy space cadet not living in the real world and I had no use for her.  Good demonstration of the culture clashes that occur when children marry and bring new people into a family.