California Girls

Three sisters, three very different lives, all of which are going to change beyond recognition. Finola the oldest is the host of a TV show, married to a plastic surgeon and about to go on holiday where they will finally start trying for a baby. Zennie is highly skilled OR nurse, single and dedicated to her work she really doesn't see the point of dating although she's going through the motions with a guy she's dated a few times. Ali, the youngest is busy planning her upcoming wedding. Then in one fateful week everything changes, all three women get dumped. Finola's husband announces he's leaving her moments before she goes live on TV, interviewing the younger woman he's having an affair with. Ali's fiance is too much of a coward to tell her himself, so he sends his older, badder brother. Only Zennie's breakup isn't a ritual humiliation, but then she really didn't care in the first place. When her BFF asks Zennie to be her surrogate Zennie doesn't hesitate, after all she has no interest in having a baby of her own. I wanted to expand my reading horizons which had got into a bt of a rut recently and so I requested this ARC from NetGalley because it sounded like something a bit more than just a chick-lit romance. It was definitely not a chick-lit romance, I would firmly classify this in the women's fiction category but I have to say it didn't really wow me. Having the intertwining stories of the three sisters really just made me feel that we didn't get to see more than a surface impression of each of the sisters, they had no depth. Similarly the male characters were all a bit cardboard. I also had the feeling that frankly not a lot actually happened, there was a lot of the sisters bemoaning that this one was prettier or that one was their father's favourite but not much more. To be honest, I think this is my overall impression of women's fiction and therefore the fault is probably with me for requesting a book in a genre which leaves me so apathetic - a real case of it's not you it's me! If you are a fan of women's fiction, where the characters reassess their lives and childhoods then I expect that you will enjoy this novel, I have decided that I am not a fan of women's fiction, I like a bit more angst with my romance. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book about three very different sisters and the dramas in their lives. I think I got thrown off track with Susan Mallery a bit with a couple of so-so Fools Gold books that I wasn't that keen on, but this is definitely Susan Mallery at her best. The three sisters, Finola, Zennie & Ali, are all very different but have each recently split with their husband/fiancee/partner, although Zennie may have split up with a guy she was seeing but she wasn't that bothered about him anyway (or so she thought!) so she was the least affected by it. Finola is a TV presenter whose husband has recently left her for a young famous singer and she's really struggling with how she feels and 'what everyone thinks'. She was definitely the hardest sister to like, she came across as a bit selfish and it was all about her. Zennie did her own thing and didn't really care what people thought, until she agreed to be a surrogate for a friend and while some people thought it was great others thought she was mad and really judged her for it, which she hadn't really expected. Ali was my favourite sister. Her fiancee had dumped her weeks before the wedding and left her to de-organise and pay for everything. His brother though jumped in to help and he was lovely, even though Ali had felt he didn't like her when they'd met before. The whole story is really about relationships, the sisters, their friends and family. The girls mother, and father/step-father actually, were both quite 'interesting' characters. Their mother especially seemed quite a selfish woman, probably why Finola was her favourite as she was quite like her. Each sister developed over the course of the story and came out stronger and closer to each other by the end of the book because of the drama in their lives. Even though it didn't seem it at the time every cloud (eventually!) has a silver lining. Very enjoyable.