A family reunited on a holiday of a lifetime...what could possibly go wrong?
When 70-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits an essay to the 'Become a Jetsetter' contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist; and Regan, a harried mother who has never forgiven Charlotte for buying her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday.
But when she wins the cruise, the reality is not quite as she expected. As they sail from sun-drenched Athens, to glorious Rome, to tapas-laden Barcelona, lovers old and new join the adventure, and long-buried secrets are revealed.
Can four lost adults find their way back to themselves, and to each other? And more importantly, can they do it without killing each other?
Review: I don't usually get on well with books that are part of celebrity book club picks but I liked the premise of this one and I enjoy books set around cruises so I thought why not? I think perhaps I should have trusted my judgement on this one and just given it a miss.
Its not that there is anything particularly bad about this book it just didn't live up to my expectations and it wasn't that memorable for me. I really like the fact that the main character, the matriarch of the family in this one is older and I think that more books are pushing the boundaries with the ages of their protagonists but more could definitely have been done with this and I didn't really find myself sympathizing with the character.
I found myself liking Cord as a character and I would have loved to have seen more of him in the book. I really found it hard the way they had the characters interacting, or not interacting as the case may be and I could think of a few ways that Cord could have been added to storylines involving Charlotte, Regan or Lee that would have added a bit more tension or even comedy.
Some of the descriptions of places the ship docks in this book really were beautiful, right down to the table cloths the food and drink is laid out on. So if you're used to cruising and can't right now, this might be a bit of an adventure for you! I did this one on audiobook and I have to say the narration was very good and it was clear which character we were dealing with at each moment.
This one wasn't for me and so I think I'll stay away from book club picks in the future!
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