Marian Keyes wrote “Ella Griffin can make you laugh and cry in the turn of a page” and I couldn’t possibly come up with a better set of words to describe this lovely book. I loved Postcards from the Heart, but this one is – unbelievably – even better.
Claire realises she is now the same age as her mother was when she died suddenly, and decides she’ll give herself a year to make a success of her acting career. She lives in a flat in the house of her best friend Ray, a former pop star who now turns songs into jingles for advertisements: while Claire is trying to turn her life around, he makes a shocking discovery that rocks his life too, and not just because of his “inferiority cornflakes” (you need to read it…!). Claire’s brother Nick is a TV relationship coach whose marriage to Kelly isn’t everything it seems. And Claire’s father has withdrawn from life after losing his wife, his most meaningful relationship being with the wonderful Dog.
This is a book full of secrets and revelations, beautifully written, perfectly paced, with moments of wonderful humour but others of almost unbearable sadness and poignancy. The revelations are unexpected and extremely well handled, and the characters become people you really care about. And that’s not just the human characters – Dog is an absolute triumph, one of the most real and engaging animals I’ve come across in a book for a very long time. A beautiful read for anyone who enjoys their chick lit well written and with a little more depth – I loved it.