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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
A little better, but much less annoying than the last book in the series. The author is really phoning these in, and not sure why we keep on reading.
lighthearted
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Great end to the series! I loved everything about this one. Great story, great character development, awesome finish.
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm really disappointed and I can't say how happy I am to be done with this book. it was so boring and ridiculously long. they say that this is the last book in the series maybe this for the best consider the last two were such a huge disappointment for me.
Oh my God. Why didn’t I know about Sedona before? Why did no one tell me? It’s breathtaking. It’s…indescribable. Well, all right, not literally indescribable. You can describe it. You can say, There are these huge red sandstone rocks everywhere, jutting up from the desert, making you feel all tiny and insignificant. You can say, There’s a kind of rawness to the landscape which gives you goosebumps. You can say, There’s a solitary bird of prey hanging above us, high in the sky, which seems to put all of humankind into perspective. You can say all that. But it’s not the same as being there.
************************************************
I take Minnie’s little hand in mine and at once feel comforted. At least Minnie loves me unconditionally.
(Or at least she will until she’s thirteen and I tell her she can’t wear a micro-mini to school, and she’ll hate me more than anyone in the world.)
(Oh God, that’s only eleven years away. Why can’t she just stay two and a half forever?)
************************************************
And I’ve sat there in silence, stroking her hair and just letting my thoughts swirl around. Which, to be honest, isn’t a lot of fun. My thoughts aren’t in a brilliant place right now.
************************************************
Suze is my oldest, dearest friend, and being with her used to feel like the easiest thing in the world. But now it feels like I’m in a stage play and I’ve forgotten my lines and she’s not about to help me out.
************************************************
“I can’t lose Suze.”My voice starts to wobble. “I can’t. She’s my three-A.M. friend!”
“Your what?”Luke looks puzzled.
“You know. The friend you could ring up at three A.M. if you were in trouble, and she’d come straightaway, no problem? Like, Janice is Mum’s three-A.M. friend; Gary’s your three-A.M. friend….”
“Right. I see what you mean.”Luke nods.
************************************************
The thing about me is: I’m quite good at bossing my brain about. It can forget about Visa bills if I want it to, and it can blur over arguments, and it can see the plus side in almost any situation. And now I’m telling it to remember. To go into all those old dusty holes in my head, which I never bother clearing out, and remember. Because I know there was something else…I simply know there was….
************************************************
I feel a bit gobsmacked. There’s everything here! There’s the Eiffel Tower and New York skyscrapers and Egyptian pyramids and dolphins and circus acts. It’s like someone’s crunched the entire world into one street and left out all the boring bits.
************************************************
Two hours later, my head is a whirl of lights and music and traffic noise. And, above all, bleeps. Las Vegas is the bleepiest city I’ve ever known. It’s like, everywhere you go there’s a live band playing at full volume, and the only instruments are slot machines, and they only play one track: bleep-bleep-bleepy-bleep. And they never stop. Except when they occasionally disgorge money, which would be the percussion section.
************************************************
“You think shopping’s bad? Wait till you start gambling, hon. Just the feel of the chips in your hand. The rush. The buzz. It’s like crystal meth. You only need one hit and that’s it. You become a slave. And that’s when your life starts to spiral. That’s when the cops move in.”
************************************************
She doesn’t yell “Miiiiiiine”anymore, which used to be her catchphrase. Instead, she says, “I like it.”We’ll walk around the supermarket and all she keeps saying is, “I like it, I like it, Mummy,”more and more earnestly, as though she’s trying to convert me to some new religion. It’s not even as though she likes sensible things. She grabs for mops and freezer bags and packets of staples. Last time we went out shopping, she kept telling me, “I like it, pleeeeease,”and I kept nodding and putting the things back on the shelves, out of reach, until she suddenly flipped and yelled, “I want to buuuuuy something!”
************************************************
"My school friend Tania never recovered from one night of online poker. It took hold of her and she was never the same person again. It was a pretty tragic story.”
“Where is she now?”I say fearfully. “Is she…dead?”
“Pretty much.”He nods. “Alaska.”
“Alaska’s not dead!”I say indignantly.
