BOOK REVIEW: Cocktails for Three
by Madeleine Wickham
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ABOUT THE BOOK (from Amazon):
Madeleine Wickham, who writes the internationally bestselling Shopaholic series as Sophie Kinsella, has penned an irresistibly dishy and entertaining novel about three savvy young women and the secrets they share over monthly drinks.
Roxanne: glamorous, self-confident, with a secret lover — a married man
Maggie: capable and high-achieving, until she finds the one thing she can’t cope with — motherhood
Candice: honest, decent, or so she believes — until a ghost from her past turns up
At the first of every month, when the office has reached its pinnacle of hysteria, Maggie, Roxanne, and Candice meet at London’s swankiest bar for an evening of cocktails and gossip. Here, they chat about what’s new at The Londoner, the glossy fashion magazine where they all work, and everything else that’s going on in their lives. Or almost everything. Beneath the girl talk and the laughter, each of the three has a secret. And when a chance encounter at the cocktail bar sets in motion an extraordinary chain of events, each one will find their biggest secret revealed.
In Cocktails for Three, Madeleine Wickham combines her trademark humor with remarkable insight to create an edgy, romantic tale of secrets, strangers, and a splash of scandal.
MY REVIEW:
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I started working my way through Sophie Kinsella’s standalone novels a few years ago. I’ve now read every one of them (except Love Your Life which just came out recently and I should get to that one this year). I am now working through the books she published under her real name (Madeleine Wickham). The Gatecrasher was my first from that list and Cocktails for Three is now my second.
Similar to what I mentioned in my review of The Gatecrasher, this book is similar in style to most Sophie Kinsella books, but there’s something about them that’s different. I don’t know why, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. There’s definitely less romance and the content feels heavier. Cocktails for Three felt almost like a cross between Sophie Kinsella and Liane Moriarty.
The first thing that jumped out at me was on the first page. The first scene of the book starts out with the girls (Maggie, Roxanne and Candice) at the Manhattan Bar which also happens to be the name of an infamous dive bar in my little town. Because there were three main characters, it took me a little while to start connecting with each of them. But as the story wove together, I became pretty gripped by the drama that was happening in each of their lives.
Cocktails for Three is a story of friendship, mourning, major life changes, and living without regret. If you enjoy women’s fiction, it’s definitely worth the read.
