I'm so glad I have read other books by Lisa Jewell because, yikes... You can very much tell this is a first novel and it is very much of its day in terms of politically incorrect comments, fat phobia, homophobia, misogyny, etc. But more than that it just isn't my type of book. It's very character driven (and they're all arseholes) and very aimed at women, which I don't have anything against but I tend not to enjoy.

There are no totally likeable characters in this, which is fine, but one of the protagonists is so awful that you can't possible think they're supposed to be the good guy, I mean he is so unhygienic and essentially a stalker, yet all this is explained away as okay because he's in 'love'. The characters manage to move in pretty rich circles considering some of them have either menial jobs or are unemployed. They live in a bubble where they all smoke, drink to excess, and don't seem to wash. I didn't care about any of them.

I am not going to read the sequel but I will continue to read books by Lisa Jewell. I'll just give her a few years after this one.