“She went to work on an oil rig.”Danny takes a swig of wine. “She’s very successful, actually. I think she runs the whole thing. But before that, she was a gambling addict.”
“So it’s not a tragic story at all,”I say crossly. “She ended up being boss of an oil rig.”
“Do you have any idea what it’s like, being boss of an oil rig?”counters Danny. “Have you seen those places?”
I always forget how exasperating Danny is.
************************************************
“Oh, Danny, it’s awful. She’s taken Suze away from me. The two of them spend the whole time together. Suze has totally lost her sense of humor, and it’s all because of Alicia—”
I break off and rub my nose. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Well.”Danny thinks a moment, then shrugs philosophically. “People move on. Friendships end. If you love Suze, maybe you need to let her go.”
“Let her go?”I gaze at him, stricken. He wasn’t supposed to say that.
“People change, life changes….It’s the way of the world. Maybe it’s meant to be.”
************************************************
“You don’t understand! I’m the type of personality to get hooked! My whole life might spiral away in a toxic mix of addiction and dependence! You’ll try to help me, but you won’t be able to!”I’ve seen true-life movies about drug addiction. I know how it goes. One minute you’re saying, I’ll just have one puff, and the next minute you’re in court with unwashed hair, fighting for custody of your children.
“Relax.”Danny gestures for the bill. “Let’s go and hit the tables. If you start to look anything like an addict, I’ll drag you away. Promise.”
“Even if I swear and spit at you and say I don’t care about my friends and family anymore?”I say fearfully.
“Especially then. C’mon, let’s go see if we can lose all Luke’s money. Joke!”he adds at my expression. “Joke.”
************************************************
I’m still not convinced by this whole gambling lark. If you lose, then that’s crap, obviously. And if you win, then that’s great, but you might get addicted.
************************************************
And you know what? Danny was right. Gambling is totally different when you’re winning. I’m in the zone. The rest of life has disappeared. All I can see is the roulette wheel, blurring as it spins around and then settling down…and I’ve won again.
************************************************
“Oh, it’s been fab,”I say at once. “You’ve been great company. And I do enjoy gambling, kind of…but I’ll enjoy buying Luke this jacket more. Sorry,”I add politely to the croupier. “I don’t mean to be rude. You’ve got a lovely roulette table.”I hear Luke give a sudden snort of laughter. “What?”I demand. “What’s funny?”
“Nothing, my love,”he says, picking up my hand and kissing it. “Except I wouldn’t worry about your descent into gambling-addiction hell just yet.”
************************************************
All my elation from earlier has melted away. The moment that Luke suggested treating me, it’s as though a voice popped up inside my head to berate me. But it’s not the nice, even-tempered, Golden Peace voice telling me to “buy with meaning” and “do everything in moderation.” It’s a harsher voice, telling me I don’t deserve anything at all.
************************************************
I can actually picture us as old ladies. Suze will have long white hair and an elegant walking stick and still be stunningly beautiful, just with a few lines. And I won’t be beautiful but I’ll wear great accessories. People will call me the Old Lady in the Fabulous Necklace.
************************************************
“It’s all so horrible,” I say miserably.
“This is big stuff. It’s hard.” Luke wraps his arms around me tight and kisses my forehead. I sink into his embrace and breathe in his familiar scent: part aftershave, part laundered shirt, part Luke.
************************************************
We’re all up at the buffet again now, having a last go-round. I can’t believe I’m putting yet more food on my plate, but there’s just so much. Every time you think I’ve had everything, you turn a corner and see some huge pile of fresh waffles, or chicken skewers, or chocolate-covered strawberries, and a bit of your brain shouts, I’ve paid for this! I need to eat it! even while the other bit is moaning, I’m full! Take it awaaaay!
************************************************
Either side of us are wide desert plains, with mountains in the distance, and I feel a thrill every time I glance out of the window. I mean, this is a view. This is scenery. Why can’t England have anything like this? When I was a little girl, Mum and Dad used to say, “Look at the lovely scenery, Becky!” and they were talking about three trees and a cow. No wonder I couldn’t get excited and preferred reading Debbie and Her Magic Sparkle Dress.
