A good read (What She Wants - Cathy Kelly)

Member Name: cardamon

Product:	What She Wants - Cathy Kelly
Date:	16/10/03 (29 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, Likeable characters

Disadvantages: Ends suddenly

This is the first Cathy Kelly book that I've read. I bought it from a second hand book shop. I wanted a light fun read and the lively green cover with the picture of the twenty something made me expect a chic lit type of book but it turned out to be more like a Maeve Binchy book.

The story centres around Hope, a married mother of two small children. She moves to Redlion, a small village in Ireland with her husband when he decides he wants to take a year out to write a novel. She takes time to settle in but eventually makes friends and starts to make a life for herself there. Her husband finds it hard to write his novel and the couple's relationship is put under strain.

Hope's sister Sam features heavily in the book. She has just got her dream job in a record company. She falls for the man next door and realises that a great career isn't everything. Sam and Hope are very close in spite of living different lives from each other. They phone and email regularly are are always there for each other.

Among the women in Ireland we meet Virginia who has moved to Redlion to start a new life after her husband dies.

There is also Nicole who is a client of Sam's record company and is set to be a big pop star.

The main theme of the book is the friendship and community spirit of Redlion. This is probably why it reminded me of a Maeve Binchy book. I enjoyed reading about the women and how they supported each other through their problems. Sometimes the pace of the story was slow but this suited the slow pace of village life.

The book is well written and I enjoyed the story. However I did find that the story ended suddenly and I do not think that bringing all the main characters together at the end for a wedding worked. I would have liked an update on the characters maybe six months later as there was not enough detail on how the main characters fared.

I enjoyed the book and I will defi
nately read Cathy Kelly again.

Summary: