‘There was a clock on the mantel above the fireplace, I remember, ticking. I had your mum’s hand in mine. It was shaking. Mine was too, I think. Then we heard a sob. A scream.’ Pammy covered her eyes with one hand. ‘I’d forgotten that. You know how you blank things.’
Page 269
In a nutshell
Annabel, a widow and novelist lives a pretty ordinary life in London with her two children. That is until her mother decides to sell her leafy London home and divide her time and money between her three daughters. While her sisters happily spend their portion of their inheritance, Annabel questions her mother’s behaviour – leading to her uncovering a long buried family secret. To top it all off, Annabel’s love life starts heating up…
Book Club Notes
I was after a fluffy easy summer read when I picked this up. You know the type you breeze through in a weekend. This did not deliver on that front, what I got was a painfully slow story written in painstaking detail. There were also numerous times I doubted my grasp of the English language, rereading sentences that made no sense – but perhaps that’s my South African English speaking. An example:
‘A glittering look to her eye as she distributed the starter and very much in the dining room, too, around a vast mahogany table, crammed with silver and lots of people’.
In short, a sweet story, but it could have been half the amount of pages.
Read If
You like novels focused on sisterhood with women in their fifties as the centre.
I do think this book would be a hit in a retirement home.
Rating
Writing – 4/10
Character Development – 5/10
Plot Twist – 6/10
Shareability – 3/10
The Nitty Gritty
Published by: Penguin Random House
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Drama
ISBN: 978-0241793763
Pages: 377
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A note on our book ratings
Storyline: How good is the storyline? Is it believable and complex or does it make you shake your head in its ridiculousness?
Writing: How well written is the book? Do you find yourself wowed by the writing or unimpressed?
Character Development: Do the characters evolve and grow through the book and are they multi-dimensional?
Plot Twist: Were you able to predict the end, or did the author give you some surprises along the way to keep you on your toes?
Shareability: How likely are you to share the book?
