Shaken and Stirred

When I first started reading this novel, I thought it was going to just another ho-hum "chick lit" type book. The small Dublin office where the majority of the action is set features characters who didn't seem all that appealing on first blush: Douglas, the womanizing self-made man; Pamela, his beautiful-yet-cold wife; Gina, the 20-something who can't seem to get her love life together; Jack, the office jokester; and Mal, the meek subservient to his domineering wife. Happily, author Caddle does a nice job of making each of these individuals more multi-dimensional, partially through allowing them all to have the story's narration told from their point of view. Adding another character to the mix, Susie, serves to add further interest and complexity to the plotline. What seemed initially to be fairly predictable fare turns out to be an extremely engaging novel which rises above the chick lit genre to the level of other bestselling British/Irish authors such as Maeve Binchy or Marian Keyes. Although the title doesn't quite do justice to the story, I would definitely recommend this book and will be looking to read more of Caddle's work in the future.