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Book Reviews Title Kiss Him
Goodbye Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story Kate Craig has
many pet hates but top of the list is London. She's
managed to steer clear for twenty-one years until
her boyfriend, Giles, convinces her to visit his
palatial Chelsea home. Kate's week of indulgence is
idyllic until Giles drops his bombshell: he's off
to Chicago on a four-month training course. Kate is
challenged: either she retreats back North, or she
stays and takes on London. Feeling dazed and
confused Kate discovers herself cleaning the
cupboards in the first flat she sees. Filthy
cupboards Kate can cope with, but in this case,
there are flatmates that come with
them… We
Say Victoria
Routledge must be gaining in confidence. At five
hundred and sixty-eight pages, her second novel,
'Kiss Him Goodbye' has a lot more meat on its bones
than its predecessor, 'Friends Like These' (even
though she cheats a little bit and uses some
characters from the first book). I'm not sure that
this novel has anything more to say than the first
one but what it does say, it says more
convincingly. Arguably, the plot is a little thin
but the writing is more assured. In truth, it's
all pretty harmless good fun. A young woman is let
loose in London with a couple of men-behaving-badly
type flatmates. Meanwhile, her annoyingly perfect
boyfriend is climbing the career ladder on the
other side of the Atlantic. The main character,
Kate, has an amusing perspective on the events in
her life and is easy to like. Her flatmates, Harry
and Dant, become more interesting as you get to
know them and provide a neat antithesis to the
immaculate Giles (Kate's boyfriend). It all
progresses quite nicely, if a little predictably,
as Kate begins to realise that the universe does
not revolve around Giles. I enjoyed the
descriptions of Kate's work in the offices of a
publishing house. There were lots of great
characters here and plenty of office gossip to
liven things up. I also liked the character of
Cress - a realistic female villain who it would
have been good to see more of throughout the story.
My only real
complaint is that I found Kate a bit too wimpy at
times. It wasn't entirely convincing that an adult
woman could be duped into living in London against
her will. Also, eating chocolate and putting on
weight to demonstrate her liberation and newly
found confidence seemed like an outdated
metaphor. But minor gripes
aside, 'Kiss Him Goodbye' is funny, well written
and enjoyable. Review by: Rachel
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