Ralph's Party

Product Information

Mom and Dad have three grown boys - Tony, Sean, and Ned. Their 40th wedding anniversary is coming up so dad plans a big surprise party and all the boys come home. Mom sings in a local bar for fun and meets a man one evening - Gervase. Gervase is a drifter and mom invites him to stay with them while he's in town.

This is not what I was expecting from Lisa Jewell. The previous Lisa Jewell books I've read were suspense thrillers, this was more a love triangle and it wasn't thrilling in any way.Jewell's ability to round her characters out is already in evidence here, as is her ability to think outside the box. Not everything went as I expected, she has thrown a few surprises in the mix. If I'd had to buy the book the old-fashioned way, it would have stayed on the bookstore shelf. Because I would have been able to flip through the book and easily determine that the Jewell magic, at least for me, just isn't present. During all this drama, Gervase has spent time with each of the boys. He does this thing where he holds their hands and looks deep into their eyes and they go all gooey inside and wind up spilling everything to him. Turns out he's a bit psychic, a gift he got from his mom. He advises all the boys. EXCERPT: Ralph barely noticed Jem the first time he saw her. He was arguing with his girlfriend, Claudia, sitting at his desk, cradling the phone under his chin as he carelessly pulled elastic bands into tight ligatures around his wrists in an apparently subconscious attempt to cut off his blood supply and end the painful predictability of it all. There are several more incidents of this sort of selfish behaviour that made me thoroughly dislike them both. They came across as the epitome of pampered London types, used to getting their own way, using others without thought of the consequences and so forth, and I really didn't like either of them.

These six star-crossed tenants become more enamored, and more confused, as the story progresses-until their true destinies are revealed on one crucial night-the evening of the extravaganza that is . . . Ralph's party.ABOUT THIS BOOK: Meet the residents of the London brownstone on 31 Almanac Road who together weave a tangled web of romance. Ralph, a ne'er-do-well artist, suddenly realizes he's head over heels in love with his new flatmate Jem, the most fun and sensible girl he's ever encountered. Unfortunately, Ralph's best friend, Smith, has already won Jem's affections, although Smith has not entirely given up his passion for the femme fatale, Cheri, who lives upstairs. Across the hall, Karl and Siobhan have been happily unmarried for years, until Karl gets a smashing job as a London rush-hour DJ and momentarily gets tempted into Cheri's cozy lair. I am still wondering why I thought this might be a good book. Absolutely horrible. Horrible characters, I couldn't like any of them, horrible plot. I don't know whether it was due to this massive excitement, but my overwhelming feeling having finished this book is one of disappointment. It was wonderful delving into the lives of Jem and Ralph again, meeting their beautiful children and seeing how hard it can be to keep a sense of love alive after years of being together. The sentiment behind the book, as presented most succinctly by the quote from Mignon McLaughlin: "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person" is believable and very pertinent to many couples.