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This was a book that took me by surprise. I enjoy
contemporary/woman’s fiction—I consider the genre entertaining and satisfying
and a bit like a snack in between meals. But this was so much more—I
found myself being a bit of a greedy guts and helping myself to an extra slice
and pretty much snacking on it all day. I couldn’t put it down.
Set in Bath, it features wealth, fame, and all the
trappings—good and bad—that go with it. Not only material trappings
but attitudes and expectations that sometimes go with a privileged
lifestyle. Ella lives in a large country home belonging to her
wealthy grandmother with her husband, Matt, precocious daughter, Lucy, and her
brother, Nick, and his family. Matt is a successful record producer
with a promising new band to promote. An ex-lover comes back into
his life poised to destroy his happy marriage to Ella, the new band’s future,
and just about anything that stands in her way of trying to ensnare the man she
let slip away 20 years previously. Precocious daughter Lucy learns
the hard way that money isn’t necessarily the ticket to
happiness. And Ella, poor Ella, has to cope with death, a marriage
about to hit a potentially disastrous rock, establishing a new business, and
watching her brother, a frustrated school-teacher, head hopelessly towards a
mental breakdown.
The cast of this book is wide and varied. It’s
hard to say who are the main characters because, as far as I’m concerned, a
number vie for the lead roles. And this is one of the things I liked
about this book. There are a good many characters who were strong, defined, and
interesting; Marcie, the disillusioned ex-lover, is as scheming and immoral as
Ella is kind, patient, and forgiving. The characters’ lives, past and present,
are cleverly interwoven, and the result is a compelling, well-written, and
easy-to-read novel. This certainly won’t be my only outing with this
author.
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