Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16010 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-09
• Released on: 2009-06-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780312565763
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Wickham (The Gatecrasher; also, the Shopaholic series as Sophie Kinsella) spins a delightful story of British families forced to spend their vacation together after a mutual friend promises them the same week in his Spanish villa. Chloe Harding hopes that a holiday will soothe the strain between her and longtime partner Philip Murray, who is worried that a recent takeover of his company may cost him his job. Their hopes are dashed when they arrive and find another family already settled at the villa. To Chloe's disappointment, she'll be sharing the space with Hugh Stratton, the beau who broke her heart 15 years ago. Now married to high-maintenance Amanda and with two children, Hugh apologizes, and though Chloe initially expresses nothing but hurt and disdain (all the while keeping their past a secret from Philip), she eventually considers beginning life anew with Hugh. Wickham does a bangup job of creating believable characters—even Amanda is less vapid than she at first seems. Surprises abound as the plot unfolds, and the families begin to wonder whether their mutual friend made an innocent mistake in getting them together. (July)
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From Booklist
Wickham, who writes the popular Shopaholic series as Sophie Kinsella, explores what happens when two couples struggling with their relationships end up at the same Spanish vacation villa, owned by their mutual friend Gerard, an arrogant wine critic. Free-spirited Chloe and her longtime partner, the tightly wound Philip, are looking to escape their worries over the fate of his job. Workaholic Hugh can’t seem to connect to his uptight wife, Amanda, or their two daughters. Neither family is pleased to find Gerard has double-booked the villa, but unbeknownst to Philip and Amanda, Chloe and Hugh knew each other years ago, when they had a passionate love affair that ended abruptly when Hugh learned Chloe had a young son. Now together again 15 years later, they find their passion for each other is reignited. With its slightly older characters and more adult problems, Wickham’s novel has a different tone than do her Shopaholic tales, but it’s an equally engaging yarn, sure to please her many fans and gain her new ones. --Kristine Huntley

Review

Customer Reviews

Shows us the many nuances that come with any long-lasting, functional relationship
Chloe is just about ready to pull her hair out, so her family's Spanish vacation is coming at a perfect time. She, her partner Philip, and her two kids, Sam and Nat, desperately need the time away, so she's thankful that her old friend Gerard has offered them his villa. All of a sudden a little unsettled about the fact that she and Philip have been together for years but never gotten married, Chloe wants to use the trip to figure out what their relationship means. Philip needs to stop worrying about work and just relax, but it's hard knowing that your bank has just been bought out by a bigger company and no one knows yet who will be fired.

Hugh Stratton is looking for the chance to finally get to know his two young daughters, Octavia and Beatrice. He needs a break from his busy job at a large conglomerate bank. His wife, Amanda, just needs to calm down and de-stress. She feels like a single mother and is quite the control freak, keeping tabs on the staff remodeling her house while they're gone. She's even hired a nanny, Jenna, to watch the girls so that she and Hugh can have some quality time alone.

The Strattons have just managed to find the villa and settle down and relax when strangers drive up to the door, claiming that it's their villa. It could be a simple mistake, except they all know Gerard. They decide that the only thing to do is to try to fit all nine of them in the house. It's big enough, physically, but it can barely contain all of the personalities inside.

It wouldn't be all that awful to share a vacation with another family, except no one knows that Chloe and Hugh have a history together. As they're grappling with what being back together means, Chloe's 16-year-old son Sam is smitten with Jenna, whose attempts at relaxing everyone ("Stocking up on the old cigarettes and booze. Joke!") just makes them even more tense. Then another connection between the two families surfaces --- this time between the men. Both families are more and more annoyed, and the couples are oblivious to the kids and Jenna learning that maybe this wasn't a mistake after all.

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS is an entertaining romp akin to any comedy of manners. If Shakespeare lived now and dealt with children, nannies, vacations and layoffs, he'd be proud. There's just enough comedy and romance to make this book about a vacation a perfect vacation read. Or beach read. Or weekend read. Wickham, who also writes as Sophie Kinsella, is an old pro at comedic tales that surpass the normal boundaries of chick lit. The story and its characters are lovable and dimensional. Everyone in it is grounded and human, and no one walks into the story with a Cinderella life that can't be explained. These are all people with complicated histories, which do even more for the relationships they have and develop with the others.

Love and marriage, sang Frank Sinatra, go together like a horse and carriage. But it's much more complicated than that, says Wickham. Her novel shows us the many nuances that come with any long-lasting, functional relationship. Still a quick enough read, SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS will leave any reader satisfied.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Hannah Gómez

Madeleine Wickham does it again!
Each new release by Madeleine Wickham (or Sophie Kinsella, for that matter) excites me to no end. I have read nearly all of her novels and have never been disappointed. Although this one ends differently than I anticipated, I still had a hard time putting it down, just like all the others. Can't wait for the next one!

Very funny
I was surprised a bit by this book, in that I was expecting a very Shopaholic type of story since this is the same author for those books as well (though she writes under a different name, Sophie Kinsella). Instead, I got a story that was a lot more family and relationship oriented, which is not a bad thing at all. Just different. Despite this surprise, I really enjoyed what I read, and the story is a very funny romp about a summer vacation gone awry. It is a great summer beach book and will make you chuckle quite a bit. Just don't expect to get a Shopaholic like story from it! I would recommend it.