It is the beginning of December and Christmas is looming ahead for Lizzie. She realises this year that perhaps things need to change and she needs to escape not from Christmas because she loves that, but from the monotony of her marriage and lack of self identity that has set in.
Henry her husband, comes in from work, asks where his tea is, collects it and then sits in front of the television. Day after day it is the same thing. They don’t even talk, Lizzie has resorted to drinking alone in the kitchen and talking to her Gary Barlow calendar in the pantry. She knows something has to change.
When Marcus moves in opposite Lizzie, an unlikely friendship strikes up and Lizzie suddenly fills like she can achieve what she has always wanted to now that her children no longer need her as much and Henry does not seem that interested anymore. Is this unlikely friendship going to develop into something else…
Ann is Lizzie’s best friend. She is struggling to look after her mother and everything that comes with that now she has been moved into care home. Her own son is a worry as he is in the Army and she is successfully making her way up the career ladder. Ann and Lizzie rely on each other not just for all the sad times but for the fun times too, drinking, eating, shopping and even bingo.
Ann suggests a weekend away just the two of them, as a distraction to Christmas as well as everything else going on, stranger behaviour from Lizzie’s daughters, her marriage woes with Henry and the excitement that having Marcus in her life is creating. Ann is wanting to escape from the responsiblity of her life for a little while.
You know that not everything is going to go to plan and this whole story had been guessing, second guessing and getting it completely wrong for the start. I loved it because of that. I thought I knew exactly where this storyline was going to and I was wrong. It made me laugh and cry in equal measure and perhaps it did not go where I wanted it to, but it was the right way really.
A great book about the strength and support of friendship no matter what life throws at you and how making the wrong decision can sometimes be the right one all set to the background of Christmas.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book.
Lizzie’s Christmas Escape is out on 21st October.
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