15 Feb 2012

NO RESERVATIONS.

NO RESERVATIONS by FIONA O'BRIEN.

Dominic's is the hottest restaurant in town, and the tastiest dish on the menu is its divine owner, Dom himself.

But Dom has a lot on his plate. His glamorous Italian mother is being very naughty indeed;  his PR girlfriend Tanya is hell-bent on promoting her own interests; and his feisty new American waitress seems to be hiding a guilty secret. As for the customers.......

PJ O'Sullivan is the sexiest doctor in town but five years on, he's still devastated from his beloved wife's death.

While Catherine Keating struggles to control her wayward daughter and come to terms with her husband leaving her for a younger woman.

As Dominic's chases its first Michelin Star, family fidelity is tested to its limits and more than one person is forced to admit that ......

When live is the dish of the day, it's a recipe for trouble.
....... Outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (Prologue): 'Problem at table twenty-two,' the young French waiter murmured discreetly in Dom's ear.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 434): Offering up a quick prayer to St Macarius, patron saint of chefs, she held her breath and hoped against hope.

KEEP IT OR NOT?: Alas I won't be keeping this one.

Not too sure if I would have enjoyed this quite as much at any other time but given that I've been unwell with a chest infection this was just what the doctor ordered - a nice light read, non-demanding, reading it was a bit like putting on a comfy pair of slippers and having a right good gossip with an old  friend.

All about a mixture of individuals and their families, most of whom have Dominic's ('the hottest new restaurant in town') in common, No Reservations, with one or two exceptions, concentrates on the lives of beautiful, really beautiful, sexy women and rich, successful men. Hmm, actually very stereotypical when I think about it - the sexy though ageing Italian mama who loves to cook, the spoilt, rich, 'daddy's little girl', the ageing rock star, the feisty upper middle class grandma who tells it as it is - yes, they are all there, many of them bearing more than a passing resemblance to actual celebrities when I think about it.

A humorous enough read, I thought the authors observations quite perceptive. Not too sure about all of the love scenes though. OK, so there weren't that many of them and they were hardly what you could call explicit but I found them unnecessary and, after a while, boring.

7 comments:

Patti said...

Eventually I get tired of reading about beautiful people all the time.

Jenners said...

Hope you're feeling better. These kinds of books are perfect when you don't feel completely well. But they are easy to leave behind.

Suko said...

It sounds like this book had a tad too many stereotypes for your liking. I hope you feel better soon, because it would be a shame if you had to spend more time in bed, reading and recuperating. ;)

carol said...

I tend to like light reads, but this sounds like one I'll pass on. Sounds like a lot of pretty people, but nothing that really grabs my interest.

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Oh not good. When the love scenes are boring and unnecessary, that could ruin the whole book for me. Not that I look only for that, but it says a lot about the character's relationship and sometimes the characters themselves. It's an easy thing to pick out and decide on.

Great review!

Kelly said...

It sounds okay, but certainly not memorable. Hope you're feeling up to snuff again.

The Bookworm said...

I hope you are feeling better.
'reading it was a bit like putting on a comfy pair of slippers and having a right good gossip with an old friend'<-I like that!