Spellbound with Spellbound (Spellbound - Jane Green)

Member Name: Jess-L

Product:	Spellbound - Jane Green
Date:	08/04/04 (62 review reads)
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Spellbound is Jane Green?s latest novel, telling the story of Alice, who lives in a beautiful interior-designed house, has sleek, highlighted hair, a wardrobe of designer clothes and a gorgeous, rich husband. On the surface, she is calm, serene and a picture of loveliness, who has everything she could ever want, but the cracks are beginning to show.

Alice isn?t a naturally elegant person. She would much rather be in jeans and a jumper, on a farm, surrounded by ducks and sheep. She feels like a fake in her Gucci clothes and Jimmy Choo kitten heels, but that?s what her husband wants, and what Joe wants, Joe gets. Which includes women. Alice buries her head in the sand and refuses to acknowledge his infidelities, but how long can she ignore the facts?

Joe?s cheating forces him to accept a transfer to New York. Initially, Alice is upset, but begins to think this is a fresh start. When they find a country house in Connecticut, she is even happier. For a while, they seem to be getting their marriage back on track, but then the unexplained absences and ?heavy workloads? begin again? does she stick out her marriage? After all, she still loves Joe. Or should she leave with her dignity intact, but her heart broken?

Jane Green has written a few books now, and they are pretty much hit and miss. This is one of the better ones. She has a conversational, friendly style that flows well, and very descriptive, so you feel you know the characters fairly well, but she never digs deeper into their past, so you don?t really know them as well as you could.

The storyline is believable and convincing (unlike the plot of Jemima J, one of her other books), and you can genuinely relate to the character of Alice, as anyone could be put in that situation. She begins to feel like a close friend, and you will her to make the right decision.

It is a light-hearted drama really ? there?s not a lot of comedy in here. It isn?t too taxing, and would be perfe
ct as a holiday read. It is very engaging though ? once you start reading, it?s hard to put it down! You are drawn into the story, and I found myself reading well into 4am one night.

What I like about this is that the main character isn?t perfect. In too many books, the heroine is a saintly figure, but Alice makes mistakes, gets jealous, etc, like the rest of us, which makes her seem more normal than the holier-than-thou heroines of other books!

The ending though, is a bit disappointing. It?s very quick, as though she has written it in a rush to tie up all the lose ends, and it could have been done better. Also, it was predictable and you could tell straightaway what would happen at the end when you?re half-way through the book!

It?s in hard-back and is also quite a thick book, with about 450 pages. It has a bright pink cover as well, with colourful writing, which was what initially drew me to the book!

I?d recommend this to anyone who wants a light-hearted, engaging read. If you?re a bit snobby with your reading material, then maybe not! It?s what you?d call chick/clit lit, but I love it, and I?m not ashamed of that fact!

It cost me £10 in hardback, although you can get it cheaper now at about £5 from Amazon, I think, and is published by Penguin.

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