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From the Publsiher:

Brothers Tony, Sean, and Ned had the perfect upbringing, but now that they are grown up, real life is starting to get in the way. Tony’s dealing with divorce and a weight problem. Novelist Sean is up against a serious case of writer’s block and a shock announcement from his "perfect" new girlfriend. Their parents have a new lodger, Gervase—why is Bernie, their mother, so keen to give this unsavory waif a home? And what is the real reason for kid brother Ned’s surprise return from his travels in Australia?

I picked this up at the library just browsing through the new releases section and am glad I tried out a new author. Lisa jewell is definately a British author- she has the knack for really making you feel the differences in cluture from America more through her complete passion for the parts of London than by making comparisons to anywhere else. I enjoy readin authors wh have that obvious spark for a location that drives them.

I started off not too sure how I would like this book and ended up sad to see it go and wondering about the future of the characters which is my favorite way to end a story. She brings in a number of characters who are easy to understand because they behave like my own family and friends. When someone does somethign stupid, as most of them do- it's easy to sympathize with the stupid one and the person being wronged.

I only had two peeves about this book:

1. Gervase. He is an oddball- but I liked him. However, when she first introduced the character, I had a completely different picture than when he showed up later in the story. I suspect this was because we see him through the mother's eyes, then the son's. However, I found it distracting to have to change my mental picture.

2. The parent's house. This may sound odd- but I saw this as an inconsistancy as well. We are first told it looks like it should be condemned and told about the piles of dumpster finds stacked through the house and the many broken places such as a stair you have to skip to save falling through. Later in the story, they speak about how a large house in this neighborhood (theirs) could fetch quite a price on the market. I also never got the sense of why this couple collected the garbage. He owned an antique shp- but didn't fix these things up. I didn't understand the motivation for collecting them.

Overall, this was a great read and I plan on purchasing the rest of her small list of titles from bookcloseouts so I can read them at my leisure and share them with friends cheaply.

Lisa Jewell Books