This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
It’s the stuff girl nightmares are made of – you go travelling after university only to discover, upon your return, that your best friend is now engaged to the love of your life and you’ve received an invite (no plus one!). You wouldn’t actually go to the wedding would you?… Julia Schuster is a mess, she doesn’t have a permanent job, still lives at home and spends most nights getting drunk on her Mother’s wine club collection. The fact that her ex-best friend is now marrying the man that she loves is just the cherry on top of the cake. But fate has a funny way of bringing people together and when a designer dress is brought into her sister’s second hand clothes shop that Julia can’t afford she meets Arietty and together they set up The Shoestring Club – time-sharing the extraordinary dress and with it an extraordinary friendship. Every character in this book is loveable, Julia is funny and I found myself sympathising with her struggle to find stability. Sister Pandora is a fiercely independent single mother who can’t understand Julia’s easy going way of life; she comes across harsh and disapproving of Julia’s life but underneath everything she loves her sister dearly. Bird, their Grandmother, is the sensible, caring character who wants the best for both girls but doesn’t hold back when a gentle nudge (or a wallop!) is needed. This book is everything a good chick lit novel should be: warm, funny and enjoyable to read. Essentially it is the story of Julia finding herself, of her making mistakes, falling down and getting back up again . I really liked it. 8/10
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