Member Review

Thea is a young lawyer at a cut-throat London firm. She's distant from her family and extremely devoted to her career, to the exclusion of anything but work relationships. But a sudden realization after a co-worker's death has her examining her life choices and wondering what she wants the rest of her life to look like. Previously closed-off to anything but her focus on work, she begins to open herself up to new possibilities and new relationships. So, I struggled a little at first because it felt like it took a while to get to Thea's turning point (the first 20% of the book was exposition). And the story as a whole doesn't feel cohesive as Thea transitions to different stages of her life, which is an issue I also had when reading some of the author's previous books. That said, I think it works for Thea. She was so cut off from what she really wanted in her life at various points in the book, and I think the at-times choppy feel of the story could act as a reflection of Thea's feelings. Thea's overall personality is a bit dry, and I engaged with her most when she was being vulnerable. I did warm up to her eventually and was invested enough to keep going. The supporting characters are well-written and complement the story well. (Alasdair bumped my overall book rating up a bit, I actually thought he was the most engaging character in the book.) This book is definitely an idealized daydream of what you do when you're burnt out at work and need to take a sharp left turn away from what you thought your life was supposed to look like. A final note: despite the book's description, it was not a romantic comedy as I interpret that to mean (i.e., light-to-moderate levels of madcap situations, a focus on romantic relationships, with humor pervasive throughout the story and actual laugh-out-loud moments). There are a few moments of dry humor in this story but that's not the pervasive tone in this book. Rather, readers looking for a book about life journeys and self-realizations with a satisfactory conclusion for the main character will enjoy this one. I gave this 4 stars but it's actually closer to 3.5 stars for me. Publishes November 28 2024.