An Offer You Can't Refuse

Book: Offer You Can't Refuse by Jill Mansell

Synopsis: Offer You Can't Refuse recounts how a 17-year-old's decision to accept a bribe affects her life several years down the road. After her beloved stepfather, Alex, confesses to a large gambling debt, Lola accepts a payment from her boyfriend Dougie's disapproving mother, who wants Lola gone. Lola pays off her father's debt and disappears from London for 10 years, after which she returns. In a too coincidental twist, she rescues a woman from a mugging, only to later learn—at a thank-you party the victim throws—that the woman she helped is Dougie's mother. Dougie, meanwhile, has a new girl and is still disgusted that Lola accepted the bribe, though that doesn't keep Lola from trying to re-insert herself into Dougie's life. [via Amazon]

Book Notes: An Offer You Can't Refuse but a book you can most definitely refuse. This is my second attempt on reading a Jill Mansell book and I was quite disappointed (the first being Rumor Has It). The entire premise of the story set my expectations pretty high but getting through the book, the story fell flat on the much anticipated wit and humor. Not to mention, Lola was starting to peeve me with her over-the-top, clingy, stuck-one-whole-decade-ago-attitude. I found her nosy is a very unacceptable un-charming way. The budding love story also fell short and only made sense towards the final pages, which in my opinion was a little too late, especially since the story of Lola and Doug was supposed to be the center of the book.

But in true Mansell fashion, all characters find their own happy ending. Nevertheless, this is a very light book to read, spent only a couple of hours finishing it, but also maybe because I found myself skimming through a lot of the parts.