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Ralph's Party

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honestly, i'm not sold on this novel. i wanted desperately to love it, because i won it! and winning is made of awesome! but i couldn't get past all the bullshit and pretense. no one comes across as particularly likable or vulnerable. the writing at times feels stilted (more so at the end when jewell seems to cave to the pressure of the happy ending and needs her characters to find forgiveness - i can't imagine EVER being okay with my fake-hubby disappearing for three weeks to paint pictures of my family so we can start anew. but i am most definitely not jem).

I accept that this book is probably very realistic, but being newly married myself, I'm not ready to accept that happily ever after comes to an end. This book made me feel so sad that I just couldn't carry on. I did skip through to find out if they stayed together and I couldn't believe the unforgivable things that they both did. I am definitely not in the right place in my own life to understand their actions and to understand how you can carry on in the relationship afterwards. It's also interesting for me in that Ralph's Party was very much set in the approach to 1997, the arse-end of a pretty bad recession and a moribund Tory-led Britain before the expectation of a New Labour victory. This one is set literally after that party. Not exactly that you notice it much in the text -- she's not a political writer or anything of the sort, but it's interesting that she dabbles fleetingly in religion and the spiritual, and even hints that the jollies the central couple used to get was sort of, well, vacuous. The good times are gone. After The Party is an incredibly emotional read because it’s clear that Ralph and Jem belong together no matter what so to see their relationship self-destruct is horrible to read. I wanted to shake them both and tell them to stop being so silly. I rarely get so involved with characters but with Jem and Ralph I just couldn’t get enough. It helps that Lisa Jewell gives us both Ralph and Jem’s point of view, making for a very fair view of their relationship. Lisa Jewell really is a fantastic writer because, to be blunt, After The Party isn’t your usual boy-meets-girl-they-fall-in-love affair, After The Party is about what it’s like after being together for a huge amount of time and all the troubles a modern couple face these days. It was a very turbulent year in the life of Jem and Ralph and I really didn’t know how it would end. This may be partially my fault as i only knew Lisa Jewell as a thriller/mystery author, and A Friend of The Family certainly isnt that. But i have to say i found this story just okay. It's not awful, but i was glad to have finished it.Jewell's ability to round her characters out is already in evidence here, as is her ability to think outside the box. Not everything went as I expected, she has thrown a few surprises in the mix. These six star-crossed tenants become more enamored, and more confused, as the story progresses-until their true destinies are revealed on one crucial night-the evening of the extravaganza that is . . . Ralph's party. Lisa Jewell is a really good writer and I was surprised when I realised I hadn't read her first book, the cover is simple but perfect for the story behind it. Jem is the centre of attention in this book and I love that as she's such a lovely character she's someone you want as a friend as she's a good listener and counts everyone she has in her life as important. Ralph is a shy person to begin with but as the book went on he grew as a person and it was good to see his shy side firstly and then for him to come out of his shell put a smile on my face.Smith is a different person altogether, In my opinion he loves being the centre of attention and goes in sulks and moods if things don't go his way. I wasn't keen on at the beginning and still wasn't at the end. I really enjoyed Ralph's Party by Lisa Jewell, to which After the Party is the sequel, so I was beyond excited when I found out that this book was being released and I would be able to see how life turned out for Jem and Ralph.

I don't know whether it was due to this massive excitement, but my overwhelming feeling having finished this book is one of disappointment. It was wonderful delving into the lives of Jem and Ralph again, meeting their beautiful children and seeing how hard it can be to keep a sense of love alive after years of being together. The sentiment behind the book, as presented most succinctly by the quote from Mignon McLaughlin: "A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person" is believable and very pertinent to many couples. Tony is divorced and seeing a woman named Ness. Since his divorce, he's let himself go a little. He has tons of fun with Ness, but he's getting a little pudgy around the waistline. He doesn't see a future with Ness because he dreams of his brother's girl, Milly. Tony is the oldest. He started his own greeting card business and it is now well established. He's the oldest. Tony is with Ness, but he really wants Milly. Milly has confided in him about what an ass Sean is being about the baby. Sean has confided in him about how he doesn't really want a baby. Tony told Sean to grow up. They have a dinner one evening and things comes to blows between Sean and Milly and Sean leaves. Ness goes to bed and leaves Tony alone with Milly. Tony tells Milly how wonderful he thinks she is and they kiss. Then Tony realizes he doesn't really want Milly and that them doing anything would be a huge mistake. And all of a sudden, he's over his crush. He makes love to Ness that night and professes his love, but in his head, it was just something he said not something he meant. He breaks up with Ness. Ness is close to mom so she heads to her house, but mom is out. Only Ned is there. Ned comforts her and realizes how great she is. He decides to escort her to the party. There are several more incidents of this sort of selfish behaviour that made me thoroughly dislike them both. They came across as the epitome of pampered London types, used to getting their own way, using others without thought of the consequences and so forth, and I really didn't like either of them.