************************************************
I, on the other hand, once looked it all up on a website, because I quite fancy being “Lady Brandon of Somewhere.”The titles don’t even cost that much. They’re, like, a few hundred pounds, for something that lasts your whole life. I mean, in a way, why not be Lady Brandon? (Only then Luke caught me and teased me about it for a week.)
************************************************
If I may be so bold, Mrs. Brandon, I would say, “Don’t give up.” Positive action boosts the soul.
In all our years of knowing each other, I have observed with admiration your dynamic approach to life’s problems and innate sense of justice. This has empowered you before and I feel certain it will again.
Things may seem difficult at the moment, but I feel sure that you will prevail.
With kindest best wishes,
Derek Smeath
************************************************
“D’you want me to come too?” I suggest. “For moral support?”
“No, love, I don’t. Whatever I have to hear about Dad and his past…” Mum looks into the middle distance. “The truth is, love, I’d rather you weren’t there to hear about his other woman.”
“Mum, you don’t know it’s another woman!”
“I know, Becky,” she says, with a quivering voice, like the heroine of a true-life miniseries. “I know.”
Oh God. Does she know? I’m torn between: a) Mum is just believing the worst because she’s a drama queen…and b) After decades of marriage she has a wife’s intuition and of course she knows.
************************************************
I have a sudden image of myself in a potter’s smock, making some fabulous vase while Luke stands behind me, nuzzling my neck. And of everybody opening their presents on Christmas Day and saying, Wow, Becky, we didn’t realize you were so artistic! I don’t know why I’ve never thought of doing pottery before.
************************************************
But you can’t interfere in another couple’s relationship. It’s like trying to step inside a cloud. The whole thing kind of dissipates, till you get back out again.
************************************************
“Because I knew you’d guess everything!”she bursts out. “You know me, Bex. Alicia doesn’t. I can get away with pretending when I’m with Alicia.”As she raises her head, she’s properly crying.
“I can’t keep anything from you.”
“You kept Bryce from me,”I point out.
“By avoiding you. Oh God, Bex.”Suze clutches her hair. “I’ve been in such a state for so long….I wish I’d told you from the start….”
************************************************
By now Luke, the guy in the Arizona State Fair T-shirt, and a couple of others have cornered the sheep. They pin it down and try to remove Minnie, who is totally ungrateful for their help.
“Ride sheeeeep!” I can hear her yelling crossly as she clutches on to its wool. She looks round the audience, realizes she’s the star of the moment, and beams, lifting one hand to wave at everyone. She is such a show-off.
“Well, look at this, ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer is chortling. “Our youngest competitor stayed on the longest! Let’s give her a huge hand….”
************************************************
it suddenly hits me: I’m scared. Deep down, I’m scared I’m going to screw up even more. Some people lose their nerve for riding or skiing or driving; well, I’ve lost my nerve for life.
************************************************
I shoot Alicia a look of dislike. I hate people who say, You mustn’t feel guilty. What they really mean is: I’m just reminding you that you should feel guilty.
************************************************
Ooh, maybe we can train up Minnie in science and she’ll invent an even more advanced spring and we’ll all be squillionaires. (When she’s not winning the Olympics at show jumping, of course.)
************************************************
The truth is, I’m a teeny bit over chasing my dad round the country.
I have a pang of longing for simple family life at home in Oxshott. Watching the telly and praising Mum for some Marks & Spencer ready meal and arguing over whether Princess Anne should cut her hair.
************************************************
“This has been splitting us up too much,” I say suddenly. “This whole affair, everyone’s been split up. My mum and dad, you and Tarkie, my dad and me—we’re all splintering away into separate bits, with secrets and misunderstandings and confusion. It’s horrible. I don’t want to be separate anymore. I want to be solid. I want to be together.” I raise myself on one elbow. “I’m going to Sedona, Suze. I’m going to find my dad. Whatever he’s doing, whatever his plan is, he can do it with us alongside. Because we’re a family.”
************************************************
‘The other person always has a point. Listen to each other, and you’ll hear it.’
************************************************
“But why couldn’t Brent sort out his own life a bit better?” I venture. “I mean, if he was so wise and everything?”
