Nadia Knows Best

Looong but entertaining. Cliched, of course. It did rather feel like reading an entire season of Eastenders- so many plot lines!

I've now read all of Jill Mansell's novels that are available in the US and I've come to believe that they are the literary equivalent of The Love Boat. That's not necessarily a bad thing. The books are predictable, there are numerous subplots and secondary romances, and everything is tied up neatly in a bow by the end. The writing is lighthearted, the characters are at least semi-quirky, and even when someone's heart is broken it doesn't seem to be taken too seriously, because we know that a happy ending is around the corner. Even though the heroine is usually blind to the right guy until the end, she is at least competent in other areas of her life, and concerned with something other than shopping and fashion (unlike many American Chick Lit heroines). I probably won't remember the plot of Nadia Knows Best in a month or so, but like all of Mansell's other books I enjoyed it while I was reading it.