Leftovers by Stella Newman

Leftovers by Stella Newman
Buy Leftovers by Stella Newman at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Women's Fiction
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A long, indulgent read with some brilliant food and a clear-eyed look at how single women over the age of thirty are really judged.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 456	Date: April 2013
Publisher: Avon
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1847562715
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Susie Rosen is what a magazine calls a 'leftover' - she's thirty something and lacks her dream man, job or home. You might think that she has the job of her dreams as she's an account manager in advertising, but she finds it unfulfilling - and that's on the good days. On the bad days she resurrects her plan that she's going to get promoted by Christmas and then quit. Boyfriend Jake cheated on her and although the relationship broke up some time ago she hasn't got over him. Right now life revolves around the job, minimising the effect of some of the more dreadful colleagues and her girlfriends - but some of them are proving to be not quite as reliable as she might have hoped.

It's more than a year since I read Pear Shaped and I loved it not least because of the feeling it gave me of being inside the food industry. Live to eat? Me? Yes. This time Stella Newman has taken a sideways look at the industry by placing her heroine in an advertising agency which has the account for a major supermarket, although you do get the feeling that the purpose of Fletchers is to keep the riffraff out of Waitrose. The food's not as tempting as the gorgeous M&S desserts from Pear Shaped but if you're thinking of going on a diet then you'll have no problems about keeping away from supermarket pizza.

So, excellent background and a heroine you can really believe in. It's a good start and if you're looking for a plot where you can really get to know the characters in a long, indulgent read then this could well be the book for you. The recipes at the end of the book don't do any harm either! Personally I found it just a little long, but I did love the clear-eyed look at the way that relationships tend to turn out when the first flush of youth is just a memory. I cringed when I saw the title, when I read what it meant - but I know that's how single women of a certain age are regarded.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If you haven't read Pear Shaped then you should. You'll probably also enjoy Good Husband Material by Trisha Ashley and A French Affair by Katie Fforde.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Leftovers by Stella Newman at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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