Reviewed by Chloe Spooner.
Elouise 'Lou' Winter is married to second hand car dealer Phil, but
their marriage is far from happy. Lou knows Phil has been unfaithful,
but he uses it to his own advantage, keeping Lou under his thumb. But
when Lou spots an article in a magazine about clearing out clutter, she
has no idea just how far how cleaning obsession is going to reach. Not
to mention the small crush she has on the man who brings her skips Tom
Broom, Lou is heading for a big lifestyle change, but is she ready to
take on everything that comes with it? Will Lou find her
happy-ever-after or is Phil Winter just too much in control for her to
break free?
It did sound slightly different to the other books that Milly Johnson had written, but to be honest that made me look forward to it even more - something different but from an author I trusted to write something brilliant once more. Johnson really chooses to focus on the relationships between people in her books, and the changes these go through as people change in life, and perhaps that is what makes her books so readable and appealing to her audience.
Johnson
always manages to write characters that I love reading about. For a
little while into the book, I do admit that I wasn't too fond of Lou.
She seemed a bit weak and too submissive for my liking and I wasn't
sure how it was going to go because of this. I wanted her to stand up
to her horrid husband yet she let him bully her and I really didn't
like that. However, things develop as the book continues and I really
began to like Lou a lot more, and felt for her dilemmas. Her husband
Phil is a complete creep, I hated him with a passion but he did make a
good "baddie" and was sat well with Lou. The other characters were also
very well written, as I have come to expect from Milly Johnson. What I
also really enjoyed about the book was the descriptive writing
throughout, and how it brought to life Lou and her world. Johnson
chooses to write in the third person, what I call "proper story
telling" and this lends itself to a really descriptive and enjoyable
novel.
Great characters, a lovely, touching and quite realistic story and a great writing style all combine to create more fictional magic that will delight not only fans of Johnson's earlier books but will certainly bring even more fans to her books. I just cannot complement this book enough, it was an utterly charming tale of finding yourself despite bad circumstances, and of what can happen when you decide to declutter your life. Johnson writes from the heart and with such feeling that you are going along with Lou with every emotion she's going through. Really superb, definitely recommended and a must-read from me!
