A Friend of the Family: The addictive and emotionally satisfying page-turner that will have you hooked

Product Information

Picking up books by this author feels like the equivalent of sitting down after a long hard day - I therefore read them inbetween grittier novels! It was an easy read and I felt quite sad after it ended because I liked the characters and wanted to know how their lives continued. I just love how Lisa Jewell feeds us tiny morsels at a time to keep our attention and curiosity so that we keep flicking those pages. Jewell's light style can be deceptive; her anatomisation of twenty and thirty-something urban relationships is at times uncomfortably keen .

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over thirty languages. I listened to it and I did not like the narrator so that could be one reason why I didn’t care for it and the second is I was waiting for a mystery because every book I’ve read that is by the schedule has been a suspenseful book but this was just a romance. Someone will get pregnant, someone will be in love with his brother's girlfriend, and a "friend of the family" like a wandering angel, will be there to pick up the pieces, reflect their problems back at them, and teach them to grow up.We get to know each family character, the good the bad the ugly and insight and the hidden agendas behind this family dynamics. The first Lisa Jewell book that I read, I really enjoyed but the more that I have read from this author, the more talented I have seen her become! It's something a little bit different from the normal run of the mill with strong characters and an interesting story with a bit of a moral thrown in. Whilst we have a mysterious incomer to the family in the form of an unexpected lodger, the title of this one could mean any member of this family, are they actually looking out for one another or just playing it that way on the surface. You can easily read a chapter before bed, standing in line, waiting for the doctor, or on lunch break, thus keeping you interested and feeling like you're actually progressing through the book.

One of these brothers was REALLY REALLY dumb and it made me crazy but at the end he sorted everything out, thank god!

Sean was once a spoiled little brother, who hits it big with his first book, and he has the perfect girlfriend. It is a great anytime read, but if anything a "great busy person read," because the chapters are short. With this book she has left the realm of "chick lit" behind and this book should appeal to male and female readers alike. Emotional familial relationships and enigmatic eccentric characters which show people are very much individuals but also part of the bigger picture that life throws us. A hilarious, dead-on-target story from the New York Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs.

Lisa Jewell's first novel, Ralph’s Party, was published in 1999 and was the best-selling debut novel of the year. Also, I love the way Jewell tackles the subject of sibling rivalry with such insight, wit and poignancy.The three brothers are dysfunctional and spoiled, and the blame for their problems is shunted onto the women in their lives.

The character for whom the book is titled appears so infrequently the first half of the book I kept wondering why he is even in the story. The “friend” is a mysterious lodger who works to help the brothers who all have problems in their lives.Ned's inability to figure out his goals or where he fits in mirror the crises of young people today. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. They've all found themselves at a crossroads of sorts and so have kind of come to rely on the family home and the unit to support them at these interesting times. Admittedly, I do prefer her newer material as it’s a lot more grittier, however her older books are lovely and have a real feel-good element to them. The strangely diffuse characterized parents of these boys hosting a complete stranger who turns out to be a weirdo and a loser (LJ has a soft spot for losers), whose true intentions remain unclear, as it is also unclear why his advice is appreciated by anybody.