My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher: Legend Press
Summary: Jane has the ideal life: loving husband, beautiful house and delightful son. Her fashionable dinner parties are perfect - and so are her secret assignations with her neighbour's husband, Jay.
From Tracey and her ‘New Money’ lottery winnings to eccentric artist Philip and his pornographic portraits, the residents of North London's most privileged enclave The Square are a very satisfied bunch.
To raise money for communal fencing, the Residents' Association decides to hold a Talent Show, produced by Jane and hosted by TV celebrity Alan Makin. But when the show lurches into public disarray, reputations are shattered and everyone has to learn to live with a far less glossy reality than before.
I read this on vacation and it was the perfect diversion even though it felt a bit dreary with all the cheating going on. In The Square, this closed residential enclave of privilege, the marital cheating take on complicated geometric shapes while the frienemy situations are overlapping venn diagrams making the whole a dizzying disaster of a group. I can't even begin to go into detail about it all but I will say that while I didn't like most of these people, I did want to know how things turned out for them. Most of all I was glad that Jane was losing her side screw to a house sell up & Tracey who thinks she's home free, isn't, if that last look in at Alan is any indication. Those were both satisfying ends. I liked Roberta, the piano instructor and also her best little student, George (Jane & Patrick's son). The other children in The Square weren't as well rendered as George but I didn't mind. This was definitely a good look in at a group of people who don't genuinely like one another but who go to great lengths to pretend they're friends, pretend they're more successful & together than others and are expert at telling themselves they're superior to some while seeking approval from others they perceive best them. It was distressing to me the financial & personal risk they put themselves through for a facade for people they didn't much like. It made me uncomfortable, felt real and I felt that was worthy. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a weekend, vacation read or loves women's fiction & brit chick lit.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Expected publication: August 1st 2015 by Legend Press
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