A strange, melancholy expression passes over Dad’s face. “Not so easy when it’s your own life."
************************************************
God, real people are so disappointing. I’m sure she would have done it better in the box-set version.
************************************************
I almost want to whisper in her ear: You know, being mean is really bad for your looks.
************************************************
Sedona’s an amazing place to walk. The panorama of towering red rocks is like some kind of film backdrop, and all of us keep glancing up as though to check it’s still there.
************************************************
Luke bends to kiss me. And I find myself squeezing him back so tightly, I probably wind him or something. But I don’t care. It needed doing.
************************************************
And even though I’d make the worst wildlife photographer ever, I feel incredibly touched. Mum will never give up on me. Her basic worldview is that I can do anything. So I smile and say, “Yes! Good idea, Mum! Maybe!” and take about ninety-five shots of a shrub that we’ll delete later.
************************************************
Anyway. It’s fine. We have Minnie and she’s perfect. She’s more than perfect. We don’t need anything else. I bend down to kiss the smooth two-year-old cheek that I love so much it hurts inside. And as I straighten up, I see Suze watching me with a shimmer in her own eyes.
************************************************
“You can’t have everything,” I repeat, as we resume walking. This is my favorite ever saying—in fact, I’ve got it on a fridge magnet. “You can’t have everything,” I emphasize. “Because where on earth would you put it?”
************************************************
My pair are anthracite gray with silver studs, and Minnie absolutely adores them. She grabbed them and put them on as soon as I got them out of the box, and she tottered around in them all evening. Then she wanted to go to bed in them. When I said, “No, darling, you can’t wear boots in bed,”she wanted to hug them in bed, like a teddy. And then, when I finally exclaimed, “No! Mummy is wearing them tonight!”she said, “But da boots love Minnie,”and gave me this sad, reproachful look that actually made me feel really bad, even though they’re my boots. I mean, honestly.
************************************************
“Are you talking about the Russian Mafia?”Dad stares at him in horror.
“Of course I’m not talking about it.”Danny mimes a zip pull across his mouth. “First rule of the Mafia: You don’t talk about the Mafia.”
“That’s Fight Club,”objects Suze.
“Fight Club and the Mafia.”Danny shrugs. “And my haute couture show in Qatar.”
“I never knew you had a haute couture show in Qatar!”I say avidly.
“I know.”Danny gives me an enigmatic eyebrow raise. “That’s because I can’t talk about it.”
************************************************
Well. I can be honest with Luke the way I can’t with anyone else, even Suze. So. He knows.
************************************************
“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Dad looks at Mum with a kind of wry, incredulous smile and gestures at the closed door.
“Can you believe we’re doing this? Of all the mad things Becky’s talked us into doing over the years…”
“Oh, I’ve given up even thinking that way,” replies Mum. “I just go with the flow. Far easier.” Honestly.
What do they mean? I never talk people into doing things.
************************************************
Corey may be the richest. But my dad wins in every way, I think fiercely. Every way.
************************************************
Sometimes you really need to appeal to people’s worst instincts. Which is a bit depressing, but there you go.
************************************************
“Hey, Luke!”I say brightly. “I forgot to tell you. When I was out with Suze this afternoon, I tried out a banjo, and I think we should get it.”
“What?”Luke looks up from his conversation with Elinor, aghast.
“I told her you wouldn’t go for it,”puts in Suze, spearing a piece of steak.
“Don’t look like that, Luke!”I say, affronted. “It’ll be good for Minnie to learn an instrument, so why not the banjo? And we can all have lessons together and become a family folk group, and it’ll totally be a good investment….”
************************************************
“Young lady, you must be very lucky in your friends,” he says. “Or maybe they’re lucky in you.”
“I’m very lucky in my friends,” I say at once. “That’s what it is. Definitely. They’re amazing.”
************************************************
The Bellagio fountains are magical. And, OK, I know they’re touristy and I know they’re a cliché and I know there’s a load of other sightseers crowding around. But right now I feel as if they’re gushing up, over and over, just for us. For us ten. They’re our reward.
************************************************
I take Minnie’s little hand in mine and at once feel comforted. At least Minnie loves me unconditionally.
