The Girl Friend, by Michelle Frances
ISBN: 9781509821525
Amazon ID: B01M1ENASA
Timing
The book starts with a Prologue, which takes place on Monday 2nd March.
It's only a couple of pages, and is followed by Chapter One, which is set nine months earlier (Saturday 7th June).
Then, Chapter Two starts two days previously, on Thursday 5th June.
Can't people write stories in chronological order any more?
Chapter Three is the first to go forwards in time, and brings us back to Saturday the 7th.
After that, everything proceeds forwards, but by the end of the book, the disjointedness of the Prologue and Chapter One seem pointless.
Characters
There isn't a shallow, deceitful, pathetic, manipulative, over-bearing, unfaithful, naïve psychopath in the book.
There are all of them.
They're very well written, they're very well developed as characters, and they're very believable.
Language
Everything had been going so well with the language and the style of writing until chapter 51 out of 54.
Then "snuck" happens. Ugh.
For a book about English people, set mostly in England (with a bit of France but no hint of America), this is just so disappointing, because apart from that, the book is extremely well written, with good character development and story threads, and is very engaging to read.