Tag Archives: Adele Parks

Just My Luck by Adele Parks | Book Review

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Just My Luck, Adele Parks, extract , review

I have loved Adele Parks’ books for years now. Which is handy, as she writes one a year and has done for the past twenty years. Impressive.
Just My luck is another triumph. It has a great premise which is beautifully executed. We have all dreamt of winning the lottery. This book explores what happens when people become rich beyond their wildest dreams. It may be a novel, but it is a cautionary tale that money does not buy happiness. I loved the characters, even the ones I was loving to hate. The twists at the end are hugely satisfying. I find Adele Parks is an expert at picking up on the beautiful details of life, as she is at finding the complexities of the human character. Just My luck is the perfect escapist novel that will leave you hooked until the very last page.

It’s the stuff dreams are made of – a lottery win so big, it changes everything.

For fifteen years, Lexi and Jake have played the same six numbers with their friends, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes. Over dinner parties, fish & chip suppers and summer barbecues, they’ve discussed the important stuff – the kids, marriages, jobs and houses – and they’ve laughed off their disappointment when they failed to win anything more than a tenner.

But then, one Saturday night, the unthinkable happens. There’s a rift in the group. Someone doesn’t tell the truth. And soon after, six numbers come up which change everything forever.

Lexi and Jake have a ticket worth £18 million. And their friends are determined to claim a share of it.

Sunday Times Number One bestseller Adele Parks returns with a riveting look at the dark side of wealth in this gripping take on friendship, money and betrayal, and good luck gone bad…

Just My Luck is available here.

Read An Extract From Adele Parks New Book Just My Luck

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Just My Luck, Adele Parks, extract , review

