She spent five years teaching at and later directing the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty academy and training salon in Afghanistan. The deep bonds and compelling personalities of this eclectic group leap from the page, with Layla and Halajan shining particularly brightly for me. Halajan and Rashif’s relationship has to be the most romantic ever – and they have never even held hands! I found the range of characters interesting; I liked how the cultural differences between them were highlighted and how the friendships and bonds between Sunny and the others were developed.

I am a big crier with books but yet I didn't shed a tear with this book when I would have if I had cared enough about the characters. As a result I felt that we never fully got to know or deeply care for any one character and each story-line left me lacking and wanting more. But much has changed since her last visit, and with US troops about to withdraw from Afghanistan, Sunny is worried for the safety of her friends, but they dismiss her concerns, sure that the Taliban won’t regain control. We mainly use Royal Mail Tracked 48 Service for goods which weight less then 2kg, all other goods will be delivered by a Courier.But Rodriguez sets the scene for the reader, detailing their culture and social expectations and evocatively illustrating a city where life is lived on a knife-edge. This compelling story of a cafe in the heart of Afghanistan, and the men and women who meet there, is full of heart and intelligence.

Sunny has already been in Afghanistan a while at the beginning of the book but both Candace and Isabel are new, although Isabel has previously been in war torn countries but in Africa. of our deliveries are made by Royal Mail as we think they give the best service and cover all areas of the UK. Issues with the young woman's sister, and adult son's internal dialogue about what is right, and the safety of a fatherless infant. It has an okay background but the characters seem a bit "fluffy" and they don't have much behind them though they "pretend" too.

There were plot points I wanted to read more about that kind of disappeared or brought to an end with a single sentence. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Although my overall verdict for this novel is positive, I couldn't help but feeling at certain points that I was reading a weakly scripted feminist soap opera. Both their spouses have died, and now – in almost any other country – they would be able to get together.

As the plot evolves, Rodriguez has some of her female Western characters, Sunny's friends, visit Afghan women who are in prison with their babies incarcerated alongside them. It was so interesting and the fact that it was fiction made me aware of how powerful a story can be, whether true or not. It was hard separate what the backdrop to this story was from present day Taliban ruled, Afghanistan.She spends long stretches of time on her own as her lover Tommy, whom she came with, started working for an NGO and now works as a kind of freelancer often on dangerous missions, gone months at a time without contact. We spent ages discussing our favourite characters – Sunny, Rashif and Jack all got a mention, with Yazmina and Halajan each being chosen by a couple of members of our group – as well as who we thought were the bravest characters and considered what we thought the author’s motivation for writing the book were.

Having read a number of fiction books about Afghanistan (A Thousand Splendid Suns being my favourite) I was keen to read this book following five women in Kabul. I have to say, if you want to read a book about Afghani culture- this couldn't be further from the realities of it.I don’t know much about the country either, save for what I’ve seen in news reports about its people’s ongoing struggle against the Taliban.