Customer Reviews

Something Good (Red Dress Ink Novels)

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I really hate to give anything a review as bad as I'm about to give this one. But seriously, If I could give this "no stars" I would do it. The characters are wishy-washy, unsympathetic and boring. And the framing of this novel is so slow that I fell asleep every time I picked it up to try to read it. It's a miracle that I finished at all.

Don't waste your time or money on this book!

Something good for Jane Deakin turns out to be a new baby, which is born after a one night fling with a man she met on a Scottish isle, where she went to learn about stain glass design. The new baby disrupts relations with her 15 year old daughter, Hannah, but Han eventually comes round and the novel has a happy ending, with Jane, her four month son, Luke, and Han about to move into a new house. The novel began when Han was 5 and she and Jane moved into another new house, which Jane found when her marriage w/ Max broke up. Max owns a bike shop, which seemed to run a spoke into his marriage w/ Jane. They remain friends after their breakup and don't even get divorced, but they go on to lead their own lives. Max moves into another new house and starts an affair with Veronica, a beautiful neighbor, whose daugher Zoe becomes Han's best friend. Then her son, Dylan, who has artistic talent, does, and Han is even happier. The lives of Jane, Han and to a lesser extent Max, make the novel go. It's very good contemporary fiction, with moterhood and the teenage lifestyle beautifully portrayed in a smoothly flowing story.

I was intrigued by Gibson's Lucky Girl, where the main character is another single woman who teaches flute. Jane Deakin follows in this tradition which has elevated Gibson to one the best contemporary British novelists.

Jane Deakin is stunned when she sees her beloved husband Max cheating. Despondent as she never saw it coming, Jane moves out taking their five years old daughter Hannah with her.

A decade later, Jane and Max remain separated but legally married. She works in a childcare center but hopes to make a living with her stained glass hobby. Hannah wants to be an actress and has a crush on workshop peer Ollie. Max is seeing Veronica, a single mother with two teenage children, Zoe and Dylan. Jane, accompanied by her mom, daughter and Zoe, travels to Scotland to attend a stained glass workshop where Jane finally finds her groove.

The key to this well written extended family drama is the strong cast; everyone that matters seems real especially with how they interrelate with one another. For instance, Jane is a well behaved teen until Zoe mentors her on Minor Mutiny 101 while Zoe and Dylan have sibling rivalries; and Dylan and Jane are attracted to one another. Jane is terrific as the center holding the story line together even as she is falling in love with Conor the Scot, but it is the support characters who make SOMETHING GOOD out of Fiona Gibson's fine contemporary romance.

Harriet Klausner