Friday 13 July 2007

A French Affair by Susan Lewis

I started this book very excited. Whoever wrote the teaser on the back cover really should get paid a load more money than the author. It sounds compelling and leads you into a false sense of heightened expectation.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This book is absolute total and complete rubbish. None of the characters are believable. They are even less likable. They are one dimensional. And their priorities are all screwed up.

Jessica used to be a television presenter. Her husband, Charlie, is a news reader. Their daughter, Nathalie dies. Jessica is convinced there is more to the story than she has been told. Charlie and Jessica's best friend, Lillian, try to convince Jessica that she is crazy and that her daughter simply fell down a flight of stairs whilst visiting her grandmother in France. Then Jessica falls in love with Lillian's husband, Luc, whilst in France investigating the accident all on her own.

I won't give away the ending just in case you are woefully misguided and decide to pick this book up on your own. Although I do strongly urge you not to. This is nothing more than a trashy romance novel. The sex scene at the very end is absolutely cringe worthy.

The characters are self-absorbed and self-indulgent. The book is unnecessarily long with false suspense that never really delivers. The plot is predictable and the writing is cliched.

I can't believe we actually read this for the book group!

Book Group Review: Everyone agreed with the above. D has apologised profusely for picking a stinker. We reassured this is not a dimissable offense and we have all been victims of bad literature. Next month we have chosen Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky. I have high hopes for this one!

2 comments:

Janell said...

Thanks for the stink warning!

Anonymous said...

I totally disagree with the above negative review! There's nothing wrong with a bit of romance, especially set in France. I have an extremely demanding career which means I work 12-14 hours each day and it's lovely to 'escape' for a while in an easy to read book. In my opinion, Susan Lewis has not written a bad book. I myself have read them all and they have enabled me to relax after very long,trying days. I have bought some other books which I would describe as utter trash and have abandoned them after the first few pages. This is not one of them!!