Time to change to something more readable (Time For A Change - Erica James)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Time For A Change - Erica James
Date:	10/08/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Readable enough

Disadvantages: Characters boring, sub-plot absolutely ridiculous, I found it difficult to read

I bought Time for a Change from a charity shop when I was looking for new books. I'd never read anything by Erica James before but I'd heard the name and thought this sounded alright from the blurb on the back, so decided to give it a go.

~The Story~

Hilary Parker lives in the small village of Hulme Welford with her husband David, and two children, Philip, and Becky, a boisterous young girl. She has a busy life, being a member of the PTA and taking French lessons in the evening, but she is happy with her life.

Everything changes for Hilary when one morning she finds a receipt for dinner for two in her husbands pocket. Not only that, but he has been muttering another woman's name in his sleep.

Realising he is having an affair, Hilary turns to neighbour Cindy, who's husband has cheated on her many times. Cindy advises Hilary to ignore it and carry on as normal, which is what she does.

Elsewhere, Hilary's friend Georgina and local battleaxe Iris are waging a war on a local newsagent who is selling saucy underwear and Hilary's sister is getting married. Will any of them get their happy ending?

~What I thought~

The book opens with Hilary discovering her husbands infidelity, and confiding in neighbour Cindy. I didn't think that Cindy's advice to ignore the problem and hope it would go away was necessarily the right way to go about things, and I was surprised that Hilary, an ex schoolteacher and obviously intelligent woman, would go along with this. If it was me, personally, I would have confronted David straight away, and the fact that Hilary didn't say anything to him, whilst obviously being torn up inside, made me frustrated with the character right from the beginning.

Although Hilary's distress at finding out her husband is having an affair is conveyed well, on the whole I did not really like the character. Again, it just seemed incredible to me, that she would be so distraught, but not confront her husband - yet whine to several friends, and her sister about her marital problems.

I found this book incredibly difficult to read. It took me a couple of weeks to get through it, because although I would pick it up several times a day (in a bid to get it over and done with more than anything else), I found I could only read a few pages at a time before becoming bored.

The more I read the more silly and unbelievable this story got. The sub-plot with Georgina and Iris waging war against the local news agent was especially stupid. I think it was supposed to be an attempt at humour, but I actually found myself cringing when reading it, as it was so pathetically childish, I felt almost embarrassed for the author!

The ending, without giving it away, was also very predictable, and I pretty much got the general gist of what was going on from the start.

Needless to say, I would not recommend this book. The story was flat and boring, the characters were not particularly interesting and I struggled to get through it.

Summary: Not recommended