Cocktails for Three

Cocktails for Three
by Madeleine Wickham

Cocktails for Three
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Book Summary Information

Author: Madeleine Wickham
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-03-07
ISBN: 0312349998
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Book Reviews of Cocktails for Three

Book Review: Characters that are shallower than my kitchen sink
Summary: 1 Stars

Picked this up to read on the beach. My criteria in this genre is that it has to entertain me while I work on my tan. Even horrible books fulfill this, if they manage to get me to turn the pages. In a way, Cocktails for Three managed this feat as well, as I was turning each page waiting for one of the three women to exhibit some form of development. Nada. It was really a disaster of a book in this case. Over 300 pages, it is nice to see a character grow. Instead, everything wrapped up and we were really no different off than we were on page one.

Let's start with Roxanne. She was agonizing over how much longer she wanted to be "the other woman" in her long time affair with a married man. In the end, it was over because he was dying and wanted to live out his days with his wife. Not because Roxanne got some self esteem and realized that she deserved more. Not because she got any moral pangs about what she was doing. It just ended in the most contrived way possible. What did Roxanne learn from the situation? Instead, she's going to be mourning for the lover that she thought was dumping her, but was really just dying instead. I feel bad for the next in line of her relationships, because she's going to have a load of issues. Luckily, for you men out there, she's fictional.

Candice. I just didn't get her. The whole plot with her getting taken advantage of and screwed over by a girl seeking revenge was actually one of the better parts of this book. You knew the girl was up to something right away, but it was fun watching it play out. What I really hated about Candice were the constant anti-capitalism/consumer remarks she made throughout the whole book. Things along the line of whining to her neighbor that he shouldn't be taking a paid leave of absence from work when there are people unemployed, or that he should sell his house out in the country because some people are homeless. Where was that attitude when she was hanging out with her friend Maggie, who had a 20 acre estate? Or when the girls were out at the very posh Manhattan Bar, ordering drinks that probably were 8 quid a piece or something outrageous? And finally, if the author wanted us to believe that Candice had this selfless attitude where she wanted to help everyone, having her fall for neighbor AFTER she found out he drove an expensive car and was wealthy isn't a way to reinforce her supposed lack of materialism. It's almost as if some of these things were thrown in as an afterthought.

And finally, there is Maggie. As a career woman, I can understand the lack of desire to be a stay-at-home mom. However, I don't think I can emphazize with the character. Maybe, if we were just once shown that Maggie had any feelings of love towards her own child, I could relate. But all of her struggles were her own doing because she was afraid of perception. She wasn't ever worried that she wasn't doing enough for her daughter, but rather that people would think she wasn't such a superwoman afterall. Yes, Maggie. You probably are better off in the office. I disliked the way she just announced to her husband that they were moving back to London. Great communication there, hun. After moaning about how you never agreed with the choice in the first place, maybe you would have treated your husband with the respect you wish you had been treated with. Nope. Instead she does him just like he did her. There really was no maturity with this woman. And I want to pretend that I didn't read the page where she was really judgemental of the other neighborhood mom, calling her a "stepford mum". It's so obnoxious when women in powerful positions have no other way to enjoy that power than by letting the world know that she is better than another woman who did not choose her path.

OK, so I'm a little bit annoyed by a Sunday afternoon beach read. But for my $11 and 300 pages, I do expect just a little bit of actual writing ability. I will not be sampling any of the shopoholic series.

Summary of Cocktails for Three

Roxanne: glamorous, self-confident, with a secret lover -- a married man

Maggie: capable and high-achieving, until she finds the one thing she can't cope with -- motherhood

Candice: honest, decent, or so she believes -- until a ghost from her past turns up

At the first of every month, when the office has reached its pinnacle of hysteria, Maggie, Roxanne, and Candice meet at London's swankiest bar for an evening of cocktails and gossip. Here, they chat about what's new at The Londoner, the glossy fashion magazine where they all work, and everything else that's going on in their lives. Or almost everything. Beneath the girl talk and the laughter, each of the three has a secret. And when a chance encounter at the cocktail bar sets in motion an extraordinary chain of events, each one will find their biggest secret revealed.

In Cocktails for Three, Madeleine Wickham combines her trademark humor with remarkable insight to create an edgy, romantic tale of secrets, strangers, and a splash of scandal.

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