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I'm really struggling with this.

I probably wouldn't give this one a second glance in a bookshop, as it doesn't seem like the kind of thing I normally read. But I'm up for the challenge. (And the wine and pretzels).

I was a bit anxious about going on my recent trip, so I wanted something that’d be easy to sink into, so I gave this a go. It follows a group of people from various walks of life that go to a health retreat for 10 days.

The book was told in multiple viewpoint, from the perspective of the guests at the health resort and the employees of said resort. There was a large amount of narrative devoted to Frances, a romance author. She was my favourite character. She was funny and quirky and I really enjoyed reading about her.

Everyone who was at the resort had significant issues in their past and hoped to overcome or deal with these problems while staying there.

There’s not too much to say about this book. It was interesting and held my attention, but it didn’t have an awful lot of substance. I enjoyed the mindfulness and meditation angle a lot, but the focus was with the characters. The characters were the best element and this is where the author shines for me.

It got a bit crazy towards the end and I had to suspend my disbelief to stay with it, but I’m glad I did as it wrapped up nicely.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience, but I think I’ll give this author a miss for a while.

I actually did not get a chance to read Big Little Lies before I watched it on Amazon Prime. I think I binged the first season the same day and the second season the following weekend. I have to admit I really liked the show and as a reader I definitely do not want to judge the book by the series, so I will read the book when I get a chance. But that did interested me to go and look for Moriarty's other novels as I liked the genre she writes about. I picked up an used copy of The Husband's  Secret from Powell's in Portland. I took it with me to the coast in our weekend getaway in Oregon, and finished the whole book in almost less than a day. I felt I was reading Big little Lies some kind of spin-off. I liked the book and her writing style. It is great for vacation reading or if you want to read something in the flight, she has the ability to hook you up to the pages. But after watching Big Little Lies I felt this book had almost the similar theme, similar setting and a 3 women perspective (almost similar to BLL)

it was slightly repetitive for me. The ending of the book will give you some longer thoughts and if a series ever made on this book can have multiple alternative endings. The story crafting is otherwise great and you might love it if you haven't read or watched BLL. This slightly fell short of my expectation as I did not do it in the order (I think she wrote this book before BLL). If you read this one before BLL you will probably like both.