The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge – A Review

Why am I reviewing The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge?

Anyone who has known me for any length of time (or has read The Wanderer Scorned) will be aware that I rather like serious stuff. In particular, give me an epic, tear-jerking, world-shattering, thousand-page novel, and I’m a happy lady.

My aim with this book review blog was to share meaningful books with you in a genre similar to those I am writing myself. This will not all be historical fiction – my work in progress is an allegorical fantasy series more similar to Narnia than Francine Rivers – but it was a good starting point. So why, you might ask, am I now reviewing The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge, Book 3 in a fun, contemporary series about a lifestyle blogger? 

Well, besides the fact that I couldn’t possibly turn down the irrepressible charms of the author, Ruth Leigh, I actually think this series is reaching into a very important part of the fiction market, and The Continued Times, in particular, reveals the author’s heart. Books are powerful things. Stories can change lives. Yet there is all too often an enormous gap between ‘Secular fiction’ and ‘Christian fiction.’ 

Bridging the gap.

Few people without faith would pick up many of the Christian fiction books on the market, most of those books will never make it into mainstream bookshops, and a lot of them are written with church culture in mind. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not criticising the latter – I have been blessed by many of these books. But to meet an author who is actively ‘bridging the gap’ if you like, writing something entirely accessible to those without faith – but also stealthily meaningful – is a rarer thing. I would have no qualms whatsoever giving Isabella to my Non-Christian friends.

#IssySmuggeSays

Cue Isabella M. Smugge (as in ‘Bruges’, darling). For those who don’t know, in the first book of the series, Instagram influencer and consummate show-off Isabella has a charming husband, three well-mannered children, a gorgeous home in the countryside, an au pair and a housekeeper. She is at the top of her game, and life should be perfect. Yet disaster is around the corner. 

As Isabella is given a healthy dose of reality, she begins to change. I shan’t tell you everything that happens because, if you haven’t read the first two books, I don’t want to completely spoil the delight. Suffice to say, she befriends ‘normal’ people, people we can easily recognise from the playground or doctor’s surgery. The vicar’s wife is one of them, resulting in Isabella coming face to face with value sausage rolls at Messy Church.

#IssySmuggeisBack

The Continued Times finds Isabella in quite the fix, as her frightful mother has moved in following a stroke, she now has four children (and is lacking an au pair to look after them), and her ‘work’ has ramped up following a featured slot in Gorgeous Home magazine (the book is littered with made-up brand names, some of which are hilarious.) 

The author, Ruth, is very funny, and humour laces each page. This nicely offsets the fact that the book touches on several heavy issues. Particularly amusing are Isabella’s attempts at prayer and her experiences of church and church folk. Here’s an example:

Sue seems to spend half her life in conversation with the Almighty. I must make a note of her car registration and ensure I don’t get too close. These religious types, friendly and pleasant though they are, often get carried away, and personally, I think prayer should be avoided while operating heavy machinery or a vehicle. I smiled encouragingly and tried to forget my own picture of a woman with her eyes closed and her hands waving around in the air, heading for the central reservation.

© Ruth Leigh, The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge, Instant Apostle, 2022

A Challenge for us too.

Each offering from Ruth Leigh contains slightly more faith elements. Would I like there to be more explicit ‘gospel’ in this series? I’m not sure, for I think I understand what the author is doing. If you will excuse the cliché, Isabella is on a journey. Accordingly, gospel truths simmer beneath the surface, waiting to be discovered. These revelations, when they come, are subtly woven between the hashtags and hilarity in such a way that I cannot imagine them ever being threatening to a reader with no faith. Challenging perhaps, but not threatening.

And this book will challenge the Christian reader too! Whilst in a meeting about producing the local nativity, we get a taste of just how alien our ‘church speak’ can sound to an outsider:

The three of them smiled at me as if this kind of thing was perfectly normal. Isabella Smugge has her limits. ‘That’s all really lovely, but what do you mean, a word? And how could you possibly have a picture of me if your eyes were closed? And who or what is Ecclesiastes?’

© Ruth Leigh, The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge, Instant Apostle, 2022

The writing bit.

I found I had to concentrate a little harder whilst reading The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge than I did in the previous books. There is quite a bit of timeline hopping and plentiful short sections. Yet the somewhat jumpy nature of the narrative reflects the reality of Issy’s life as she flits from one activity to the next, running around after the children (and Mummy), fitting in work commitments, offering hospitality to distraught sisters-in-law and facing more attacks from her nemesis.

There is something magnetic about Isabella, who embodies the ‘American (or English) Dream’ and yet reveals its utter inability to satisfy. As mentioned on the cover, Ruth’s social commentary is akin to that of Austen, who showed up the frivolities of life in her times through often excruciatingly flawed characters whom we grew to love anyway. Whilst Ruth’s writing is certainly not in a classical style, I venture to suggest that Austen fans will love it.

The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge is available in bookstores worldwide from 22nd October 2022. Signed paperback copies, with merchandise, can be purchased now directly from Ruth’s website here.

The ebook is available from Amazon using my affiliate link below: