Review: Find Me at Willoughby Close

Find Me at Willoughby Close by Kate Hewitt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Harriet Lang was the uber-yummy mummy in the second book, mother to the mean girl who has made Abby's new life in the Cotswolds that little bit more difficult. In the second book Harriet and her three children had arrived to occupy the second cottage in Willoughby Close under fairly mysterious circumstances, in this book we find out why.

Harriet has enjoyed the finer things in life as a result of her husband Richard's job as an investment manager in London: a big house; fancy holidays; ponies for the children; interior decorator to furnish the house; and spending money like water on catered birthday parties for her youngest. Then her world comes crashing down when she discovers her husband has been having secret conversations with his assistant in the early hours of the morning (like 2am) for hours at a time. When she confronts him he lets slip the devastating news that he was sacked six months earlier and that they are so far in debt that they could lose the house!

This is like a grown-up version of the book A Little Princess which has been made into umpteen films over the years (umpteen being a word to describe that I'm too lazy to stop typing and do a rudimentary google search). Harriet loses all of her possessions, all her status as one of the yummy mummies and discovers how fake and shallow she had become, buying things to keep up with the other mums instead of because she liked them or needed them. But in the back of her mind Harriet believes living at Willoughby Close is only temporary, until Richard gets another highly paid job, of course she thinks she will be a better, kinder, more thoughtful person, but living in a big country house once more, until one day she realises that maybe that's not what she wants at all.

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