Normal for Norfolk...... (The Handbag and Wellies Yoga Club - Lucy Edge)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	The Handbag and Wellies Yoga Club - Lucy Edge
Date:	26/08/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Light, easy-going, not a challenging read

Disadvantages: Gets a bit over-involved in Lucy's obsession with yoga

When Lucy announces that she is leaving the bright lights of London for the rural countryside of Norfolk and Suffolk, it is met by her friends with quiet and muted applause. It is not that they think Lucy will be unable to fit in, more that they think her sooo brave!! In fact, Lucy wants to trade in the hustle and bustle of living in a big city full of strangers with little or no time for each other or their lives and seek, with her mixed-race husband, a quiter and more content life-style where everywhere you turn is another freindly face. But the truth is, to begin with, Lucy does find it a little difficult to adjust, especially as she is going through a minor personal crisis and a paticulary troublesome time of life where she will be forced to make some uncomfortable descisions...

The Handbag And Wellies Yoga Club, or THAWYC for short, is the follow-up to Lucy Edge's earlier memoir which saw her travelling the globe in pursuit of spiritual calm and meeting her handsome hubby. Though I had never heard of Lucy Edge before, I got this through the I Want A Free Book group on Facebook, I found it was not essential to have read this earlier volume and, in fact, one of the main reasons I showed any interest at all in this book was because I had enjoyed the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella, and the cover suggests this is similar light-hearted fare, and because I actually live in Norfolk and so know all the locations she describes in the book first-hand! To read about the places and people from an "outsider's" perspective was very interesting and more than a littlke amusing in places but, towards the end, the book takes on a slightly more serious tone as Lucy discusses her desire to have a child.

An easy enough read, there is nothing too challenging here and it is about what you might expect from a chick-lit book though this is not fiction but apparently based on the author's real experiences. I found I got a bit bored of all the yoga bits after a while, and there is a fair bit of this book that is all about chakras etc and performing the sacred crane manouvere etc, but the rest of the story is quite engaging and Lucy is a comfortable narrator who can keep a story going well. I would not have bought this or indeed borrowed it from the library but as a free book I could find nothing to complain about and I know plenty of people who will enjoy this now I am done. The ending is a little down, and if this was a novel would probably end a bit more upbeat, but the fact this ends the way it does lends a touch of authenticity and realism to the proceedings.

This is certainly one for all the ladies out there...and those of a certain age especially who will no doubt be able to empathise with everything Lucy goes through on her journey in the back of beyond!

Summary: One for all the ladies...