(Or at least she will until she’s thirteen and I tell her she can’t wear a micro-mini to school, and she’ll hate me more than anyone in the world.)
(Oh God, that’s only eleven years away. Why can’t she just stay two and a half forever?)
************************************************
And I’ve sat there in silence, stroking her hair and just letting my thoughts swirl around. Which, to be honest, isn’t a lot of fun. My thoughts aren’t in a brilliant place right now.
************************************************
Suze is my oldest, dearest friend, and being with her used to feel like the easiest thing in the world. But now it feels like I’m in a stage play and I’ve forgotten my lines and she’s not about to help me out.
************************************************
“I can’t lose Suze.”My voice starts to wobble. “I can’t. She’s my three-A.M. friend!”
“Your what?”Luke looks puzzled.
“You know. The friend you could ring up at three A.M. if you were in trouble, and she’d come straightaway, no problem? Like, Janice is Mum’s three-A.M. friend; Gary’s your three-A.M. friend….”
“Right. I see what you mean.”Luke nods.
************************************************
The thing about me is: I’m quite good at bossing my brain about. It can forget about Visa bills if I want it to, and it can blur over arguments, and it can see the plus side in almost any situation. And now I’m telling it to remember. To go into all those old dusty holes in my head, which I never bother clearing out, and remember. Because I know there was something else…I simply know there was….
************************************************
I feel a bit gobsmacked. There’s everything here! There’s the Eiffel Tower and New York skyscrapers and Egyptian pyramids and dolphins and circus acts. It’s like someone’s crunched the entire world into one street and left out all the boring bits.
************************************************
Two hours later, my head is a whirl of lights and music and traffic noise. And, above all, bleeps. Las Vegas is the bleepiest city I’ve ever known. It’s like, everywhere you go there’s a live band playing at full volume, and the only instruments are slot machines, and they only play one track: bleep-bleep-bleepy-bleep. And they never stop. Except when they occasionally disgorge money, which would be the percussion section.
************************************************
“You think shopping’s bad? Wait till you start gambling, hon. Just the feel of the chips in your hand. The rush. The buzz. It’s like crystal meth. You only need one hit and that’s it. You become a slave. And that’s when your life starts to spiral. That’s when the cops move in.”
************************************************
She doesn’t yell “Miiiiiiine”anymore, which used to be her catchphrase. Instead, she says, “I like it.”We’ll walk around the supermarket and all she keeps saying is, “I like it, I like it, Mummy,”more and more earnestly, as though she’s trying to convert me to some new religion. It’s not even as though she likes sensible things. She grabs for mops and freezer bags and packets of staples. Last time we went out shopping, she kept telling me, “I like it, pleeeeease,”and I kept nodding and putting the things back on the shelves, out of reach, until she suddenly flipped and yelled, “I want to buuuuuy something!”
************************************************
"My school friend Tania never recovered from one night of online poker. It took hold of her and she was never the same person again. It was a pretty tragic story.”
“Where is she now?”I say fearfully. “Is she…dead?”
“Pretty much.”He nods. “Alaska.”
“Alaska’s not dead!”I say indignantly.
“She went to work on an oil rig.”Danny takes a swig of wine. “She’s very successful, actually. I think she runs the whole thing. But before that, she was a gambling addict.”
“So it’s not a tragic story at all,”I say crossly. “She ended up being boss of an oil rig.”
“Do you have any idea what it’s like, being boss of an oil rig?”counters Danny. “Have you seen those places?”
I always forget how exasperating Danny is.
************************************************
“Oh, Danny, it’s awful. She’s taken Suze away from me. The two of them spend the whole time together. Suze has totally lost her sense of humor, and it’s all because of Alicia—”
I break off and rub my nose. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Well.”Danny thinks a moment, then shrugs philosophically. “People move on. Friendships end. If you love Suze, maybe you need to let her go.”
“Let her go?”I gaze at him, stricken. He wasn’t supposed to say that.
“People change, life changes….It’s the way of the world. Maybe it’s meant to be.”
