I’m on the audiobook tour for Rebuilding Alexandra Small by Mo Fanning today and am pleased to be sharing my review. Thanks to Kelly at Love Books Tours for the invitation to take part in the tour and for providing access to the audiobook on Spotify.
About the book
When life deals you lemons, it’s time to make lemonade. But what happens when the lemonade turns sour?
Reformed alcoholic Alexandra Small has it all – a successful career, a beautiful home, and a football superstar husband. But when her husband is caught in a compromising situation and her life crumbles, she finds herself broke, jobless, and pregnant.
As she builds a new life with the help of her best friend, her rather lovely lawyer, and the café of her childhood dreams, she learns love can come from the most unexpected places, and that with a little determination, anything is possible.
A romantic comedy about second chances, family, and the power of true love, this book will leave you with a smile on your face and a heart full of hope.
From the bestselling author of hit romantic comedy The Armchair Bride, comes ‘Rebuilding Alexandra Small’. A hilarious story about the aftermath of a life falling apart, and how far someone will go in the name of revenge.
My Thoughts
It would be hard to read this book and not have sympathy for Alexandra, or Ali as she is more usually known. She really did seem to have it all. Her husband is professional footballer, she has a good career and they have a fabulous house and lifestyle. But it all vanishes in almost the wink of an eye.
One thing that really made me exasperated was how Ali was portrayed in the media. She wasn’t what you might think of as a typical ‘WAG’ and really wasn’t interested in the fame and nonsense that goes with it. And yet that was exactly how she was treated in the media, as someone who wasn’t really important in her own right but more because of the fame of her husband. Even worse was when someone was feeding all the details of her past and present to the media. I think the author did a really good job of showing just how horrible that was, how it affected Ali and how unfair it was that she couldn’t really do anything about it.
I liked how Ali was portrayed as a really strong person, even though she was having to face so much. She had come through quite a lot in her life and had had many troubles in her past. It would have been so easy for her to crumble and fall back into bad habits but she didn’t and I almost felt proud of her because of that.
Friendship is a key theme in the book and for Ali, working out just who her real friends were was quite a challenge. There were quite a few twists and turns in the story and the author did a great job of making me wonder just who Ali could trust and who wasn’t being a true friend to her.
As this is an audiobook tour, I must just mention that aspect of the story. I think, being totally honest, I would have enjoyed this book more had I just been reading it. I didn’t particularly warm to the narrator and sometimes felt the narration lacked expression. But that’s maybe just me and it certainly didn’t put me off wanting to find out how things would work out for Ali.
I enjoyed hearing about Ali rebuilding her life and discovering, as she did, what was important to her and what she needed to make her happy and fulfilled. Rebuilding Alexandra Small is a warm and amusing second chance romance.
About the Author
Standup comic and writer, Mo has taught French to dropouts, sold his soul in a telesales sweatshop, flipped burgers at a motorway service station and (despite a collection of catalogues on vinyl flooring) flatly denies being in his fifties. Mo’s highly readable novels appeal to readers who enjoy books by Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes and Jane Fallon. Mo’s first novel , ‘The Armchair Bride’ was shortlisted for the Arts Council England ‘Book of the Year’ award. As well as writing for several anthologies, Mo’s work has appeared in The Observer, The Guardian and Irish Independent.
Buying Link: Rebuilding Alexandra Small
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