Lexi

Saturday, 20th April

I can’t face going straight home to Jake. I’m not ready to deal with this. I need to try to process it frst. But how? Where do I start? I have no idea. The blankness in my mind terrifes me. I always know what to do. I always have a solution, a way of tackling something, giving it a happy spin. I’m Lexi Greenwood, the woman everyone knows of as the fxer, the smiler (some might even slightly snidely call me a do-gooder). Lexi Greenwood, wife, mother, friend.
You think you know someone. But you don’t know anyone, not really. You never can.
I need a drink. I drive to our local. Sod it, I’ll leave the car at the pub and walk home, pick it up in the morning. I order a glass of red wine, a large one, then I look for a seat tucked away in the corner where I can down my drink alone. It’s Easter weekend, and a rare hot one. The place is packed. As I thread my way through the heaving bar, a number of neighbours raise a glass, gesturing to me to join them; they ask after the kids and Jake. Everyone else in the pub seems celebratory, buoyant. I feel detached. Lost. That’s the thing about living in a small village, you recognise everyone. Sometimes that reassures me, sometimes it’s inconvenient. I politely and apologetically defect their friendly overtures and continue in my search for a solitary spot. Saturday vibes are all around me, but I feel nothing other than stunned, stressed, isolated.You think you know someone.
What does this mean for our group? Our frimily. Friends that are like family. What a joke. Blatantly, we’re not friends anymore. I’ve been trying to hide from the facts for some time, hoping there was a misunderstanding, an explanation; nothing can explain away this.
I told Jake I’d only be a short while; I should text him to say I’ll be longer. I reach for my phone and realise in my haste to leave the house, I haven’t brought it with me. Jake will be wondering where I am; I don’t care. I down my wine. The acidity hits my throat, a shock and a relief at once. Then I go to the bar to order a second.
The local pub is only a ten-minute walk away from our home but by the time I attempt the walk back, the red wine had taken effect. Unfortunately, I am feeling the sort of drunk that nurtures paranoia and fury, rather than a light head or heart. What can I do to right this wrong? I have to do something. I can’t carry on as normal, pretending I know nothing of it. Can I?
As I approach home, I see Jake at the window, peering out.I barely recognise him. He looks taut, tense. On spotting me, he runs to fing open the front door.
‘Lexi, Lexi, quickly come in here,’ he hiss-whispers, clearly agitated. ‘Where have you been? Why didn’t you take your phone? I’ve been calling you. I needed to get hold of you.’
What now? My frst thoughts turn to our son. ‘Is it Logan? Has he hurt himself?’ I ask anxiously. I’m already teetering on the edge; my head quickly goes to a dark place. Split skulls, broken bones. A dash to A&E isn’t unheard of; thirteen-year-old Logan has daredevil tendencies and the sort of mentality that thinks shimmying down a drainpipe is a reasonable way to exit his bedroom in order to go outside and kick a football about. My ffteen-year-old daughter, Emily, rarely causes me a moment’s concern.
‘No, no, he’s fne. Both the kids are in their rooms. It’s… Look, come inside, I can’t tell you out here.’ Jake is practically bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. I can’t read him. My head is too fuzzy with wine and full of rage and disgust. I resent Jake for causing more drama, although he has no idea what shit I’m deal- ing with. I’ve never seen him quite this way before. If I touched him, I might get an electric shock; he oozes a dangerous energy. I follow my husband into the house. He is hurrying, urging me to speed up. I slow down, deliberately obtuse. In the hallway he turns to me, takes a deep breath, runs his hands through his hair but won’t, can’t, meet my eyes. For a crazy moment I think he is about to confess to having an affair. ‘OK, just tell me, did you buy a lottery ticket this week?’ he asks.
‘Yes.’ I have bought a lottery ticket every week of my life for the last ffteen years. Despite all the bother last week, I have stuck to my habit.
Jake takes in another deep breath, sucking all the oxygen from the hallway. ‘OK, and did you—’ he breaks off, fnally drags his eyes to meet mine. I’m not sure what I see in his gaze, an almost painful longing, fear and panic. Yet at the same time there is hope there too. ‘Did you pick the usual numbers?’
‘Yes.’
His jaw is still set tight. ‘You have the ticket?’ ‘Yes.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Yes, it’s pinned on the noticeboard in the kitchen. Why?
What’s going on?’
‘Fuck.’ Jake lets out a breath that has the power of a storm. He falls back against the hall wall for a second and then he rallies, grabs my hand and pulls me into the room that was designed to be a dining room but has ended up being a sort of study slash dumping ground. A place where the children sometimes do their homework, I tackle paying the household bills, and towering piles of ironing, punctured footballs and old trainers hide out. Jake sits down in front of the computer and starts to quickly open various tabs.
‘I wasn’t sure that we even had a ticket, but when you were late back and the flm I was watching had fnished, I couldn’t resist checking. I don’t know why. Habit, I suppose. And look.’ ‘What?’ I can’t quite work out what he’s on about, it might be the wine, it might be because my head is still full of betrayal and deceit, but I can’t seem to climb into his moment. I turn to the screen. The lottery website. Brash and loud. A clash of bright
colours and fonts. 1, 8, 20, 29, 49, 58. The numbers glare at me from the com- puter. Numbers I am so familiar with. Yet they seem peculiar and unbelievable.
‘I don’t understand. Is this a joke?’
‘No, Lexi. No! It’s for real. We’ve only gone and won the bloody lottery!’

Just My Luck by Adele Parks is published by HQ, HarperCollins in hardback, eBook and audiobook, and is available to buy here.

Adele Parks Whatever it Takes | Book Review

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I got through Adele Parks new book Whatever it Takes as quickly as my schedule allowed. It is a wonderfully paced book, full of flawed characters and brilliant observations. Some of the characters are not likable, and become less so further on, I like that. The book captivates.

As a Londoner the story of Elosie Hamilton, who moves to Dartmouth for her husband after living her whole life in London is interesting to me, and the book even made me long for the seaside and a large country house. Well, for a while anyway.

Whatever it Takes is a story of family, friendship and marriage. It is also a story of fertility. Sara is almost driven mad for her longing for a child. She becomes bitter and difficult to be around. While Sara is childless, Eloise has three children. Eloise is nice, far too nice. She tries to be perfect and have a perfect life as one thing after another nearly makes her world, and her families implode.

