Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Café

Connie and Jimmy Diamond have been married for 24 years. He runs a successful cleaning business and she was a stay-at-home mother and carer for their elderly parents until their deaths. Jimmy's right hand woman is Della, she's been in love with him ever since she started working for him and hopes he'll one day come to realise that he loves her, not the floozies he meets up with, and certainly not his fat, snooty wife Connie. Then Jimmy forces Della to cancel a day's holiday, one where she had plans, because he is playing golf with his old buddy and the office junior Ivanka is off sick. That one decision sets off a train of events. Della discovers that Jimmy has been having an affair with Ivanka ever since she joined the firm, he's bought her expensive jewellery, a sports car and taken her away to swanky hotels and posh restaurants, Della even finds a receipt for an engagement ring. Utterly betrayed, Della scoops up all he evidence she's found in JImmy's locked office drawer and hightails it off to dump it on Connie. Connie has spent her married life living close to hand-to-mouth, she drives a clapped out car, the windows are drafty and she hasn't had a holiday in years. To find out that her husband has been squirreling away money in secret accounts, taking his mistress to Michelin-starred restaurants and getting his office manager to buy her chocolates as a sop to his conscience is utterly devastating. Connie and Della cook up a delightful revenge, they will set up their own cleaning company and steal away Jimmy's clients and cleaners. The plot reminds me very much of the old film Carry on Cabby where Hattie Jacques does something similar to the philandering Sid James. This was a great read, funny, charming, with a little bit of suspense and some light supernatural goings-on. I am a great fan of Milly Johnson's writing, if you like Katie Fforde or Debbie Johnson, then I'm sure you would enjoy this.

Connie is married to Jimmy Diamond and has just had the scales wiped from her eyes. He is not the owner of a struggling cleaning business as he professes. He is, in fact, the owner of a very prosperous cleaning business who has kept Connie tied to the kitchen sink whilst going on Golf Trips and for business meetings which are nothing of the sort. Now Connie knows and she is going to do something about it. Della has worked for Jimmy Diamond for 15 years and has run not only his business but his personal life for him. She used to take great delight in lying to his wife when he was on one of his assignations. Now, she realises that Jimmy is just using her like he does all his "best girls" and her deep love for him is not reciprocated. Just how far will Della go to exact her revenge for 15 years wasted? Cheryl works for Jimmy Diamond's cleaning company and is desperate for a child. When the bank statement comes she finds out her partner has gambled away her IVF savings fund and that is the last straw. How will she cope without the man she still loves? The premise of the book is great and starts off so promisingly. Unfortunately, it runs out of steam fairly quickly and certain sections are just repeating what we read in a previous chapter but just in a slightly different way. Luckily it is a light froth of a book so perfect to pick up and put down without losing the gist of the story or the thread of the narrative. Worked perfectly as my bedtime read because of this. The women's voices are very similar and, on occassion, I had to skip back a couple of pages to remind myself who was "talking" in this chapter. I also found that the supposed strength of these women in changing their lives was undermined by their frequent bouts of "woe is me". Maybe this makes the characters more human but I found it just irritated the heck out of me and I wanted to slap them. Sorry, this one just wasn't for me and as my first Milly Johnson read I'm not sure I will go back for more.

5 stars? Pah! This book needs 12 at the very least. Milly never disappoints with her books but this one is in my top 4, I've just read it for the 4th (maybe 5th) time and even though I know the plot by heart, it was still unputdownable! I'm hopeless at leaving reviews, usually because I'm far too impatient to read or re-read Milly's new or past masterpieces. Time that was resolved. BUY THIS BOOK, you will thank me for it and buy every last one of this amazing beautiful authors books, there isn't a single bad one, they will all stay with you, and make your heart more whole! Oh and check out her site. I bought my fave book for my sister a couple of christmases ago that was so reasonably priced and came signed, so beautifully wrapped with confetti and pretty things. When someone bequeathes me priceless art (you will get this reference when you read this book!) and I make my fortune, I'm ordering alllllll the back catalogue signed! BUY THIS BOOK, BUY THEM ALL! And enjoy, lovely people xxx