By Sophie Kinsella

“Don’t worry,” I say hastily. “It’s fine.”
“It is not fine.” He shakes his head mournfully. “It is far from fine. These are not the high standards we expect of ourselves at the Rilston. We have let you down and we have let ourselves down….
“Believe me, Ms. Worth, I am mortified by our failure. I will get you that noni juice, if I have to squeeze the noni myself.” “Well…thank you,” I say, feeling embarrassed….
“Other than that, has your stay been comfortable so far? You’re here for a health break, I understand? Ah, here’s Nikolai with your green smoothie,” he adds. “In the absence of organic kale, our chef used frozen Birds Eye peas.” Birds Eye peas?

This was a delightful and entertaining new Sophie Kinsella, just not my favorite. I liked the premise and the romance. As usual, although portraying women, their foibles, and ultimate healing and triumph is her specialty, she always creates a romance with a worthy and intriguing hero. This one was no exception. I loved both Sasha and Finn. And as always, there were plenty of laughs and plenty of heart. Kinsella’s humor is effortless. And our heroine was not the silly flake on the edge of disaster that so many of her women characters are through many of her books.

Oh, she starts off pretty crazy. Sasha works at a prestigious and successful company in the marketing department. Unfortunately, it is very poorly run which is frustrating to her, and poor management has resulted in much work and too little time to do it. To add to her stress, she has to answer to Joanne, her boss’s henchwoman, whose main priority is an “aspirations mood board” and insists that she must use the little time she has to “find her joy”. Or else. When Sasha finally breaks down in a panic attack, it is both funny and alarming. She tries to join the convent next door and knocks herself out by literally running into a brick wall. Put on medical leave by her doctor, she retreats to a haven of her childhood, Rilston Beach, of which she has so many happy memories. Her mother books her a room in the formerly fabulous and elite Rilston Hotel, which was far above her family’s touch when they spent their summer vacations in the town. But it is the off-season. And I mean off in more ways than one. There at the all but deserted hotel, she meets a fellow sufferer from burn-out, Finn Birchall. And as usual in a Kinsella novel initial antipathy and misunderstanding eventually turns to friendship and then love. Along the way, they make friends with the quirky and endearing skeleton staff of the once glamorous resort hotel, some of the townspeople, and most importantly the beloved and legendary surf instructor, Terry, who is now sadly suffering from dementia in his old age. And we get a mystery or two to keep things chugging along.

Unfortunately, the ending was a disappointment. Oh, it was a happy one of course. But it was just too pat and easily won. The reader is prepared for a real struggle that Finn is going through between a painful breakup with his girlfriend of 10 years and his new relationship with Sasha. We are led to believe it was the reason for his freak-out at work. Sasha learns about this through a rather sketchy action on her part. Usually, when our heroine does something she should probably be ashamed of (like spying or lying) she gets caught out, and embarrassed, and it causes a big problem with the hero. But refreshingly, Kinsella does not rely on this cliched cause of drama. I was very relieved. But in the end, we learn that the break up with his ex-girlfriend was not such a big deal after all. His heart is free. The whole problem which separated them for 6 months was just glossed over with no explanation. Even though his 10-year relationship with his ex, Olivia, was all but forgotten (I guess), he kept it a secret from Sasha for some mysterious reason. Actually, we don’t know if he went through any pain at all over it. It seems like it must have been pretty traumatic going by Olivia’s Instagram that Sasha understandably pours over. Was she the lovely woman that she seems? Did their lives take different directions and they just each agreed to move on with no drama? Was it something more hurtful or shocking? Or was it just that her Instagram was not an accurate portrayal of their lives together at all? This was the theme of the last Kinsella novel I read, My Not So Perfect Life.
We are left in the dark, and I don’t like being left in the dark. It didn’t ruin the book, but it was just so confoundedly weird and unnecessary.