Since November 2009Book Review: Strictly Love by Julia Williams
July 31st, 2009 by Leah
Lawyer Emily promised her late father that she’d devote her life to good causes. So how comes she spends her days defending Z-listers, desperate to prolong their 15 minutes of fame? Katie is obsessed with being the perfect wife and mother - unlike her own one. In which case, why is husband Charlie permanently AWOL these days?
Dentist Mark is licking his wounds after his wife walked out on him and desperately missing his kids. Can he cope with becoming a singleton again - on top of a devastating legal case against him? Meanwhile, happy-go-lucky Jack the Lad Rob is hiding a secret tragedy!
Isabella’s dance classe give the four the perfect opportunity to forget their troubles and re-invent themselves. They can be whoever they want to be - they’ll just let their feet do the talking. Over the weeks, as they foxtrot, tango, waltz and cha-cha-cha their way into each other’s lives, they discover the truth about each other - and themselves. But will they like what they learn?
Strictly Love is Julia Williams’ second novel and folllows Emily, Katie, Mark and Rob. Emily is a lawyer who wated to devote her life to good causes so how come she’s defending zedlebrities (Julia’s word, not mine)? Katie wants to be the perfect wife - trouble is her husband, Charlie, is away a lot. Mark has just split up with his wife and is wondering if he’ll ever find love again and Rob, happy-go-lucky Rob is hiding a terrible tragedy. A dance class brings them together and they re-invent themselves - they can be anybody they like. Trouble is it may come back to bite them in the bum…
It took me about 5 days to read Strictly Love because I just couldn’t find the time to sit down and really get into it. However for the past two days I’ve managed to sit down and really get into it and I found that I really enjoyed it.
Dancing seems to be a popular topic among chick lit books at the moment - Lucy Dillon’s debut The Ballroom Class for instance. It’s a great topic to read about especially if you enjoy Strictly Come Dancing or shows like that.
Coming in at under 400 pages you might think we won’t have enough time to really get to know each character but we learn enough about them to care about them all. I liked Emily but found her a bit irritating when she went completely off on one with Mark because he lied to her when she herself lied to him. I think she redeemed herself in the end though, and I was happy she finally made up her mind regarding her job! I enjoyed reading about Mark and the unfortunate incident he found himself in. (More about that later) but it was Katie and Rob who made the story for me. I loved how easily they got on with each other and how they could relate with each other even though they started on a rocky foundation (Rob called Katie thunder thighs!). However reading about them dancing together was just brilliant.
I felt for Katie because she was trying so hard to be the perfect wife to Charlie and he seemed completely oblivious. His secret was not what I expected, when he blurted it out I was very surprised. I also really felt for Rob and couldn’t help wondering what on Earth he was hiding that caused him so much pain. I was suitably shocked when I found out!
Along with all of the four having personal problems there’s a storyline running about Mark. One of his zedlebrity clients, Jasmine (who seems to resemble Jade Goody) makes a shocking allegation and he ends up trying to defend himself and not lose his dentists’ job. Trouble is, Jasmine’s lawyer is Emily so that caused a lot of mayhem between the two of them. I knew how the storyline would end but I still enjoyed it.
One final twist in the story is an incident involving one of Mark’s daughters. This I did not see coming! It definitely had me reading on and on, I’ll tell you.
I really enjoyed Strictly Love. The third-person narrative is well written and it was very easy to get lost in the storyline once I was able to really sit down to get into it. It’s well worth a read particularly if you love dancing, as I said.
Rating: 5/5
Posted in 2008 releases, Book Reviews, Rating: 5/5 | 2 Comments »
Ooh, I’ve been meaning to read this one - I admit I was mostly attracted to it by the cover, which is absolutely goooorgeous!! I also love the George Michael reference on the cover (good song). I might give it a try someday, but I’m glad you enjoyed it, that’s encouraging!
I bought this one when it was first released but still haven’t gotten round to it!