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Book Reviews Title Virtue Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story What
do you need to be a saint these days? Ambition,
determination and good PR. But what do you do if
your mother's a saint and you just want to be
human? Anna
and Harriet share a burden: hellishly saintly
mothers. So armed with a wicked sense of humour,
they set out to paint the town red. And for a while
life goes swimmingly. But when they tread on one
toe too many, they find that they have only their
worst instincts - and each other - to rely
on. Be
good. And if you can't be good, be
careful... We
Say 'By the
bestselling author of The
Temp',
proudly boasts the front cover. Hmmm... I'd keep
quiet about that, if I were you. The Temp probably
gets our vote for worst book written in the last
few years. And whoever decided to put that
over-used cliché on the back cover ('If you
can't be good...') deserves to be shot. Let's move
on. Anna and Harriet
are both twenty-something. They live together, work
together and play together. They have much in
common despite having very diffierent backgrounds.
The most obvious similarity is that they are both
trying, in their own different ways, to escape the
reputation and the accompanying responsibilities of
their famous mothers. Told from the viewpoint of
Anna, we watch as she and Harriet try to live their
lives the way they want to, and not the way
anyone else or the media tries to dictate. Does it
work? To a degree -
yes. There is no question that both Anna and
Harriet are likable characters. And the story, even
when becoming somewhat ludicrous, still keeps on
the right side of enjoyable. But it's not without
its many flaws. There are annoying characters -
Henry the damn cat tries to steal the scene in just
about every chapter and does little more than
annoy. There are some cringe-inducing moments when
Mackesy misses the mark. And, perhaps more
surprising considering the author's journalistic
background, the numerous 'newspaper articles'
featured in Virtue are pretty awful and would be
deemed unworthy of publication even in local
rags. But, for the most
part, Virtue is a much more impressive product than
The Temp. The story moves fast, the characters and
locations are genuinely enjoyable and there are
some real shocking moments. This time, I'm
happy to say that we're mostly laughing with the
author, not at her. Review
by: Rob
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