cocktails for three

cocktails for three
madeleine wickham
contemporary/chick lit
thomas dunne book
published 2001

At the first of every month, when the office has reached its pinnacle of hysteria, Maggie, Roxanne and Candice meet at London's swankiest bar for an evening of cocktails and gossip.  Here, they chat about what's new in their lives and what's new at The Londoner, the glossy fashion magazine where they all work.  But beneath the girl talk and the laughter, each of the three has something to hide: High-achiever Maggie is pregnant, and terrified at the prospect of becoming a mother; glamorous Roxanne is losing hope that her secret lover will leave his wife; and kindhearted Candice cannot escape the guilty secret that has pursued her since childhood.  What a chance encounter at the cocktail bar sets in motion an extraordinary chain of events, their lives quickly spin out of control and their friendship is stretched to the limit.  Suddenly, Maggie, Roxanne and Candice must face their fears and troubles alone, and it is only a matter of time before one of them snaps...

I bought this book years ago, maybe even when it first came out.  That was when I read Sophie Kinsella's first few books and thought they were great.  Then I read a couple more and realized I hated her books.  So this one sat on my shelf collecting dust.  This year I decided I would make a dent in my shelf.  I would either get rid of the books I wasn't going to read or read them.  So with that in mind I finally started this book.

And I did enjoy it.  I think maybe I just don't like the Shopaholic character.  There were things that drove me nuts about the characters at certain points, but that was because I could see what was coming much better than they could.  No one was over the top crazy (unless they were supposed to be!) and the stories were all believable.  I related most with Maggie, of course.  The reluctant mother who has no idea what she's getting into and then being in way over her head.

But each character brought her own weight to the story.  Despite it taking me so long to finally read and finish this book it was a quick read.  And my only complaint was that not everyone got what was coming to her by the end of the book!