I think this is what would be called 'Chick Lit'?  This is a whole new area for me so I can only speak as I find.

 

This is a huge door step of a book - it is not only thicker (by loads!) than normal paper backs - but it is higher and wider too!

 

I love the cover image - ISN'T THIS JUST SOO GOOD GIRLS?  And I have to say this is a GIRLS book.

 

I was a bit nervous about starting this book - just because it is so big.  I read very slowly these days and get lost easily.  But it's OK.  There is quite a small list of main players, so it is fairly easy to keep track of who is doing what.   I have to say I read just a little bit each night, and before I knew it I was well into the book: it is very readable.  The language and structure is simple, and it's not too 'name dropping' that it loses the story line.  You know, although this book is set among the wealthy and privileged - we have all had a friend that has been worn down by an over bearing marriage/relationship, and, if we are lucky, have held their hand through the split and watched them become a person in their own right: with a life, joy and a future.  This book represents this process.

 

Once or twice (maybe 3 times) I did think ' oh, as if . . .' - but that's not bad for a book of this size, dealing exclusively in the lives of the ultra-rich.  There are some wonderful bitchy spats and the girls characters develop from the insecure 'little woman' (women?) into individuals that can manage and take control their own lives. There are minor characters (mostly women) who drop in and out and I have to say over-all - although there is bitchiness - the author represents them in a fairly kind light.  The drug addict is so because of created family tensions and her 'art', but she is not overly criticised, I think her partner is (one of the exes), because he can not see her faults, but somehow she is the Innocent.

 

This book would be all you would need to keep you going for a holiday, so it gets the thumbs up from me.