Basically, about three different women who were together at each others' hen parties years ago. There's Georgia, a heartless journalist who has given up on romance and now lives her life ruining other peoples'. There's Katie, a woman who had a bad marriage and has now given up on marriage - which causes her problems with her current boyfriend, Steve. And then, my personal favourite, Alice. A woman who was treated harshly by a woman she called a best friend, and ditched publicly by her husband when she was pregnant with her daughter, Iris. They have since gone their separate ways, and it's a book about claiming back lost friendship and to bud new romance.
I think reading a fluffy, loosely-plotted romance novel directly after reading a hardcore science-fiction space battle written from an anti-hero's point of view was a bad idea and negatively affected my experience of this book. Which is a huge shame, because the previous books I have read by Lucy Diamond - "Over You" and "Sweet Temptation" - were a relief after reading hefty, mentally-draining books. That was, really, the reason it was picked up in the first place. It was like getting a nice, long sleep after running a marathon so you have the energy to do it all again tomorrow.
Well, it's what I wanted, but didn't get.
I want to at least say the premise was interesting, but it's not. There isn't anything on the back that grabbed me. I picked it up purely because it was written by Lucy Diamond, and she has surprised me in her talent to get me hooked twice before. Not here. It just all seemed like filler. Like that horrible tasting stuff in the middle of a Victoria sponge that just ends up ruining the whole thing in the end. I was expecting some nice sub-plots, but there wasn't. What you see is what you get. It was all just a little bit boring.
It didn't help that I had a strong dislike for Georgia. Same with most horrible characters, she had an unpleasant back story, but this weak attempt to pull at my heartstrings failed. She was vain, superficial, annoying, everything in a person I would usually try to avoid.
One of the most important things in a book, I personally think, is writing characters you love. Or, at the very least, relate to or care about. The only person I really wanted to hear about was Alice, and because it was split in to three different perspectives from third person (my least favourite narrative), she hardly turned up. I don't think Diamonds' strong point is splitting up the point of views. I think she should just stick to the one person.
Not that this book is all bad - if you can believe it after this ramble - I still came out with a somewhat feeling of enjoyment and satisfaction. I would still recommend people to read it, it just was not my thing on a whole.
But wait, there's more.
I almost forgot! There was one more point I wanted to bring up about this novel that really irritated me.
The terrible love you feel nothing for. *spoilers* Alice spoke to Dom from our POV probably three or four times, most of which was not in a good light, and then suddenly they were loved up and a team. Katie refused to get married because she wasn't okay with it, causing Steve to ditch her for a week because apparently not wanting to be married just is not okay and she ended up proposing to him and getting pregnant after spending years saying that's not what she wanted. Georgia and Owen spoke literally once and the second time they spoke ended in a kiss and sex, and then they were loved up in a click of your fingers. I don't think love works like that *end of spoilers*
Phew, glad I could get that off my chest! Despite dedicating an entire review on her book to ranting, don't let that put you off her! She writes very light-hearted, wonderful reads with a touch on serious topics in each one of her books - I urge you to give at least one of them a try,
Good-bye for now
- Loz x
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