Review! Lucy in the Sky by Paige Toon (Paige Toon Review number 3!)

Settling down for a 24-hour flight to Australia, Lucy finds a text message on her phone from a woman claiming to have slept with her boyfriend, James, four times in the past month. Trapped above the Pacific, she questions everything about their relationship, but when she finally calls him, James reassures her that it was only his friend playing a joke. James is gorgeous and successful and Lucy adores him, yet at her best friend Molly’s wedding in Sydney, she finds herself having doubts and is keeping an eye on Molly's brother-in-law Nathan. Nathan is a happy-go-lucky surfer boy with no prospects, no place to live, and an almost-girlfriend in tow. Suddenly, Lucy finds herself caught between two distant continents and two very different men.

Review: this was the second novel that I started by Paige Toon but the third novel I finished (life did the annoying thing of getting in the way) and just like her other novels, I was gripped from the word go! Unfortunately the ending was slightly spoiled for me because I read Pictures of Lily before finishing this, Paige Toon's first novel, so take care not to fall into the same trap as I did!

The novel begins with Lucy boarding a 24 hour flight to Australia to see her friends get married but then she gets a text which suggested her boyfriend is cheating on her. There is a lot of tension at the beginning of this novel but this is incredibly effective as it hooks you in straight away, no questions asked. I was dying to see what happened and how the text was resolved and so I was literally raving though the pages. The general pace of the story does slow down considerably when Lucy returns to London, and I think that is maybe why I found my reading pace slowed a little from that point onwards. You are left wondering the whole way through the book, however, which route Lucy is going to take-thrilling!

Lucy as a character was your typical insecure woman. She struggled quite often throughout the novel with the decisions she had to make, but I really enjoyed her fun-loving attitude to life, although I found her too accommodating when it came to boyfriend James. James was a thoroughly dislikeable character. If this had been a pantomime, the audience would have booed as he came onto the stage, showing how cleverly he is written. The real star of the novel is Nathan, I had a total crush on him, he's just so thoughtful and caring and yet has the laid-back surfer attitude which is completely irresistible. As leading men go, he was just perfect.

There were a host of supporting characters as well who, I have no doubt, may crop up in Toon's later novels as I work my way through them. The general theme of escapism which can be found in most of Paige Toon's novels was prevalent too. Overall I thought this was a great read for a first novel and a superb concept to get readers hooked in right from the word go. I would say be prepared for a slight dip in the middle, but that might just have been me! Now it's onto the next instalment from the fabulous Paige Toon!