I’d seen mixed reviews for this novel, and usually that doesn’t draw me to a book, but this time I couldn’t resist as I was looking for a romantic thriller type of thing, and this looked as though it might fit my expectations.
The novel tells the story of a couple who are on holiday in Mallorca and due to be joined by their teenage daughter/stepdaughter, Emma, and her boyfriend.
Jenn, the stepmother, is instantly inappropriately attracted to Nathan, her stepdaughter’s boyfriend. He is handsome and completely different to her boring, middle aged husband.
The affair is not very believable. Jenn may be in a stale marriage, and has a tetchy relationship with Emma; but raw, animalistic sex with Nathan is not the answer. She is completely abhorrent as a wife and stepmother.
Nathan doesn’t come across as being attractive either; he just wants sex at whatever cost and cheats on Jenn/Emma with another girl as well.
He’s a nasty piece of work with no redeeming qualities. Jenn’s husband is a drip and Emma is a spoilt brat. It’s hard to sympathise with any of them, even with the magnitude of Jenn’s betrayal of her family.
Jenn and Nathan have sex all over the house and you do wonder how no one else has noticed. The best part of the book is the ending, when it turns out that Jenn’s husband might not be so boring after all…
This is a short novel which I read in a couple of days. The narrative is easy to read and I flew through the book to get it over with!
The book ends just when it’s getting interesting, and retribution for her behaviour is on the horizon for Jenn. Then again, I don’t really care what happens to her!
I would recommend this book if you want a quick read and are as intrigued by the premise as I was.
