Review: A Friend of The Family by Lisa Jewell

 A stranger in your home can only mean trouble . . .

The London family is in crisis.

Newly-divorced Tony is fantasizing about someone he shouldn't.

Prize-winning writer Sean has a hot new girlfriend, and a dose of writer's block.

Their brother Ned has just come back from Australia, leaving his girlfriend behind.

And now they have a new lodger - a mysterious stranger.

But is he the friend this family needs, or a troublemaker they could do without?

Review: I really enjoyed this backlist Lisa Jewell title. I love books where we get to know a whole family and spend time with each member of that family. It reminds me of classic Marian Keyes or those kind of family dramas that revolve around siblings on TV. Whilst we have a mysterious incomer to the family in the form of an unexpected lodger, the title of this one could mean any member of this family, are they actually looking out for one another or just playing it that way on the surface. 

I was sucked into this story right from the beginning because I was so intrigued by how these brothers all related to one another. They've all found themselves at a crossroads of sorts and so have kind of come to rely on the family home and the unit to support them at these interesting times. I think I found myself siding with Ned a lot more than the other brothers because he had taken certain risks in his life that I admired although Toby did seem to be a support for every member of the family, including those who were related through relationships rather than by blood. 

One of the things that Lisa Jewell always does so well is to drip feed a small amount of information at a time when it comes to character development so we find out something about one character and then the story moves on to find out whats going on with another character so you have to keep turning the pages and reading on to find out how that information fits with the story and how the other characters are going to react to that!

I loved being back in a Lisa Jewell novel. This one reminded me of a cross between Ralph's Party, the Making of Us and The House We Grew Up In so if you liked any of those I am sure you will like this one too!

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