Julia and James fall in love, but their children from different relationships ALSO fall in love, which complicates things even more. Soon they'll have to make some hard decisions--that not only impact their children, but their lives.

I almost hated every single character in this (except maybe Philip), but it gets four stars because I COULD NOT STOP READING IT and when I did stop reading it (because I was, uh, done with it, I bet that was obvious and did not need me to explain) I COULD NOT STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. The characters were all so irritating and dramatic, which is how 95% of people are, but compelling and interesting, which is how I wish 95% of people were.

Messy, complex, realistic storytelling of blending of families and cultures. The story is about the fractured lines of parents and teen pregnancy -- the humbling failures that sometimes follows parents as they try to create or recreate family harmony with their sometimes unrealistic hopes/dreams they superimpose on their kids lives. Enjoyed the karmic redress analogy.

LOVED, LOVED the narration by Jayne Entwistle.

I didn't enjoy this and I'm not sure what actually happened in this book. Too much dialogue. Perhaps it was my state of mind reading it, but I don't think I'll try and go back. I'm just glad to have finished it.

i literally hated all of the characters in this book lol

It was a solid story and definitely captured the difficulty of blending families. However, in my opinion, I found the two teen characters extremely annoying and unlikeable. Maybe that was the point?

Well this was extremely disappointing. It was pretty obvious it was her first novel, the sentence structure was messy, and the point of view changed often with little or no indication and it would sometimes take a few paragraphs to make it clear whose point of view it was.

Also, I found basically all the characters extremely unlikable. Julia was selfish and frustratingly weak, James had a holier than thou attitude, Gwen was infuriatingly immature and selfish, Nathan's character didn't have much development and the elderly characters really served no purpose. The only character I didn't mind was Philip and his purpose in the book was very unclear. If he had been removed from the plot, I don't think it would have made any difference at all.

Then, the ending was just like.....really? that's it....? There was this big event that was a catalyst to a big change for the characters and she just skips over it and it's all of a sudden a year later. Umm....what?

imperfect characters throughout make for an interesting read about a blended family with two teenagers who decide to act on their attractions, which leads devastating emotional fallouts for an already delicate situation due to different value systems, parenting styles, and cultural things. i like the central ethical questions of this book, which are about boundaries, differences in parenting and how their affect children, and relationships, but lots of this book was boring or not properly explained to the reader. nathan’s character is probably the worst and i don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it makes you never understand him, which is frustrating in not a productive way.

What happens when the teenage children in a newly blended family hook up? Can the family survive?

I love when I go into a book with little to no expectations, and it turns out to be a lovely book. The characterizations were great, the predicament was handled well, and the ending made sense.

Since her husband died of cancer five years ago, Julia has raised her daughter Gwen alone. Unexpectedly, she falls in love with James whom she teaches to play the piano. Quickly James moves in Julia’s and Gwen’s house and also brings his son Nathan. Gwen and Nathan, both teenagers, are not happy with the new situation. Gwen misses the time when her mother was only focussed on her, Nathan still struggles with his parents‘ divorce and his sister living abroad. The unexpected happens: Nathan and Gwen find out that the other isn’t as bad as they had thought and another unexpected love starts to blossom in the household. The parents are furious when they find out, but the situation gets even worse when 16-year-old Gwen realises that she is pregnant.

Francesca Segal really achieves to make the characters of her novel seem lively and authentic. This is for me the most striking aspect of “The Awkward Age”. Julia who cannot fully immerse in her new love, since she is still close to her deceased husband’s parents and does not want to hurt their feelings even though they encourage her new love. Her own feelings towards her daughter, being caught again and again between the girl and her new partner – one can sense how complicated her emotional life is in those crucial months that the novel covers. I also liked Gwen a lot even though to some extent she is a typical hormone-driven teenager who sometimes falls back into infantile and inadequate behaviour. The grand-parents also struggle with their love life. Even though they have been separated for many years, Iris suddenly feels something like jealousy when Philip falls in love with another woman. Love can be a highly complicated matter.

The most interesting were Julia and James when their kids were fighting. Even though as a couple they are meant to stand on the same side, they frequently find themselves taking their respective children’s defence and opposing each other. It is those complex emotional states that make the novel outstanding since Francesca Segal created conflicts which are absolutely credible and authentic and in which those predicaments can show themselves – quite a crucial test for a new love.

Even though the main conflict is centred around the teenagers, I would not call it young adult novel, the other generations are as present as the youngsters and they quite well portray that love can be complicated no matter how old you are.