************************************************
“You don’t understand! I’m the type of personality to get hooked! My whole life might spiral away in a toxic mix of addiction and dependence! You’ll try to help me, but you won’t be able to!”I’ve seen true-life movies about drug addiction. I know how it goes. One minute you’re saying, I’ll just have one puff, and the next minute you’re in court with unwashed hair, fighting for custody of your children.
“Relax.”Danny gestures for the bill. “Let’s go and hit the tables. If you start to look anything like an addict, I’ll drag you away. Promise.”
“Even if I swear and spit at you and say I don’t care about my friends and family anymore?”I say fearfully.
“Especially then. C’mon, let’s go see if we can lose all Luke’s money. Joke!”he adds at my expression. “Joke.”
************************************************
I’m still not convinced by this whole gambling lark. If you lose, then that’s crap, obviously. And if you win, then that’s great, but you might get addicted.
************************************************
And you know what? Danny was right. Gambling is totally different when you’re winning. I’m in the zone. The rest of life has disappeared. All I can see is the roulette wheel, blurring as it spins around and then settling down…and I’ve won again.
************************************************
“Oh, it’s been fab,”I say at once. “You’ve been great company. And I do enjoy gambling, kind of…but I’ll enjoy buying Luke this jacket more. Sorry,”I add politely to the croupier. “I don’t mean to be rude. You’ve got a lovely roulette table.”I hear Luke give a sudden snort of laughter. “What?”I demand. “What’s funny?”
“Nothing, my love,”he says, picking up my hand and kissing it. “Except I wouldn’t worry about your descent into gambling-addiction hell just yet.”
************************************************
All my elation from earlier has melted away. The moment that Luke suggested treating me, it’s as though a voice popped up inside my head to berate me. But it’s not the nice, even-tempered, Golden Peace voice telling me to “buy with meaning” and “do everything in moderation.” It’s a harsher voice, telling me I don’t deserve anything at all.
************************************************
I can actually picture us as old ladies. Suze will have long white hair and an elegant walking stick and still be stunningly beautiful, just with a few lines. And I won’t be beautiful but I’ll wear great accessories. People will call me the Old Lady in the Fabulous Necklace.
************************************************
“It’s all so horrible,” I say miserably.
“This is big stuff. It’s hard.” Luke wraps his arms around me tight and kisses my forehead. I sink into his embrace and breathe in his familiar scent: part aftershave, part laundered shirt, part Luke.
************************************************
We’re all up at the buffet again now, having a last go-round. I can’t believe I’m putting yet more food on my plate, but there’s just so much. Every time you think I’ve had everything, you turn a corner and see some huge pile of fresh waffles, or chicken skewers, or chocolate-covered strawberries, and a bit of your brain shouts, I’ve paid for this! I need to eat it! even while the other bit is moaning, I’m full! Take it awaaaay!
************************************************
Either side of us are wide desert plains, with mountains in the distance, and I feel a thrill every time I glance out of the window. I mean, this is a view. This is scenery. Why can’t England have anything like this? When I was a little girl, Mum and Dad used to say, “Look at the lovely scenery, Becky!” and they were talking about three trees and a cow. No wonder I couldn’t get excited and preferred reading Debbie and Her Magic Sparkle Dress.
************************************************
I, on the other hand, once looked it all up on a website, because I quite fancy being “Lady Brandon of Somewhere.”The titles don’t even cost that much. They’re, like, a few hundred pounds, for something that lasts your whole life. I mean, in a way, why not be Lady Brandon? (Only then Luke caught me and teased me about it for a week.)
************************************************
If I may be so bold, Mrs. Brandon, I would say, “Don’t give up.” Positive action boosts the soul.
In all our years of knowing each other, I have observed with admiration your dynamic approach to life’s problems and innate sense of justice. This has empowered you before and I feel certain it will again.
Things may seem difficult at the moment, but I feel sure that you will prevail.
With kindest best wishes,
Derek Smeath
************************************************
“D’you want me to come too?” I suggest. “For moral support?”
“No, love, I don’t. Whatever I have to hear about Dad and his past…” Mum looks into the middle distance. “The truth is, love, I’d rather you weren’t there to hear about his other woman.”
