Cocktails for Three by Madeleine Wickham

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.

Oh well. I was looking for a quick cheerful chick lit read in between other things but after applying the Fifty Page Rule I had to give up on this one. No desire to spend any more time with these characters.

I bought this book years ago, maybe even when it first came out. That was when I read Sophie Kinsella's first few books and thought they were great. Then I read a couple more and realized I hated her books. So this one sat on my shelf collecting dust. This year I decided I would make a dent in my shelf. I would either get rid of the books I wasn't going to read or read them. So with that in mind I finally started this book.

And I did enjoy it. I think maybe I just don't like the Shopaholic character. There were things that drove me nuts about the characters at certain points, but that was because I could see what was coming much better than they could. No one was over the top crazy (unless they were supposed to be!) and the stories were all believable. I related most with Maggie, of course. The reluctant mother who has no idea what she's getting into and then being in way over her head.

But each character brought her own weight to the story. Despite it taking me so long to finally read and finish this book it was a quick read. And my only complaint was that not everyone got what was coming to her by the end of the book!