MY SYNOPSIS
Imagine This: It’s New Year’s Eve, your husband
has putting down purchase on a massive property which would now be called your
new home. And he’s throwing a mega-party inviting all family, friends,
acquaintances, and well, everybody.
With lots of
booze, canapés and laughter, the party is fun contrary to what you envisaged.
There you meet in two newcomers in your tiny, country village and you three
bond over fortune cookies and the shitty, crappy messages in them.
Three, two,
one. Happy New Year! Resolutions made, you are about to embrace the New Year
with style and much more commitment to becoming a size six (not that you have
ever seen that weight on you all the forty years of your life).
But who knew
the crappy messages in your fortune cookies would turn to reality? Who knew
tragedy would strike and your perfect family would crumble? No one to help you
restore the hope you had for the New Year, not even your mum dying her hair in
Ibiza, getting a tattoo and a nose ring who only shows up when she’s broken up
with another boyfriend.
If only your
new friends didn’t have problems on their own. On another side of the country,
it turns out their fortune cookies also weren’t lying at all.
Gemma’s, Caitlin’s and Saffron’s
hellish new year summed up for your delight.
MY REVIEW
I loved,
loved this book! So you know in my review I’d be urging you to make your own
fortune cookies and wish your life to crumble to the barest so you could pick
the pieces all up and learn valuable New Year lessons, don’t you? (Crazy, I
know!).
I absolutely
adore Lucy Diamond. Sadly, One Night In
Italy, her previous work, had only been my introduction to her
amazing-ability! Now, I have this book to add to my LUCY DIAMOND TITLES YOU
CAN’T FORGET (BUT CAN YOU REALLY FORGET ANY?) shelf.
Brilliant
storyline. The whole thing with the fortune cookies. The whole thing with the
perfect or remotely perfect lives deteriorating to absolute nothingness. It’s
amazing the way Lucy Diamond crafts her stories and star, star, star, star to
the storyline(s).
The three
main characters are off the hook! Gemma, Caitlin and Saffron! Utterly engaging!
I do say I have never read anyone who handles multiple-character third-person
point-of-view like Lucy Diamond excels in it. No, this is not your kind of
story where all the characters are the same except for different names and
different husbands! You would love Gemma for being the take-charge mother
coming to the rescue when everything else is broken down. You would love
Caitlin for her humorous humour and
her ability to doubt what she wants for the New Year and go for it (much like
us!). You would also love Saffron the no-nonsense girl in PR who knows how to
give a verbal lashing to just about anyone who’s ‘lost the plot’. A star to all
the characters.
Oh, and are there
absolutely fantastic supporting cast as well? Karen, Gemma’s mum who loves to
put down anyone within a mile radius every time she’s back in town. You would
love Spence, Gemma’s husband who’s a moron for most part of the book. There’s
also the adorable Darcey, Gemma’s daughter who never fails to point out when
her mum is looking and acting weird. Will, Gemma’s sulky teenage son who’s
taken up smoking (but really, haven’t they all?). In Saffron’s life, you would
hate Charlotte, the PR boss who always takes pride in stealing the accolades of
her employees to herself and posting cheerful messages on her wall to boost
employee morale {TOGETHER WE CAN
MAKE IT (my arse!)}.
There’s Bunty, the opinionated D-list celeb who’s always calling non-stop for
someone to pick up her laundry and making talk show hosts stay fifty metres
from her reach for fear of being slapped for an offensive joke. In Caitlin’s
life, you would adore Harry, the hot bloke who is going by a ten-date rule and
trying not to begin the New Year for almost marrying someone again (about the
tenth time). Loads and loads of fab characters I do not want to lengthen my
review about… BUT HELL! It’s my blog! You would love Bernie, the pub owner
who’s a total hottie for celebs who’ve ‘lost the plot’. A star!
Humor,
check.
Suspense,
check.
Tear-jerking
and swoony moments, check.── ★★★★★
My rating:
Most definitely a five/five star read! (5/5)!
I feared I
was going deep down into the four-star title rut, but this book saved it all!
Now I know it wasn’t just me finding I needed a little extra with a book. This
book had more than extras!
Lucy
Diamond’s fan-freaking-tabulous latest, The Year of Taking Chances is available
on amazon.
I recommend
this book to anyone who loves an amazing New Year title to get back their
groove on! Anyone who wants to read women’s fiction packed with warmth, humour
and lots of heart should also get this title! And just about anyone who’s had
their lives scammed by a fortune cookie they failed to believe!
My work not
done here! Off to post my review on Goodreads!
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