Brotherly Love! (A Friend Of The Family - Lisa Jewell)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	A Friend Of The Family - Lisa Jewell
Date:	11/07/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to read, likeable characters

Disadvantages: a bit of a slow start, not Jewell's best

I have read a couple of Lisa Jewell's books and enjoyed them, and recently bought a couple more that I hadn't yet read, one of which was 'A friend of the family.' I must admit that from the blurb on the back, this did not sound like one of her most interesting stories, but I purchased it anyway, hoping it would be as good as the other ones I have read by her.

~The Story~

Meet the London family. Gerry and Bernie have been happily married for 40 years, and have three sons.

Tony is 35, divorced and runs a business producing greetings cards. He has a lovely girlfriend in Ness, whom Bernie adores, but he has a secret crush on someone he shouldn't...his younger brother Sean's girlfriend, Millie.

Sean is an author, and his first book has become an unexpected best-seller. He has been dating Millie for two months, and although she is older than him, and 'posher' than him (for want of a better word), things are going great between them.

Finally, there is Ned. Ned is the youngest sibling, and has just returned from living in Australia for several years. He moved there after splitting from his long-term girlfriend, and meeting Monica, who he started a relationship with. Unfortunately, the longer he was with Monica, the more worrying her obsessive and violent behaviour became, and now that he has left her, he is receiving several disturbing packages in the post containing amongst other things her hair and a vial of her blood.

This book starts with Bernie meeting a man called Gervase in a pub and inviting him to become their lodger. We then follow the stories of the three brothers as they struggle with their relationships and life in general. What impact will the mysterious Gervase have on the lives of the men? And will they ever be able to achieve the peace and happiness in their lives that they deserve?

~What I thought~

It took me quite a long time to get into this book, I felt that for a long time the story dragged and while we met and began to learn about each brother, the pace was quite flat and slow. It was only about quarter of the way in that I felt the book picked up pace, and from then on the story took on lots of twists and turns which kept me turning the pages.

My preferred genre of reading is chick-lit, and yes to some degree this does fall into that category, however like Lisa Jewell's other novels, this isn't a particularly fluffy book, if that makes sense. I think what I am trying to say is that the characters are all very real, as are the worlds that they live in. There's no sense of everyone looking perfect, being perfect and having perfect, dreamy relationships, it's a little grittier than that.

Although we are essentialy following three characters stories here, obviously as they are brothers they are interwoven which makes things quite interesting. I liked all three of them in their own ways and was rooting for them all to get a happy outcome.

For a long time when reading this novel, I couldn't quite see where it was going, we are kept in the dark when it comes to the mysterious Gervase, and it took me quite some time to work out what he was all about, which I suppose was a good thing, as it made me want to read on. Although there are some predictable moments, the story took turns that I didn't expect, which made it more interesting.

Overall I thought this was a good read, but I'm not sure it was one of Lisa Jewell's best and I preferred 31 Dream Street and Ralph's Party to this one, but I would still recommend it, as a light read and especially if you're a fan of her writing style.

Summary: Not a bad read