Spoiler Alert

Another thing about the book is that I also found it painful to read. The reason being is how well Parks writes about the character, Margaret descending into dementia. My grandfather had Alzheimer’s and the the book is so well written that I knew this was happening to the character before it was revealed. I recognised my own grandfather in the character of Margaret, all of the little things she does and that happen to her; painful to read but it does not make the book less enjoyable to read.

The characters sometimes make you want to shake them or slap them, love them or hug them. This book is a triumph for Adele Parks. She should be very proud.

You can buy Whatever It Takes here

This Month’s Magazines, September Part 2: Sarah Jessica Parker Takes Red, Instyle Turns 10.

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This Month’s Magazines, September Part 2: Sarah Jessica Parker Takes Red, Instyle Turns 10.

Keira Knightley is on the cover of Marie Claire looking gorgeous. She tells Marie Claire that ‘Jealousy is the only emotion that has no positive side to it’ and tells of her tomboy ways by saying; ‘I didn’t wear skirts until I was 14. I hated them’.

There is a lot of Autumn clothing and shoes, a fashionista dream. Natalia Vodianova gives her style list, Robert Cavalli tells the secrets of relaunching his fashion label, 18 beauty secrets supermodels swear by, Catwalk beauty section, Is your body better than you think? A good article that shows women are usually in better shape than they think they are, The history of the vibrator, Faces of addicted women, how drugs destroys looks.

Love at first site or slow burn?, Amy Winehouse remembered, How a good ‘To Do’ list can change your life, Article on teaching women how to be good mothers, Tom Hardy interview, Mentors, Jordan AKA Katie Price interview, little white lies; are they okay?, Surviving domestic abuse, Annie Lennox, Hollywood stylists, Jessica Chastain, Anna Faris, Eva Green, Adele Parks, Scarlett Johanson tells her beauty rules, 24 hours to better skin, Staying in with Alex James, Diary of an emotional eater, Breast cancer awareness month.

It is Instyle’s 10th Anniversary and Diane Kruger is on the cover. It is a beautiful cover, with Diane in gold. Diane is interviewed inside. Diane on her style: “I don’t have my own stylist. And I like to be a little different – in LA, everyone wears the same dresses. I think my background as a model helps, because I like experimenting and I’m not afraid of fashion or what other people think of me. What you wear is one of the only things about yourself you can manipulate.”

There are a lot of wonderful articles about the history of Instyle, comments from Instyle cover girls, 10 years of style crushes, when we were 10, What I have learnt about style, party people, are you too old for your moisturiser, The easy way to perfect skin, Emma Watson on beauty, top ten celebrity homes, Eliza Doolittle.

The New Power List, 100 people to watch and all under 25. Diana Vickers talks style, 15 minutes Viktor & Rolf, Georgina Chapman’s Top 10 party list, Blake Lively is Instyle’s beauty crush,

There is a High Street Style special; guest edited by Daisy Lowe, Gemma Atterton is interviewed and talks about being okay with being a size 10, she says: “I don’t have to be skinny”, Jessica Szohr interview.

Sarah Jessica Parker takes the cover of Red. She is interviewed inside and tells Red that ‘I don’t read anything about me. I’ve never googled myself. I don’t have the constitution for it”.

There is a very good article on Tamara Mellon, and she shows her wardrobe, prepare for wardrobe envy. She is on the Red fashion power list alongside Natalie Massenet amongst others.

Two writers debate whether or not it’s good to settle, Isabel Ashdown talks about her fathers alcoholism, The women behind the Outnet talks to Red, the rise of the middle class drug addictions, What I’D save in a fire, Does career plus kids mean compromise?, The denim detox, How making little differences can change your life, What I see when I look in the mirror (Includes Jane Fallon, a brilliant author), KT Tunstall tells of the soundtrack to her life, Joan Collins interview; she announces she has never had plastic surgery, How to make peace with your hair, Pie recipes, The baby recession: Red’s annual fertility survey, cooking with apples. What is your fertility sell-by date?, An end to eye bags, Boot camp for the soul, Eva Green’s best things in life.

PART ONE IS HERE