Julia

This is the story of 4 parallel lives (families) in a small town.

Tilly has quit her London job and takes a Girl Friday job in a remote town where she knows only one person. She navigates work, love, friends, and social life in her new small town community.

Tilly's boss, Max, has a family of 3, including a lively 13 year daughter. The dynamics of his whole family's work, school, and romantic relationships intertwine with Tilly's life in an intriguing, frustrating, and often heart-warming way.

Tilly's best friend Erin's life takes a turn that includes love and the most unlikely and challenging friendship anyone could imagine.

Tilly's befriends Jack, her boss's colleague, who on the surface is a charmer with a bad reputation, but Jack has a story of his own.


I love Jill Mansell's style. It is peppered with humor and sarcasm. Hearing the characters' internal dialog as each twist in plot happens is hilarious! Mansell reminds me a lot of Sophie Kinsella, my fav author. This book moves quickly with lots of dialog, and that's what made it so much fun to listen to for me. Good one!

Wow - this book was not at all what I expected. It is a story of an unfathomable catastrophe that happens to a family of 3 - Mel, Adam, and 4-year old daughter Maya. The family is put to the test and defines a whole new level of level and commitment.

Based on my last read of Linda Green ("Things I Wish I'd Known", awesome book!), I expected a story of intrigue with a bit of humor - well, there is some humor in this book, but it is dark humor. The primary story line is very sad. For me, having a husband and 4 year old daughter myself - it was just too depressing to put my head in this family's life.

Having said that - if you enjoy the inspiration of undying love and commitment, of rebuilding your life after tragedy, this book will not disappoint. I could not wait to see what happened next.

This is one of my favorite audio books!

The timeline jumps back and forth between the 15 year old Claire in 1985 and 38 year old Claire in present day.

15 year old Claire has the rare privilege of meeting a local celebrity on whom she has a teen crush. That meeting sparks a turn of events that impacts the rest of her life as well as those around her. As the layers of the story unravel, you see how the events in her teenage life shape her as an adult. Now she has a chance to meet him again. Two adults on a more equal playing field. Fascinating dynamic.

It is a story of friendship, love, family, career, adolescent dreams, and the reality of adulthood.

Great plot - not predictable at all. The suspense is built skillfully... I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Great humorous moments. This is not a standard chick lit romance - much more substance.

I enjoyed this book, but glad it wasn’t the first Jill Mansell book I've listened to...I like the others a lot more. In this one, there's a bit of a theme betrayal, and some of the male characters are real jerks. These themes are not common to Mansell's writing…I'm glad!

Having said that, hearing the internal conversations in the minds of the mother and daughter are hilarious - wanting some things so badly, but trying to play it cool on the outside - funny in a slightly neurotic, awkward, Bridget Jones-y way.

One thing the publisher's description doesn't really make clear is that about half the book is about Jem's adventures in college, the other half is about Ginny's life as an empty-nester. The two story lines intersect and then veer off again in a fun way.

The Jem scenes remind me of my college days, and the Ginny scenes make me picture what life will be like when my kids are all grown. Both fun places to visit via fiction!

The plot is not predictable at all, lots of twists and turns -good!

I chose this book because of all the great reviews, and I wasn't disappointed. The description sounds kinda cheesy, and I guess it's an accurate plot summary, but let me tell you...Molly Harper executes on the plot with amazing wit! Imagine the day-to-day repurcussions of sending a scathing email that goes viral, and becoming reluctantly infamous for it. Great premise, great story, hilarious throughout, GREAT narration! loved it!

This book was a bit silly, the theme of humor was the contrast of country Texans in NYC. Kinda like Thelma and Louise meets the Beverly Hillbillies meets the Hardy Boys.The plot had long slow built up, but for me it was worth hanging in there…toward the climax, I couldn't put it down…or, uh…whatever the audio equivalent is. Great narration!

I enjoyed this chronicle of a woman's year of travel and healing. My favorite parts were the history and first-hand accounts of each local culture and the life stories of the friends she made along the way.

The healing seemed like a series of mind-games she played with herself, but hey - it seemed to work for her. I didn't find it narcissistic at all, I found it fascinating to get in someone's deepest thoughts like this.

Serious theme, but with many, many light-hearted and funny moments, some even laugh-out-loud.

But the story left me feeling unsatisfied at the end.

Also, it took me a while to get used the sleepy-sounding style of narrating, but I grew to love the narration, filled with animated accents of the other characters.

This was a nice light read, but the characters seems unrealistically cocky to me. The plot is verey focused on the romance. Lots of detailed descriptions of sexual attraction among many of the characters.

The narrator is absolutely outstanding, best narrator I think I've ever heard!

I don't like books featuring ghosts, but I am a Sophie Kinsella fan, so I gave this book a try. I loved it!

I don't think the Publisher's Summary does it justice. It's not so much about a search for a necklace as it is about a career girl, recovering from a break up, who strikes up an unlikely friendship and gets a fresh perspective from an outsider on her own life. It's fun to see Lara grow and learn from this perspective, but the best part, as always with Kinsella, is the humor. What would you do if you had a friend who had special "powers"? Perform bar tricks, spy on your ex-boyfriend, find out what goes on in business meetings behind closed doors…awesome!

Also, I see some reviewers that were annoyed by the ghost's voice, but there were only 2-3 short scenes where the voice was screechy, and I found it funny, not annoying at all. Narrator is great!

This book has been coming up as a recommendation for me for years, but I never listened to it because the plot sounded too corny.

After reading a few other Sophie Kinsella books, I now know they are a no lose bet! This book is hilarious! It is now actually my favorite Sophie Kinsella book! I got sucked into Samantha's life and was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happened next! How I could care so much about a lawyer/fake housekeeper not getting