“Mum, you don’t know it’s another woman!”
“I know, Becky,” she says, with a quivering voice, like the heroine of a true-life miniseries. “I know.”
Oh God. Does she know? I’m torn between: a) Mum is just believing the worst because she’s a drama queen…and b) After decades of marriage she has a wife’s intuition and of course she knows.
************************************************
I have a sudden image of myself in a potter’s smock, making some fabulous vase while Luke stands behind me, nuzzling my neck. And of everybody opening their presents on Christmas Day and saying, Wow, Becky, we didn’t realize you were so artistic! I don’t know why I’ve never thought of doing pottery before.
************************************************
But you can’t interfere in another couple’s relationship. It’s like trying to step inside a cloud. The whole thing kind of dissipates, till you get back out again.
************************************************
“Because I knew you’d guess everything!”she bursts out. “You know me, Bex. Alicia doesn’t. I can get away with pretending when I’m with Alicia.”As she raises her head, she’s properly crying.
“I can’t keep anything from you.”
“You kept Bryce from me,”I point out.
“By avoiding you. Oh God, Bex.”Suze clutches her hair. “I’ve been in such a state for so long….I wish I’d told you from the start….”
************************************************
By now Luke, the guy in the Arizona State Fair T-shirt, and a couple of others have cornered the sheep. They pin it down and try to remove Minnie, who is totally ungrateful for their help.
“Ride sheeeeep!” I can hear her yelling crossly as she clutches on to its wool. She looks round the audience, realizes she’s the star of the moment, and beams, lifting one hand to wave at everyone. She is such a show-off.
“Well, look at this, ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer is chortling. “Our youngest competitor stayed on the longest! Let’s give her a huge hand….”
************************************************
it suddenly hits me: I’m scared. Deep down, I’m scared I’m going to screw up even more. Some people lose their nerve for riding or skiing or driving; well, I’ve lost my nerve for life.
************************************************
I shoot Alicia a look of dislike. I hate people who say, You mustn’t feel guilty. What they really mean is: I’m just reminding you that you should feel guilty.
************************************************
Ooh, maybe we can train up Minnie in science and she’ll invent an even more advanced spring and we’ll all be squillionaires. (When she’s not winning the Olympics at show jumping, of course.)
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The truth is, I’m a teeny bit over chasing my dad round the country.
I have a pang of longing for simple family life at home in Oxshott. Watching the telly and praising Mum for some Marks & Spencer ready meal and arguing over whether Princess Anne should cut her hair.
************************************************
“This has been splitting us up too much,” I say suddenly. “This whole affair, everyone’s been split up. My mum and dad, you and Tarkie, my dad and me—we’re all splintering away into separate bits, with secrets and misunderstandings and confusion. It’s horrible. I don’t want to be separate anymore. I want to be solid. I want to be together.” I raise myself on one elbow. “I’m going to Sedona, Suze. I’m going to find my dad. Whatever he’s doing, whatever his plan is, he can do it with us alongside. Because we’re a family.”
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‘The other person always has a point. Listen to each other, and you’ll hear it.’
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“But why couldn’t Brent sort out his own life a bit better?” I venture. “I mean, if he was so wise and everything?”
A strange, melancholy expression passes over Dad’s face. “Not so easy when it’s your own life."
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God, real people are so disappointing. I’m sure she would have done it better in the box-set version.
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I almost want to whisper in her ear: You know, being mean is really bad for your looks.
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Sedona’s an amazing place to walk. The panorama of towering red rocks is like some kind of film backdrop, and all of us keep glancing up as though to check it’s still there.
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Luke bends to kiss me. And I find myself squeezing him back so tightly, I probably wind him or something. But I don’t care. It needed doing.
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And even though I’d make the worst wildlife photographer ever, I feel incredibly touched. Mum will never give up on me. Her basic worldview is that I can do anything. So I smile and say, “Yes! Good idea, Mum! Maybe!” and take about ninety-five shots of a shrub that we’ll delete later.
************************************************
Anyway. It’s fine. We have Minnie and she’s perfect. She’s more than perfect. We don’t need anything else. I bend down to kiss the smooth two-year-old cheek that I love so much it hurts inside. And as I straighten up, I see Suze watching me with a shimmer in her own eyes.
