It starts off pretty slow but once the story gets going it is really engrossing. I will miss these characters.

3.5

This book was interesting at times, but a bit formulaic. I've read pretty much everything by Penny Vincenzi, another British author, and her books cover similar plot lines with more substance and style. Recommend for a no-brainer beach read.

Overall, this was an unsatisfactory read. The opening chapter of the book makes it seem like the central conflict is whether Ali will spill the beans or stay loyal to the family, but it's not really about that. It's more an excuse to write about a fantastically wealthy family and their dysfunction. Ali does get a backstory, but it doesn't explain her motivations to continue working for the family after her initial year is up, or to stay silent on some things but reveal other things. She's running away from her own complications with family and school, but those things don't really resolve either... this wasn't really worth the time it took to read it, but I kept going because I wanted to know what happened. If anything happened.

Any fans of Slummy Mummy will likely enjoy this book as well. Once again Ms. Neill takes a weighty topic and infuses humor and humanness to make it very accessible.

Although this book was slow-paced, I still enjoyed it quite a lot. I felt like the pacing was somewhat deliberate in that it really steeped you in the world in which this story takes place and it was a long burn up to a big melt-down which was exactly how things seem to go back in 2008. Despite this being a rather serious story, humor and some interesting characters were nicely mixed in to keep it from being didactic.