There’s nothing I like better than when a whole bunch of twenty-somethings end up in a lavish manor in the English countryside drinking cocktails, swapping partners and keeping secrets. The movie Peter’s Friends was a prime example of this, as was the TV show Brideshead Revisited. There’s just something thoroughly splendid about the way toffs do things, especially when you throw a few ordinary folk in for a laugh.
In Lucie Whitehouse’s debut novel, Lucas is the modern-day toff who has just inherited an oxfordshire stately home. His best friend at college, Joanna, is one of the ordinary folk he invites for the first of many weekends his tight-knit group of chums has planned.
Joanna has been holding a torch for Lucas for ages but has more or less given up hope when, to her astonishment, he declares his undying love. They should be the perfect couple, but the house begins having a strange effect on Lucas. He is obsessed with the uncle who recently died and left him the house and is going overboard on the cocktail front. Plus there’s his druggie mate Danny, who Jo thinks is fleecing Lucas. And then there’s Greg, Rachel’s boyfriend, who is making Jo feel most peculiar.
It’s a page-turner for sure, although at times I found Jo a tiny bit in need of a kick in the seat of the pants. If I was Rachel I might have gone round to her flat and apple-pied her bed or set her hair on fire. But if you like books which are about twenty-somethings ending up in lavish manors in the English countryside drinking cocktails, swapping partners and keeping secrets, you’ll love this.
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