Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty

photo courtesy:goodreads.com

A delightful lighthearted read.

Having heard of Lianne Moriarty's The Husband's Secret, I was looking forward reading this one. The premise seemed a bit obscure and vague but interesting enought for me to get stuck in right away.

Gist:

The story begins with Sophie, a 30 something career girl in the city, with a rotten love life. Things look up when her ex-boyfriend contacts her with the news that his dead aunt has left the house to her. Sophie, is shocked first but also exhilarated and then moves to the island into her new home and meets the Family.

Connie (Thomas' aunt who left her the house) has a reason for leaving the house to Sophie. She and Rose are known as the Doughty sisters who found the Munro baby and have been living of the story quite profitably.

There are also other characters, the Munroe baby (Enigma, who is grandma now),
Grace, their grandchild and a new mother struggling with the demands of a baby, Callum, her husband who is baffled by his wife's behaviour and Sophie comes as a breath of fresh air. Thomas, the ex who has married another but is hanging onto Sophie still. A divorced Veronika who first introduced Sophie to her brother Thomas but is grappling with issues of her own.

Over and above is the mystery of this abandoned baby, that Rose and Connie brought in years ago. Veronika is keen to unravel the secret behind it once for all and trigger off a set of events which are misleading, confusing but finally enlightening.

What works:

• Moriarty's style of writing is fresh and though she tackles a predictable side storyline of a thirty something girl waiting for the right guy, she does it with humour and gets it right.

• The characters are all well etched, although I must admit, I was a bit confused about who was related to who and how. However, the characters are good and although it gets a bit chaotic in between, it does keep you turning the page. In my view, the sign of a winner.

• Moriarty's writing builds up suspense quite well which provides the necessary twists and turns. I think that was quite good especially she pulls it off well.

• Moriarty also does a good job with the way she says her heroine loves Regency romance and keeps the focus on getting the right guy. The reader has fun finding out who she ends up with and Moriarty uses the Romance genre well. I do not want to say more for fear of spoiling the story, but it is very subtle and shows off her storytelling talent.

What doesn't:

• It takes a while to get used to the characters. As I said, it takes a while to figure who is whose daughter and sister and so on, but the characters are all endearing and it is fascinating to watch who Sophie ends up with and what is the mystery all about. 

A great downtime read. A bit frivolous at places but a well written story.