************************************************
“You can’t have everything,” I repeat, as we resume walking. This is my favorite ever saying—in fact, I’ve got it on a fridge magnet. “You can’t have everything,” I emphasize. “Because where on earth would you put it?”
************************************************
My pair are anthracite gray with silver studs, and Minnie absolutely adores them. She grabbed them and put them on as soon as I got them out of the box, and she tottered around in them all evening. Then she wanted to go to bed in them. When I said, “No, darling, you can’t wear boots in bed,”she wanted to hug them in bed, like a teddy. And then, when I finally exclaimed, “No! Mummy is wearing them tonight!”she said, “But da boots love Minnie,”and gave me this sad, reproachful look that actually made me feel really bad, even though they’re my boots. I mean, honestly.
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“Are you talking about the Russian Mafia?”Dad stares at him in horror.
“Of course I’m not talking about it.”Danny mimes a zip pull across his mouth. “First rule of the Mafia: You don’t talk about the Mafia.”
“That’s Fight Club,”objects Suze.
“Fight Club and the Mafia.”Danny shrugs. “And my haute couture show in Qatar.”
“I never knew you had a haute couture show in Qatar!”I say avidly.
“I know.”Danny gives me an enigmatic eyebrow raise. “That’s because I can’t talk about it.”
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Well. I can be honest with Luke the way I can’t with anyone else, even Suze. So. He knows.
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“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Dad looks at Mum with a kind of wry, incredulous smile and gestures at the closed door.
“Can you believe we’re doing this? Of all the mad things Becky’s talked us into doing over the years…”
“Oh, I’ve given up even thinking that way,” replies Mum. “I just go with the flow. Far easier.” Honestly.
What do they mean? I never talk people into doing things.
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Corey may be the richest. But my dad wins in every way, I think fiercely. Every way.
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Sometimes you really need to appeal to people’s worst instincts. Which is a bit depressing, but there you go.
************************************************
“Hey, Luke!”I say brightly. “I forgot to tell you. When I was out with Suze this afternoon, I tried out a banjo, and I think we should get it.”
“What?”Luke looks up from his conversation with Elinor, aghast.
“I told her you wouldn’t go for it,”puts in Suze, spearing a piece of steak.
“Don’t look like that, Luke!”I say, affronted. “It’ll be good for Minnie to learn an instrument, so why not the banjo? And we can all have lessons together and become a family folk group, and it’ll totally be a good investment….”
************************************************
“Young lady, you must be very lucky in your friends,” he says. “Or maybe they’re lucky in you.”
“I’m very lucky in my friends,” I say at once. “That’s what it is. Definitely. They’re amazing.”
************************************************
The Bellagio fountains are magical. And, OK, I know they’re touristy and I know they’re a cliché and I know there’s a load of other sightseers crowding around. But right now I feel as if they’re gushing up, over and over, just for us. For us ten. They’re our reward.
I'm glad the saga is over, and I didn't like the American version of Rebecca. The previous novels, to me, tasted like "we exploited every possible UK version of a shopaholic without turning her into a despicable person, now we're moving to the US where she could go even bigger without being frowned upon".
I had no expectations for the 8th volume and maybe this is the reason why I enjoyed it. And Tarkie, of course: I loved him since day one an I couldn't leave him alone in the States.
The issues in this volume are more mature, far away from designer clothes and expensive make up. All the loose ends are tied together and this extended, dysfunctional family finally comes together. I think the book provides a good closure for Rebecca's fans.
I had no expectations for the 8th volume and maybe this is the reason why I enjoyed it. And Tarkie, of course: I loved him since day one an I couldn't leave him alone in the States.
The issues in this volume are more mature, far away from designer clothes and expensive make up. All the loose ends are tied together and this extended, dysfunctional family finally comes together. I think the book provides a good closure for Rebecca's fans.
not a lot of shopping going on in this shopaholic book
it is actually pretty much a book about Becky not doing any shopping at all
A little dissapointed..
it is actually pretty much a book about Becky not doing any shopping at all
A little dissapointed..