Monday 21 September 2009

Review of Good at Games

See I promised I'd be a more dedicated reviewer!

Jill Mansell - Good at Games
From Back - Suzy Curtis falls in love with Harry Fitzallan the moment she shows him her husband's sperm sample. Actually, it isn't her husband's, because she isn't married. It isn't a sperm sample either, it's a carton containing the dregs of her milkshake. (But when you're desperate to escape a speeding ticket you have to improvise, don't you?) Oh, and it isn't really love at first sight, it's a healthy case of lust.
Suzy is the girl with everything - dream job, red Rolls-Royce and ravishing rock-star ex. Then she meets Harry - and his deeply sceptical brother Leo - and before long finds herself with a whole lot more...

4/5 - I really enjoyed Good at Games by Jill Mansell, but have found myself being able to guess how her novels will work out, before having reached the end! Now I'm not saying that this is a critiscism, because to be honest, I quite enjoy the "glory" you feel at the end of the novel when you realise that you got it right, from the first page! But I think after reading this book, I may have a break from Mansell, and try other authors, before returning to my stack of unread Mansell books!
Suzy Curtis was possibly one of my favourite characters from all of Mansell's books! She was just so down to earth, and I liked the fact that Mansell, painted her as being beautiful and lust-worthy despite the fact that she was a size 14, and that Celeste (a character I didn't like) was a size 8 and was described as not being attractive at all! Suzy was a very caring character, and without giving to much away I liked that things appeared to work out for her :) she deserved it!
The opening of the novel, (about the "sperm sample") really sets the tone of it, as its funny, and I did find myself laughing at the utter genius of Suzy to think up such a plan! And the rest of the novel was no disappointment as it was funny, and full of stupid things that Suzy did throughout!
One thing I didn't really like about the novel, and this could be said about many films, and books I read, was that the characters always seem to fall in love and become engaged after only "dating" for a matter of days or weeks! This is not realistic in my eyes, but then I suppose that's the beauty of reading, things don't need to be "real"!
Anyway, Good at Games, was still another gem by Jill Mansell, and she's definitely on the way to becoming my author of the year :)!

2 comments:

Nina said...

Thank you for your review! The book really sounds great, the cover is cute! :)

Catriona said...

@Nina - I know I love Jill Mansell's new covers for her books, they all match :) x