I’ve read quite a few books by Lucy Diamond (and reviewed a couple – here and here) and have loved every single one. So while I have missed the last couple (they are waiting on my bookshelf though), I was excited to read this book and knew it was time to delve back into her books. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, the synopsis sounded heartfelt, so I dove in almost the minute it downloaded onto my kindle.
Like many (if not all) of Lucy’s books, this is told from multiple viewpoints. I am a sucker for this and Lucy’s writing made it easy to get to know each one. I did find that the book didn’t make it obvious when a viewpoint had changed between paragraphs. It often needed a line or two of the new paragraph until the name or some obvious context was given before it became clear that the viewpoint had changed and we were in someone else’s story as this happens with no warning in the middle of a chapter. This very well may be formatting and exclusive to the ARC ebook I received though, so copies people buy in shops may do this better, and I shall certainly check on this when I see it in the shops later this month!
There were 6 characters that we follow, with Frankie, Robyn and Bunny being the main three. All the characters were charming to read, I’d be happy to call all of them friends had they been real people.
I really liked Bunny, she was so sweet and I really felt for her. Insecurity is a terrible feeling at the best of times, but she has so much more on her plate as well. As she confides in the reader, I really wanted to hug her and let her know everything will be ok.
Frankie was wonderfully warm and I loved her relationship with Fergus, she seemed a real natural at motherhood. Frankie’s storyline was easily my favourite in the whole book, and I think would have made a whole book on it’s own.
While it is wrapped up completely by the end of the book, I was dying for more depth, drama and detail. Jeanie’s holiday antics were a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing Alison discover life outside of TV again.
This book had a lot of build up to some dramatic storylines and the ending came almost too soon. I wanted more from Frankie’s situation, more talking between Dave and Bunny and more info on Robyn and John navigating their issues. The end of the book did tie things up nicely but it was over too soon. I did enjoy the book, and being left wanting more is a good thing in this case, I’d rather get a nice conclusion and wish a book was longer, rather than thinking it was too long and getting no answers to any questions.Warm, a lot of fun and characters that have so much heart you find yourself lost in the pages for hours. What more can you want in a book?
Published by: Pan Macmillan
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review
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