I got this from the library because I had a vague memory of enjoying Come Together and Come Again seven years ago or so. Then I started reading, and remembered that I never managed to get through more than three chapters of The Boy Next Door. I was very close to putting this one down after about the same amount of pages, but I kept on going because I figured it had to get better.

It didn't.

There are quite a few characters in this story, and I usually like that. But to make it work the author have to know how to prioritize. You can't have fifteen characters and give them all the same amount of space. Unfortunately this is what Lloyd and Rees are trying to do, which leads to the fact that the characters become cardboard cut-outs with one, very stereotypical trait each. There's the Bastard Husband, the American Wife, the Spoiled Daughter, the Hysterical Sister-In-Law, the Oblivious Brother-In-Law, the Dead Child, the Naive Mistress, the Rugged Local Man and the Lovestruck Teenage Boy. The POV shifts between a few of them, but it doesn't help explaining their actions and motives. There are no reasons for anything! And I am completely indifferent to all of them. I couldn't care less what happened to them. The only one worthy of a little sympathy is the ten-year-old boy, and I usually can't stand kids in books, so that is an accomplishment, I guess.

Read one chapter, guess the ending, and I bet you'd be right. It's one of the most predictable plots I've ever come across.

But the most annoying thing about this book is that even though it only two years old, it already feels dated. This is because of the countless references to music and movies that might have been big in 2005, but are already mostly forgotten. Also, the just as countless uses of brand names makes me feel as if I'm reading a catalogue and not a novel.

I won't say that The Three Day Rule is boring, but it's just so pointless. Watch half an episode of any daytime soap, and you'll get pretty much the same experience, but you won't waste as much time. ( )

I read two or three other books by the authors, all of which I liked better than this one. First of all I found several typos, which always annoys me to no end. Secondly, I thought it could do with a little editing. There s one scene where Ben gets out of the cold shower because there is no electricity and then wipes away the steam from the bathroom mirror. Somebody should have caught that.
And finally, I thought the setting to be promising, but the book didn't deliver on this promise. I didn't like *any* of the characters. The female main character is naive in fallign for a married guy. Then she just falls for the next guy without any reservation. I thought the romance between neither couple was very believable, and in fact, most characters were like caricatures of themselves. The kids were especially bad. It might be that 14 or 15 year olds feel the way described in the book, but I didn't like that every thought and every feeling had to be spelled out explicitly. Sometimes people, especially teenagers, are angry and just act without a good rationalisation or complicated explanation regarding the relationship with their parents handy.

I wanted to like this book, but I was actually quite disappointed.

Not the best Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees that's for sure. ( )