Reviewed by Ceri Kehoe
As Lizzie juggles running a failing women's magazine with bringing up a
young family she ponders on whether you really can “have it all”. The
answer comes sooner than she expects when her husband's actions turn her
world upside down...
Alison should be looking forward to a
quieter life with David now that their youngest has flown the nest. But
David has other ideas and his increasingly bizarre behaviour leaves
Alison wondering if she really knows her husband at all...
Karen
has managed to hold her family together since leaving her husband Paul
many years before. That makes her the perfect person to start The "How
to Survive Divorce" Club, to help others on their own. But as the burden
of past secrets unravels, Karen realises she needs help too.
Ed
really believes in marriage. So much so that he's done it three times
already. But as his work and home life get ever more complicated, will
he ever be able to find “The One”...?
Add in mysterious diary
entries, an overbearing sister, a troublesome stepbrother, the surprise
return of faces from the past, grown up kids with their own problems,
and ageing parents who've discovered the ups (and downs) of internet
dating and you have a gripping and entertaining tale of modern life as
our foursome struggle with... Divorce for Beginners.
Here we meet a group of people, newly single for one reason or another
who have joined the 'How To Survive Divorce' club. Karen who runs the
club left her husband 10 years ago, she believes that her experience can
help others so she opens the club.
The other members are Lizzie, editor of Charisma magazine, her
husband Tom has left her for her best friend. Alison, her youngest child
has just left home, at the same time her husband David has left her and
she's left quite a bit bewildered by it all. Ed, after numerous
relationships which includes 3 marriages, all he wants is to find the
right girl, settle down and have a family.
This book follows the trials and tribulations of their lives, how
they are coping with singledom! Each chapter is devoted to a main
character, I love stories told in this way rather than a conventional
chapter one, chapter two etc.
Six sentences into the story I found myself belly laughing. I wasn't
sure if that was a good sign or not, would the book keep the fun all
the way through it or would it deflate like a balloon? I'm glad to say
it did keep the fun, the writing flowed easily, making it an easy book
to pick up, put down.
I really enjoyed this book, told in the third person narrative it
explores every characters lives, it delves really deep and I felt I had a
good understanding of how every character worked. There were plenty of
other characters in this book which could have got a bit confusing but
as each were related to a main character, I didn't have to stop and read
back to find out who was who. King has included an introduction in the
book to the four main characters and names of their children, friends. I
loved all the characters but I feel that Lizzie's Mum and Dad must have
a deserved mention for being fantastic, what a pair and I really
enjoyed reading about their exploits!
This was good chick lit reading but with plenty of drama, every
chapter ended on a cliffhanger, just like a soap opera, pretty hard to
do because you have to keep that pace right through the book but King
managed it. I swear at the end of each chapter I heard the opening bars
of a well known tv show!
I'd highly recommend reading this book, a five star read for me.
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