SPOILERS!!!
The four members of this family go through emotional problems, which they struggle to cope with.
Jamie is to get married to Lucy, but he is having doubts, especially as he feels drawn to his colleague, Priya. Things between him and Lucy are unstable; Lucy can only talk about wedding arrangements, and they don't even seem to want intimacy with each other. During a holiday in Leche they have an argument when Jamie hints that he is confused and thinks everything is going too fast. Lucy is upset, so he has to backtrack and says that he is tired.
Just the day before the wedding, he is not excited and can't stop thinking about Priya. So he calls her, and he dares to say that he wants to tell her how he feels, but she stops him, saying that he is just freaking out. The wedding takes place, and he wants to believe that things are all right.
As for Nicole, she does have a drink problem that everybody can see but nobody says anything. When she arranges to meet Oliver, he is hit by disappointment. Oliver has a girlfriend, and they are going to have a friend. I think that Nicole regrets having spoiled what she had with Oliver in the past. Apart from that, her best friend, Fran, is in a relationship with Adam, who Nicole doesn't like, and she feels lonely and abandoned. The situation with her parents does not help things, and she still blames her mother and hardly talks to her.
Things get to a head at Christmas. Lucy has gone to Somerset with her parents, leaving Jamie behind, as things are not better between them. Jamie is supposed to go to his mother's but he has not told anybody he is in London. Nicole goes to a party thrown by Fran and her boyfriend. She feels uncomfortable with people she does not know, and she can't understand why Fran is here. Nicole gets drunk, and when she tells Fran they should drink the champagne she brought and toast, she makes a scene when she finds Adam drinking her champagne.
Nicole goes to her father's flat, drunk, and she tells him that he wants to spend the night there, and the next day she doesn't want to go to her mother's. Gerry tries to reason with her, saying that she needs to see Linda, and when she refuses and even says she is going to call Linda, Gerry finally spills the beans about the real reason why Linda and he split up. He says that he was having an affair, and we learn that the affair has lasted years. Vivien was his girlfriend before he went to England, and he broke up with her. When he ran into her years later during a visit to his family, they started the affair, so whenever he went to Ireland, he and Vivien were together. And now they are still together.
Nicole is so outraged and angry that she leaves the flat in a huff, and in doing so she falls down the stairs. Gerry calls the ambulance, and then he calls Linda. They wait in the hospital while Nicole is having some tests. He confesses that he told the truth to Nicole, and Linda agrees that maybe it is for the best. Gerry sends a text to Jamie, and he calls, saying that he is on his way. Then the doctor appears and says that Nicole is okay but has some broken bones.
The last chapter in the book shows Jamie going to therapy. He and Lucy have broken up, and he is now living with his mother and Nicole, who couldn't live alone after the accident for several weeks. After therapy, he goes to the pub to celebrate a colleague's birthday. Priya is there, and after the birthday they walk together, and they talk about the call. She knows that Jamie and his wife have broken up, and she says that she would like to hang out again as they used to.
Some weeks later when Nicole has recovered, she goes to a wedding of a friend in Seville. She is now more careful with the alcohol she drinks, and she seems to come to terms with her parents' separation. AFter Seville she travels to Marbella, where her mother is staying with her sister, Michelle, and they have a good conversation, and it is obvious that Nicole and Linda have reconciled. Nicole still feels angry at the way her father treated her mother, but they are on the way to reparation.
I enjoyed the book very much, and I love how the author showed us these four characters' dynamics and journey in life.
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