The Marriage Trap
Victoria Purman
Reviewed by Helen
1960 in a suburban town in Adelaide and we meet the Langley family, Len, Olive, Cathy and Evelyn there are also another two sons and another daughter but they have married and moved out, this story concentrates on the three females Olive, Cathy and Evelyn and what life was like starting at 1960 and going through to 1970 and it was a bit different to what we know now come along and meet them.
Olive is sixty and is a strict catholic she has had five children the last one Evelyn was a change of life baby and born when she was fifty it was a big shock, did she ever want five children probably not but as a married woman and catholic there was not a lot she could do but she always hoped that her daughters would one day have a little more control over their lives.
Cathy is twenty and at teachers college she has her life planned teaching for a couple of years before she settles down and marries and starts a family of her own but she would like more control about those things but when she meets Andy she discovers that love is opening up a new world for her and one night will change all of her plans for the future and she finds herself married but one thing is for sure she is determined to decide how many children she has and she just might get that wish when there is talk of a contraceptive pill, this will change her life.
Evelyn is ten and is very smart she loves the family dictionary she uses it all the time she loves listening in on adult conversations and will look up any word that she does not know the meaning of and along the way she soon discovers that life for a woman is not all it is made out to be will things be different as she gets older, she certainly want sit to be.
I did enjoy this story and getting to know these three females and what life was like back then although I was born in the 1950’s and married in the 1970’s things were still changing for the better for me there is a lot of back story information throughout about the contraceptive pill and the catholic church and the thoughts of the men who ran it, did Olive’s ideas change over the years as her girls grew into woman? One thing is for sure I am glad things have changed for woman.
My thanks to HQ Fiction and Netgalley for my copy to read and review.
Olive is sixty and is a strict catholic she has had five children the last one Evelyn was a change of life baby and born when she was fifty it was a big shock, did she ever want five children probably not but as a married woman and catholic there was not a lot she could do but she always hoped that her daughters would one day have a little more control over their lives.
Cathy is twenty and at teachers college she has her life planned teaching for a couple of years before she settles down and marries and starts a family of her own but she would like more control about those things but when she meets Andy she discovers that love is opening up a new world for her and one night will change all of her plans for the future and she finds herself married but one thing is for sure she is determined to decide how many children she has and she just might get that wish when there is talk of a contraceptive pill, this will change her life.
Evelyn is ten and is very smart she loves the family dictionary she uses it all the time she loves listening in on adult conversations and will look up any word that she does not know the meaning of and along the way she soon discovers that life for a woman is not all it is made out to be will things be different as she gets older, she certainly want sit to be.
I did enjoy this story and getting to know these three females and what life was like back then although I was born in the 1950’s and married in the 1970’s things were still changing for the better for me there is a lot of back story information throughout about the contraceptive pill and the catholic church and the thoughts of the men who ran it, did Olive’s ideas change over the years as her girls grew into woman? One thing is for sure I am glad things have changed for woman.
My thanks to HQ Fiction and Netgalley for my copy to read and review.
4 stars
May 1, 2026 by HQ Fiction
