The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club by Chrissie Manby
The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club by Chrissie Manby | |
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Category: Women's Fiction | |
Reviewer: Karen Grace | |
Summary: A feel-good story of unlikely friendships, family life and refreshingly innocent romance which was truly funny, easy to read and highly entertaining. I'd definitely recommend it. | |
Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
Pages: 384 | Date: September 2017 |
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks | |
External links: Author's website | |
ISBN: 978-1473639775 | |
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I love a good romcom and so was excited to read Chrissie Manby's latest novel. It certainly didn't disappoint on the comedy value and pleasingly it was more a 'relationship comedy' than just a romcom with unlikely friendships and day-to-day family relations providing the best laughs.
Essentially this was a heart-warming, refreshingly pure and simple story set in a quaint seaside town and based around a beginner's cookery course. But, that said it was still very much in-touch and realistic with one of the characters a blogger, cue lots of funny hashtags throughout, and plenty of references to modern phenomenon such as the proliferation of Fiat 500s in towns everywhere. The main character, Liz, is also an extremely sassy, likeable, middle-aged woman who's gone slightly nuts dealing with the aftermath of her husband leaving her for a twenty-something goddess, her daughter suddenly refusing to eat ready-meals (hence the cookery course) and her overweight dog being placed in emergency measures aka Waggy Weight Loss club. As well as Liz the other main characters are Bella a workaholic who's fallen into a career she doesn't really enjoy, newly widowed John who's questioning his strong old-fashioned values and Alex a talented chef with a dubious past.
Aside from the ready-made supply of cooking disaster humour, there were plenty of other laugh-out-loud moments such as the description of eating something from John's fridge to that of 'playing Russian Roulette, with salmonella taking the role of the live bullet'. The funniest situation by far though was Liz making the classic mistake of drinking too much at a party to overcome her nerves and then walking home barefoot (obviously) with a leftover platter of antipasti which she uses to write a message in meat on the bonnet of what she thinks is her husband's new lover's car (a Fiat 500 of course).
I love a book that keeps you up all night as you just can't put it down. For me this wasn't quite one of those but it was truly funny, easy to read, highly entertaining and I'd definitely recommend it. Other romantic comedies that you might enjoy are Wedding Season by Katie Fforde or Pedigree Mum by Fiona Gibson particularly as much of the comedy is also associated with a wayward dog.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Worst Case Scenario Cookery Club by Chrissie Manby at Amazon.com.
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