Tess Tennant and Adam Smith have known each other since birth. They grew up together as best friends and everyone in Langford expected them to end up together. Until one day, Adam’s mother Philippa drops dead. Tess goes off to London whilst Adam remains in Langford working in a pub.

Years later though Tess returns but her friendship with Adam is completely different to how it was. It all comes to a head when Tess takes a class trip to Rome and by the time Tess returns, Adam has gone.

What went on between Adam and Tess to cause their friendship to fall so dramatically?

I’ve only previously read one of Harriet Evans’ three novels, her debut Going Home, however when I saw this one up on Amazon, I loved the sound of it and more than that I loved the fact it would be part-set in Rome; I’m a huge fan of authors setting books in foreign destinations. A fellow book blogger, the wonderful Suzana of Bookalicious, offered to send me her review copy and I jumped at the chance. I was thrilled to finally start it a few days ago. My joy, however, was short-lived.

From the offset I liked the sound of the plot: Tess and Adam being best friends for a long long time, since birth, but slowly they seemingly grow apart. The book starts with a prologue where Tess and Adam are still teenagers and we then come to Part One. Strangely enough, the opening chapter is told from the third-person view point of Leonora Mortmain who comes across as nosey and mean. The first chapter also sees Tess return to Langford and we slowly unravel the story behind Tess’ departure from London. The rest of the book is told in the third-person view point from mainly Tess herself, as in, she features in most of those scenes but we do also get the odd change of viewpoint from those living in Langford. There are a total of four parts to the book as well as the prologue. Part One is Tess’ return to Langford, where we also find out what happened between Tess and Adam all those years before; Part Two is Tess’ class trip to Rome, Part Three is the return from Rome and the aftershocks of what went on there and then Part Four is Adam’s disappearance followed by his eventual return. For me, it felt as though the book was four separate books. Yes each part followed on from the last but it also seemed to draw a line under the previous part and I found that disrupting. I want to read a book and have it flow throughout rather than feel as though the book is stopping and starting all of the time. Also on the pages where it says “Part One/Two/Three/Four” are various quotes; I can’t tell you what they were as I skipped them, they’d only have slowed down the book more, as far as I was concerned.

There also didn’t seem to be one main central plot to the book unless of course Tess and Adam’s friendship counts. That is the only main factor to all four parts of the book. The rest of the plots seem to be sub-plots; the fact Leonora Mortmain is turning the watermeadows into a shopping center; Tess’ move back to Langford and how she changes whilst there or how Langford has changed, it depends how you look at it; there’s also the trip to Rome where Tess falls for Peter. But there wasn’t anything that I felt held the book down. I don’t think Tess and Adam’s friendship was a big enough factor for it to be the focal point: yes they have a lot of rows and there are lots of secrets discovered from the past, but there friendship just seemed like any normal friendship really: topsy-turvy. Maybe I missed what the plot of the book was supposed to be? I doubt it, though.

The book is a very slow burner. A lot of the book seems to be filler and, although I’m no book editor, I’d have probably chopped some of it out. I mean I got half way through and I just wanted it to end. I seemed to be reading and reading but I didn’t feel as if I was getting anywhere because nothing was happening. I just didn’t understand what I was reading about: was it Adam and Tess’ friendship and all that had gone wrong? Was it the fact Leonora was turning the water meadows into a shopping mall? or was it the fact Tess felt strange being back in Langford? The book didn’t seem to be going anywhere. The mystery about Adam’s mother didn’t even perk me up. Truth was, I’d already guessed it 100 pages ago. I’d also guessed what had went on with Tess and Adam when they were teenagers because it was quite obvious. To want a book to end after 250 pages is incredibly sad and it’s a rare occurence where I wish that.

I didn’t even feel anything for any of the characters. I thought Tess was quite whingey most of the time and yes, of course, I felt sorry for Adam but Tess was right: what had he done with his life? Of course we find out exactly why he stayed in Langford but still. I wasn’t at all connected to Tess or Adam, I didn’t feel much for them and maybe that’s why I disliked the book so much. How can I enjoy a book when I don’t even enjoy the characters? Tess and Adam spent most of the book being pretty maudlin and that’s exactly how I felt as the book moved along. One character I did like was Francesca, Tess’ flatmate and Adam’s sometime girlfriend. She added a bit of life to the book and I enjoyed her scenes. I also quite like Diana, Adam’s godmother, she seemed nice as well as Liz, who becomes Tess’ flatmate. There were plenty of other charcters but they all seemed the same to me. I mean there were loads of characters who were there throughout the book but none of them, bar those mentioned, really made an impression on me.

One thing I will say about the book was that I loved the descriptions of Rome. Harriet really did her research about Rome and I loved reading of the cobbled streets and the Spanish steps. However, on the flipside of that, I thought the descriptions of the classic things Tess described to her students were quite long winded and, as I have no interest in the subject whatsoever, I found myself skipping passages. I also can’t fault Harriet on her writing, she is a superb writer but even that isn’t always enough to save a book. The description on my review copy says it’s witty, rich and moving. The only one I’d agree with is that it is indeed a rich book. Again, that’s down to Harriet’s writing.

For me though, the book wasn’t really there. I knew how it would end, I’m sure even you all reading this review could guess how it’ll end. While I enjoy a happy ending, I think it was rather rushed. I think it’s a shame I didn’t enjoy the book as I can see Harriet Evans has talent but for me, it was too slow and too long. A book should not bore me after 250 pages, it should just be getting exciting and I should be raring to finish it.

Rating: 1/5

Thanks to Suzana at Bookalicious for sending me this to review!

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