A friend has invited me to be her guest at an Author Talk at her Women's Institute so I thought I ought to do a bit of homework before I show up to spend an evening with Adele Parks.
You will see from the pic of the front cover that Adele Parks is a 'Number one bestseller', but somehow or other I had never read any of her work, even though she has over twenty books to her credit. Just my Luck turns out to be one of her top sellers so I have to assume it is a good one to read as an example of her writing, and it falls very firmly into the category of Women's Fiction.
It's about a family who win the lottery, and what follows is a disintegration of their circle of friends, and a pretty comprehensive description of what not to do if you suddenly come into a lot of money. To further complicate matters, up until the week before their numbers came up, the family were in a syndicate with two other families and now the jackpot of over £17 million has come up, the others suddenly claim they are still owed a share. It isn't long before things turn ugly and all six of the friends begin to show their two colours.
I felt exasperated with all of the characters, and the speed at which everything could happen. Lexi's husband Jake manages to order a custom Ferrari supercar before any money has even reached their account and Lexi herself transfers a big chunk into a virtual strangers account on the strength of one phone call to the bank! No security checks, nothing. They move into a luxury home within days of asking for it and a party to rival anything Elton John could come up with quickly follows.
I know its just a story, and not every one gets hung up on every little detail, but I really do need to be able to buy into the credibility of what's happening and this book couldn't do that for me.
Despite all that, I am still interested to attend the talk as anyone who publishes a book a year has certainly got something right and clearly she has a lot of fans.
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