When I picked up this book at a free exchange library at my local café, I read the blurb and thought, this sounds funny. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed with this book. I struggled to get through it, although I did persevere and make it to the end.
Here’s the blurb;
When widow Cass's mother announces she needs to move in with her - along with sexy toy boy Rocco - Cass is horrified. It might be temporary, but the last time she lived with her mother she was a tear away teen accustomed to illicit trysts with unsuitable boys. Now the tables have turned and mother, Nita is the one behaving badly!
We meet our protagonist Cass. Cass is a widowed mother of two who owns an antiques shop and sings in a choir.
Cass’s mother Nita, and her much younger toy boy, Rocco, need somewhere to stay while they get some renovations done to their home and stay at Cass’s house while she takes a much-anticipated overseas trip to Cyprus for a major Choir performance.
An old friend Fiona (fee) recently came back into Cass’s life. Fee is self-centered and pushes Cass’s buttons. Fee is also in the choir and the main plot revolves around the overseas trip and all the drama that unfolds between Cass, Fee, and Andy (Fee’s boyfriend).
Fee and Andy had been drifting apart for a long time and Fee suspects he is cheating on her, but his relationship with the young mysterious woman is not what it seems. Cass is the one Andy ends up confiding in and they grow closer, while Fee and Andy drift further apart. Cass discovers Andy is not the monster after all, and Fee is the toxic one.
I found the ending frustrating as it left things unresolved. The small subplot surrounding her mother and Rocco was contradictory to the blurb. They did not behave badly, infact, they took care of the antique shop, kept her place immaculate, walked her dog, and were basically the perfect houseguests?
I did like the main character and there were a few laughs along the way, which held my interest enough to finish the book. The descriptions of The Mediterranean were breathtaking and transported you there. You could feel the sun on your face and taste the sweet cocktails.
I did enjoy parts of the book, but felt ripped off. The blurb should have read;
Being in a choir and owning an antique shop sounds boring, right? Not for widowed Cass. An old friend crashes back into her life and wants to recruit her as a spy to follow her cheating boyfriend, a trip to paradise, a much anticipated performance of a lifetime, some unexpected house guests, a potential romance, and the attention of some hot Mediterranean guys all make for some drama she didn’t bank on. What will her life be like on her return home?
I give it 3 stars.