Readers of Sophie Kinsella and Elin Hilderbrand will love this perfect vacation read from Jill Mansell, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of Maybe This Time! New Year’s resolutions never go according to plan…Liza wants to get married, Dulcie wants a divorce, and Pru wants things in her relationship to stay exactly the same. Those are the New Year’s resolutions these three … exactly the same. Those are the New Year’s resolutions these three best friends have vowed to keep this year. But if you want to change your mind about your resolutions—and who doesn’t?—you probably shouldn’t have told your closest pals.
Regardless of good intentions and best-laid plans, every effort to help each other only gets things more mixed up. Fortunately for all concerned, Fate has got a few tricks of her own in store…
Also by Jill Mansell:
This Could Change Everything
Miranda’s Big Mistake
Maybe This Time
Praise for Jill Mansell:
“Full of heart and surprises.”—Booklist for Three Amazing Things About You
“Engaging and entertaining.”—Shelf Awareness for Fast Friends
“Mansell’s work is a consistent pleasure… A beautiful mix of heartbreak, humor, and redemption.”—RT Book Reviews for You and Me, Always
“Touching, funny, down-to-earth, and oh-so-satisfying.”—Harlequin Junkie for This Could Change Everything
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Liza, Dulcie, and Pru have been fiends for many years. It is the afternoon of New Years Eve and the gals are having lunch together as they make their resolutions for the new year.
Liza is a beautiful, single, food writer and restaurant critic. Her wish is to get married.
Dulcie is married to a lovely man who has just started his own business. This means he works from dawn to midnight and she never sees him. She has become bored and her wish is to get a divorce.
Pru wants to stay married to her husband even but he constantly cheats on her. She is a good wife and homemaker. Her wish is to stay married.
When Dulcie decides to give her husband a surprise 40th birthday party, it ends up wrecking the lives of several people Now, they are separated.
Pru’s husband’s gambling has led to them losing their home and he moves in with his girlfriend who happens to be their cleaner. Now, Pru has moved into a tiny rented room and works as a cleaner. Oh, the irony!
An unflattering restaurant review blows up in Liza’s face which makes many problems for her in lots of ways.
This is a soap opera type story that allows the reader to really get to know the characters and watch them grow. It goes from silly to funny to sad to happy. And do keep an eye out for the character of Marjorie. She is a total delight who will have you laughing out loud. I loved the book and the characters. Now that I have finished the book, they feel like family.
Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I enjoyed this well-written book. Three best friends make New Year’s vows, but none of them could predict how things would turn out! The story was fun and lively. This was an entertaining book and I look forward to reading more books by this author.
I read this book when it was first published and enjoyed reacquainting myself with it, thanks to its NetGalley listing.
Jill Mansell delivers three heroines who are struggling with different phases of love. Pru wants to stay married because she thinks that’s what good wives do, Dulcie wants a divorce because her husband no longer excites or is interested in her, and Liza wants to get married, despite never having a relationship with any substance.
You will find yourself rooting for Pru to realize she can do so much better than her loser husband, and you will want her to find her way. Liza frustrates somewhat because she gets caught up in worrying about factors that should have no bearing on her relationships, yet you like her. You want her to realize what matters. And then there is Dulcie, who is fairly loathsome. I enjoyed her various comeuppances, and I found myself hoping for her to continue learning difficult lessons. She does change, but perhaps not enough to deserve the ending Jill Mansell gives her.
I am a resolute fan of Jill Mansell’s. Her books captivate me from start to finish and make me want to move to cozy English towns.
Another awesome book by Jill Mansell! I always enjoy her stories, and Mixed Doubles was no exception. This was a super cute story about best friends Liza, Dulcie, and Pru, and their new year resolutions that will remind you a lot can happen in a year! A quick and funny read filled with romance and drama, and did I mention a beautiful cover!?
What can happen in a year? An Awful Lot! New Year’s resolutions are what people think they want, but when they actually happen, it might be a case of “be careful what you wish for, you might get it”.
This book covers a year in the lives of three close life-long friends. They are so different, but they love and understand each other very well. Liza, the “mostly” sensible one has a job as a food critic. Men are drawn to her curvy, sexy body as well as her friendly personality. Maybe because they fall all over her, she easily is bored with them and her relationships do not last very long. Dulcie is married to a wonderful man who is busy building a business and neglecting her. She has no money worries and does not desire to do much of anything except hang out at the country club wishing her life were different. Pru is a sweetheart. She is kind and easy-going to a fault. That fault arises when she wants to hang on to her unfaithful, gambling, drunk husband. It is not difficult to see how these very different people became friends at an early age and still are extremely close. They are honest to each other and friends like that are gems.
It is very interesting to see what fate has in store for these three women over the course of the year. As in real life, there are ups and downs and we never know what will happen next. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the book ending the way I was hoping.
This book is nothing like my life, that is one of reasons I love to read. I experience how other people live. Since this book originally was released in 1998, the lives of the women reflect that time. I am okay with that. As in every book, the story reflects the time period of its plot.
I was very involved in the story and it was a page turner for me. I enjoyed having a glimpse of the lives of the rich and see that having money certainly does not bring a life with no problems. I am a fan of Jill Mansell and I think this is another great story she wrote.
I want to thank Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me to read the ARC. This review is my own opinion and not influenced by receiving the ARC.