Double Billing by Dinah Miller

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Billing-ebook/dp/B0090CPVZI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1356603855&sr=8-2&keywords=double+billing+dinah+miller

TBH I read this novel because it was free.  Yup.  And it was boxing day.  And I didn’t get any novels for Christmas.  I know, weird.

I liked it more than I expected.  I liked it 7/10; I’m not going to insist everyone read it, but if a visitor was idly scanning my books and asked, “This any good?” I’d be like, “Yup. Light, engaging, flows well, interesting enough.”

I’d give it to my mum, sister, someone off work with the flu, an Anne Tyler fan, a commuter, someone on a long flight, a fellow insomniac…  If I could travel back in time I wouldn’t change its appearance in my life. So, like, y’know, thumbs up!

The book was a page-turner because of elegant structure and pacing.  The language was often interesting and otherwise non-jarring.  I really cared about the author’s take on things –because she is a psychiatrist? because I’ve followed  her blog for a while?– which meant that I was interested in the protagonist’s thoughts, feelings and actions.  At times I ached for the mess her life was in, at others I wanted to shake her into action, and then she’d find her backbone again, just in the nick.  And there was nothing saccharine about the happy ending – a fine achievement, seriously.

Something about the book has left me feeling a little blue but it is impossible to tell if it is the morbid events of the book or my own life situation – the post-Christmas emotional hangover, and the “blank canvas” of meaninglessness that is no job, no prospects.  But overall, I enjoyed the ridiculous sloth of a pyjama day spent reading an entire free ebook and eating Christmas chocolates.  And now I have this new blog.  Tis the season!