Customer Reviews

Two's Company

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Jill Mansell is among the best of the current crop of Brit Lit writers, whose fun, sprightly novels are highly talented as well as fun. I order all mine (this is my third) from Amazon, as I can't seem to find them anywhere else, and they are WELL worth ordering!

In this fun offering, Jack and Cass Mandeville, a power couple (she's a radio host, he's a well-known journalist) are as much known for their celebrity and good looks as the fact that their marriage is the happiest in all the UK. And then Jack hits 40. And a midlife crisis seems to hit him between his shower and his first cup of coffee...with disastrous results.

As if that were not enough, their three children, Cleo, a super-model; Sean, an up-and-coming standup comic whose career success is far outweighed by his success with the ladies; and Sophie, a determinedly "different" teen-ager, are all involved in problems of their own. And all of it in the very public eye.

It all makes for a wonderful hodgepodge of romance, satire, humor and a great deal of underlying wisdom as well. Highly, highly recommended.

This isn't the first Jill Mansell book that I've read and so I picked it up with good expectations. After all, the ones I've read so far had been lovely. Making no pretense at being high-minded literature, they were sweet, funny, fast-paced, and filled with delightful characters you wanted to cheer for.

And then I get to this one and it was just a disaster! I had to keep checking the front cover to make sure I was still reading the same book. Every time I started to relax and enjoy it, it just veered spectacularly off course like a vacuum cleaner that goes berserks and needs to be tugged back in place. And each time the author seemingly pulled it together, it just all fell apart in another place. And not in a "oh good, now things are getting interesting" kind of way... No, in an "I loathe these characters, they have no sense and deserve no sympathy and why am I wasting time on this anyway?" kind of way.

Disappointment is such a small word for what I felt as I struggled through it. Only morbid curiosity kept me reading but the sickeningly sweet ending only confirmed what I already knew - I needn't have bothered reading it.

Jack and Cass Mandeville seem to have a wonderful marriage and have three wonderful children. It's Jack's fortieth birthday and Cass has neglected to tell him that she has scheduled an appointment with a journalist for a magazine that morning. She actually forgot. Cass agreed to the interview because she was going to turn her fee for it over to a charity. The journalist, Imogen, arrives for the interview and Cass stumbles down to greet her. Her house is a mess, she just got out of bed, and Jack refuses to participate. In fact he seems to be downright rude to Imogen and he goes off to the gym instead. Cass later invites Imogen to attend an improtu birthday bash for her husband and Imogen shows up later.
Imogen is attracted to Jack and she seems to want everything that Cass has except perhaps her children Sean (a cheating comedienne), Cleo (a model who tests other people's relationships) and Sophie (a 14 year old beauty in hiding). Jack and Imogen run into each other later and give in to their attraction and an affair ensues. A listener to Cass's morning show calls in and spills the beans to her about her husband's extra marital affair. Cass gets upset when she confronts him and later Jack is with Imogen telling her that he loves her. He seems to go back and for the between Imogen and Cass and telling both of them that he loves them. Finally Cass has one last time with Jack, he thinks they had the make-up thing and that he will stay with Cass and finish with Imogen and instead Cass tells him good-bye.
With no other choice Jack goes back to Imogen but he doesn't really seem happy. Cass follows through with a divorce and hooks up with a mutual friend, Rory, who happens to be a bit older than Jack and Cass. Jack doesn't seem to like that two years on Cass seems to be happy with Rory and is talking about the fabulous time she has with him. Imogen is pestering Jack about having children and seeking fertility treatments because she doesn't seem to be getting pregnant. Jack doesn't want any more kids because he has already had three. At a party for Sophie, Rory asks Jack for his permission to ask Cass for her hand and marriage. Jack is not too happy about this. Sophie wants to go to Africa to help out but both Jack and Cass think it is a bad idea because she is only 16. Imogen thinks it's a fine idea and doesn't seem to understand what the problem is. Sophie drops it and takes a job as a model to help earn some money to save up for the Africa trip. Later she is kidnapped and taken at knife point. Cass and Jack come together to wait for news about their daughter. They end up getting together in more ways than one and soon end back up together.
The story didn't seem to explain why in the world Jack hooked up with Imogen to begin with or how Rory went from wanting to marry Cass to not really caring that she dumped him to get back with her husband. There was a lot going on with the storylines of the three kids too that distracted from the so called main characters. Wasn't an incredibly deep book but it wasn't a horrible one either. It was just a light, slightly entertaining read.