Sweet Nothings by Trisha Ashley
Monday, 24 Sep 2007 13:23
Sweet Nothings by Trisha Ashley out on Sept 24th
Severn House Paperbacks, out September 24th, 231 pages, £9.99
In a nutshell...
Sweet and deliciously warm
What's it all about?
In the quaint village of Middlemoss, Lizzie is losing a long battle with her increasingly temperamental and abusive husband Tom. As it dawns on her that the marriage is over she resorts to waiting until her son Jasper leaves for university. Almost at the end of her tether and wondering whether she can hold out that long, all of a sudden Tom dies, leaving Lizzie alone and picking up the pieces to the missing puzzle that was her husband's life before his death. As she cleans up his mess she embarks on cleaning her own, distracting herself with her experimental cooking and writing her cookbooks.
Yet police suspect Lizzie in Tom's death and the situation is not helped with sinister Polly Darke, the self-proclaimed true love of the late Tom. Add together the mysterious and challenging Nick, handsome TV soap star Rob and a village full of gossips it's a recipe for disaster for the woman dubbed Queen of Puddings.
Who's it by?
Born in Lancashire, Trisha Ashley is the author of several previous novels, including The Urge to Jump, Good Husband Material, Every Woman for Herself and The Generous Gardener. Interestingly she was once a plumber and a glass-maker before she settled into writing. She now lives in North Wales.
As an example...
"At the end of six months we all emerged with shattered eardrums, shattered French and the ability to whip up Tarelettes au Fromage at the drop of a whisk."
"I might have been tempted to rub ice cream into that superior smile, if I hadn't already eaten it all."
Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster
A story like this always has the potential to be made into a movie, despite the fact that the ingredients aren't exactly new and different.
So is it any good?
Just as protagonist Lizzie cooks for comfort, Trisha Ashley writes for comfort. Her melodramatic feast of death, romance, jealousy, village life and quirky characters manages to simmer nicely without ever boiling or over-heating.
Though Ashley's ability to peel the layers of the story away naturally is her strong point, it also hinders the story a tad in the beginning. Subsequently it's a while before the narrative gets into full swing.
Lizzie's husband Tom is as bad as he should be and because of this, we meet Lizzie at her most downtrodden, resigned as she is to serve out her marriage until Jasper heads to university like a convict waiting out a jail sentence. This is partially unbearable and uninteresting as the tale takes a meandering struggle to get the reader involved. Expectations for the story rise when Tom dies but plummet again at his funeral when Lizzie gets confronted by the menagerie of mistresses her late husband had, a turn that seems unrealistic and verging on silly.
Yet somewhere along the line (and I'm not sure where it happened), I began to thoroughly enjoy this story, with Ashley's Lizzie eventually winning me over as she starts to forge a new life on her own. Suddenly I'm interested in the growing attraction between Lizzie and Nick, the persistent Rob and the romance between Annie and the town vicar. Hell, I even start to enjoy the annoyingly cute chapter titles referencing pies, pastries and cakes.
A rich, dark chocolate soufflé this is not, as Ashley's writing resembles a more comforting cup of tea. Yet it is sweet nonetheless and a pleasure to digest.
6/10
Louise Cadell
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