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While Lisa Jewell has moved into books with a hint (and in some cases more than a hint) of mystery to them her original contemporary novels explore the complications of relationships (romantic and platonic), figuring out your place in the world, coming to terms with loss/grief/hurt, betrayals and anger and love and redemption and comeuppance and the aftermath of poor choices and forgiveness and all the messy mixed up moments of life in your 20s and 30s. After The Party isn’t exactly the happiest read you’ll ever encounter because for the majority of the book we see Jem and Ralph’s relationship disintegrate and, believe me, it isn’t particularly pretty. There’s no definitive starting point that marks the potential beginning of the end for Jem and Ralph, it just seems to be the way life has gone for them. They have two children – the ever lovely Scarlett and Blake – and the change in dynamics that came with having children weren’t what Jem or Ralph expected. Up until Jem and Ralph had kids, they were solely focused on each other (as you’d expect) and after having kids, their focuses changed and Ralph ended up feeling left out whereas Jem felt as if she was losing her real self – the carefree and younger version of herself. This is not what I was expecting from Lisa Jewell. The previous Lisa Jewell books I've read were suspense thrillers, this was more a love triangle and it wasn't thrilling in any way.

The writing flows easily and I enjoyed the portrayal of the characters. They're all immersed in so muc drama: cheating, lying, manipulation, obsession, etc. Most of us have been in some of their roles at some point of our lives, to a minor extent, I hope, but I still have moments where I thought "shit, I've done something like that".

I thought this was the latest from Lisa Jewell, as it just was added to my library, but a minute into it the anachronisms (a popular rush hour radio dj?) and then realized Ralph's Party was her first book. It doesn't read like the Jewell I know and I was expecting something creepy or a murder to happen at some point, but instead got some sort of romantic drama. The result was refreshing for my usual reads. If I'd had to buy the book the old-fashioned way, it would have stayed on the bookstore shelf. Because I would have been able to flip through the book and easily determine that the Jewell magic, at least for me, just isn't present. There was some weird descriptions of the fact she’d put on weight and her husband liked it because she ‘felt like a chubby school girl’ and he’d never gotten to sleep with a chubby school girl.

For starters, what partner sods off to the US for a nice holiday, after his wife has literally only just had a baby? And then proceeds to flirt with his mate's partner? What woman invites a single man over to her house for 'curry', flirts with him, then goes cold and expects that to be okay? Jem and Ralph are blissfully in love and make the perfect couple. But several years later, it's not going so well. They fell in love at an art gallery so it's bad karma that Ralph feels he has lost his sense of artistry. His paintings just don't look or feel the same and Jem feels like she is Ralph's wife and the children's mother - she's lost who she is.

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Ralph, one of the flat mates in the apartment where the story is focused, goes into his new flatmate’s room and reads her diary. Then he smells her bra and talks in detail about how she was hiding her cup size well. And all of this is just in the first 10% of the book. A big, special mention to the narrator, Imogen Church. She gives the characters the right, emotional tone for their situations. She makes them annoying and insufferable, and then calm and restrained. She goes up and down with them and you can almost feel them coming out of your speakers. She's just fantastic and now I'll look for more of her work. The first time I'll look for a narrator, not necessarily an author. There's a funny butcher with a good, but impractical approach to life. And yes, I've met guys like that. During all this drama, Gervase has spent time with each of the boys. He does this thing where he holds their hands and looks deep into their eyes and they go all gooey inside and wind up spilling everything to him. Turns out he's a bit psychic, a gift he got from his mom. He advises all the boys.

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