Belinda Jones
The California Club
This book is a lot of fun to read. It details the essentially unrequited love that Lara has had for Elliot, her best friend for the last ten years. This is a fairly standard plot for a romance, I have seen it quite a few times in romantic comedies, where usually the two leads overcome all of the obstacles that they face at the beginning.
Jackson doesn't subvert this genre convention, but Lara is by and large very likable. The three other women that make up her friendship group are also likable, but essentially the plot all turns on when Elliot is going to realise that Elise, the woman he's going to marry isn't the right person for him.
We know as readers, that it is just a matter of time. Jones paints the fiancee as a very unpleasant character, without much of a sense of humour, and a tendency to be over the top in her desire to stake her claim on Elliot. Even though it's all seen through Lara's eyes, and naturally she is not going to be very fond of the woman that Elliot is engaged to, there are numerous occasions on which Elise behaves in a noticeably selfish way, or dismisses one of the other women.
The descriptions are very detailed, and I especially liked the way that Jones writes about the places that Lara goes to in California. It is not somewhere I have been, or am likely to do in the near future, but Jones creates a great vivid picture of the state. She uses the hotel where Marilyn Monroe stayed, and also references a Great Cat sanctuary.
In short The California Club is a easy and fun read, one that I would certainly carry with me on my next holiday.
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