Angel Summer looks as if she has found her happy ever after. She's married to the love of her life, sexy footballer Cal, they have a beautiful baby girl and Angel is Britain's top glamour model. But all is not as it seems and there is heartache in store.
When Cal is transferred to AC Milan, Angel feels isolated being so far away from her family and friends instead of embracing the WAG lifestyle of designer shopping and pampering. Surrounded by beautiful people, will Angel and Cal pull together or will they turn elsewhere to seek comfort? Angel's worst nightmares come to life when an old flame of Cal's comes back on the scene and suddenly Angel is fighting to save her marriage, and herself.. .
Rating: 3 Stars
Postives: So firstly it was absolutely great to see the return of Angel. She was an excellent character in the first book who had developed so much, and here her character development only continues. Even in the very first chapter Angel is a completely different character to the girl who we last saw. We last saw her with her hopes and dreams being fulfilled as she was a successful glamour girl and the love of her life Cal had just proposed to her. When we meet Angel this time while she's now newly married to Cal and has a beautiful baby girl called Honey, Angel couldn't be more unhappy. She is crippled with postnatal depression which is having a devastating effect on her marriage, especially now that she has to split her time between England and Italy.
And then of course major plot twist; Cal the love of Angel's life cheats on her. Now we don't find this out for definite until well over half way through the book, but there are clues that this might be happening. Cal is distant and withdrawn from Angel, which doesn't help her depression, and he suddenly password protects his messages and then there's that one text message from someone labelled only as A that is written entirely in Italian with three kisses on the end of it.
We also get introduced to some new characters as well as having old favourites returning. Not only does the vile Simone make another appearance, it transpires she has a new friend Gabrielle who is head WAG and is possibly even more poisonous than Simone. We also meet the lovely and bubbly Candy, a young woman who has been propelled into the world of the WAGs and is a style queen in every sense of the word. And finally we can't forget about Ethan, the sexy baseball player who becomes another love interest for Angel.
Angel Uncovered also tackles some important issues, ones that aren't usually talked about in everyday society. Not only do we see Angel battle with a horrific bout of postnatal depression, we also see Gemma go through the pain and heartache of a miscarriage. These are both topics which we normally keep behind closed doors, and yet to the people who have to face them day in day out they become central to their world. Therefore its really nice to see some light shed on them and stop them from being such a taboo.
Negatives: Firstly which is a really small point on the grand scale of the story this book is set in 2008. Cal is playing for England in the World Cup which is being held out in the United States. Now as a football fan myself I know that the World Cup wasn't on in 2008, the big international championship for football that year was Euro 2008, and it was hosted in Austria and Switzerland. It may only be a small thing but it annoyed me to no end. It's not exactly hard to research what tournament was played that year.
Secondly, and this is quite a big thing, what the hell happened to the story? Yes I like that Cal cheated and he became a bit of a bastard, and I like that Ethan became a potential love interest for Angel. But the ending was absolutely stupid. Ethan's storyline should have ended after his and Angel's second encounter, but then suddenly with only one more chapter to go we're thrown a curveball and it just seemed like the story was going off in a completely different direction. It would have been much better if the story had stayed with its original plot of Angel and Cal struggling through their marriage.
Thirdly, this is not a book to read when you're pregnant. I spent the first few chapters obsessing that I was going to suffer with postnatal depression after my baby's born and then the whole miscarriage thing with Gemma made me cry. Now I know thats a personal thing, but let me continue. With Angel's postnatal depression it made the first few chapters feel nothing more than repetitive with what felt like every other paragraph containing lines like "What was wrong with her? Why was she such a bad mother and wife?" It just really irked me.
Would I recommend this book? I'll answer this with a question. Are you pregnant? If you're pregnant then please hold off on reading this. However if you aren't pregnant then this makes another good summer read.
No comments:
Post a Comment