Mansell is like a Michelin-rated chef: She may use the same common ingredients, but under her sure hand the results are...
In British Mansell’s 11th novel a lovable ditz approaches an empty nest, a new job and a pathological roommate with comic charm and a dash of courage.
Ginny didn’t think Jem beginning university would be so difficult. And when she drives three hours to Bristol on a lonely whim, she finds Jem happily absorbed in her new life at school with flatmates Lucy and Rupert and a job at the local pub. In response, Ginny decides to revamp her social life. In quick order, she finds a job waitressing at a posh restaurant and antiques center (owner Finn is moody and gorgeous) and puts an ad out for a roommate (she’s imagining chick flicks and nights together at the wine bar). Everyone who applies for the spare room is awful, but then Perry Kennedy shows up, handsome and flirtatious. When move-in day comes, he pulls a bait and switch, claiming the room was meant all along for his sister Laurel, who’s been a bit down since her breakup with Kevin, and would Ginny mind watching that Laurel takes all her meds. Before she can say no, Perry asks her out. So begins Ginny’s not-so-fabulous new life, caretaking sad-sack Laurel, dating Perry when she can pin him down and fretting over Jem, who she rightly suspects is sleeping with the obnoxious Rupert. When Perry and Ginny’s best friend, Carla, begin an affair, Ginny is heartbroken—not over slick Perry, but losing Carla is almost unbearable. Thankfully she has Jem and Gavin (her ex-husband, who was terrible at marriage but is quite nice as a friend) and Finn to cheer her up. In fact, Finn may be just the person to appreciate Ginny’s quirkiness, if only his ex didn’t show up expecting a reunion, perhaps ruining Ginny’s happy ending. But never fear, for the large cast of characters, bright days are ahead, even for mopey Laurel.
Mansell is like a Michelin-rated chef: She may use the same common ingredients, but under her sure hand the results are deliciously superior.Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8129-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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