Review: The Best Things

The Best Things by Mel Giedroyc
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I am embarrassed to say that I could not even get past 6%.

I really like Mel Giedroyc and was delighted to receive an ARC of her new book but despite several attempts over the past four months I just cannot get into the writing enough to read further. I made another attempt after seeing Mel on Saturday Kitchen Live but still I couldn't get engaged.

So here's what I did glean. Sally Parker has a large house and fabulous lifestyle but she's not in control. Her husband, her children, her housekeeper and her au pair rule the house and she just wafts around feeling inadequate and swallowing tranquilisers. Clearly all of this is about to change when Sally's husband loses his business and the family become destitute.

This sort of reminded me of a tv series from the early 2000s called At Home With the Braithwaites in which the mother won millions and didn't tell her family, obviously the plot isn't the same but the sheer awfulness of most of the other characters and the way in which each and every one of them is so very clearly 'a character' just grated on me.

So, barely getting halfway through chapter two is particularly shameful but I am quitting now.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews