Playing Away - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472210573 ISBN 13: 9781472210579

Synopsis

It's sexy. It's roguish. It's hilarious. It's a sensational debut novel from London, a joyously comic take on modern marriage and its fallout. Single people may feel they have it rough . . . but wait until you see what happens when married folk fall in lust. Connie Green's life should be perfect. She has a hot career, her wonderful husband, Luke, and a bunch of great girlfriends. But she has just met overwhelmingly sexy John at a business conference. Her head and her heart said, "no way", but her traitorous body shrieked "yes, YES!" Now Connie's deep into a tawdry affair, which is destroying her peace of mind and her grand plan for Happily Ever After. Maybe John is her destiny. After all, she's losing weight. It can't be a bad thing if she's losing weight, can it? Connie longs to confide in her girlfriends. They've always discussed their sex lives before, preferably over cocktails. But this infidelity thing makes it a trifle awkward. Connie's not quite sure what she wants. And that's exactly the trouble. A novel for every woman juggling the untidy mix of work, romance, sex, and marriage, Playing Away shimmers with equal parts comic relief and penentrating insight. Adele Parks has crafted a cunningly revealing portrait of the lives of hip, urban women, poised at the cusp of a millennium.

About this title

Review:

Adele Parks' Playing Away is founded on that well-worn adage: the grass is always greener. Connie and Luke have been married a year and they're both ecstatically happy. Or are they? The reader quickly realises that Connie isn't short for Constancy. Away on a business trip, her loins irrepressibly draw her to the devilishly attractive John Harding and she rushes headlong into a heated affair. Connie soon becomes Con-Artist as she deceives her decent but dull husband. While her lover woos her with evenings at out-of-the-way, grubby pubs and with late-night calls and faxes, after pub closing-time, declaring his longing for her, Connie begins to confuse lust with fate and deludes herself he could be the one.

In Playing Away, the author has entered dangerous, forbidden territory by writing from the perspective of the adulteress--a traditionally unsympathetic character. However, Adele Parks has succeeded in making the reader despise the character's actions, without rejecting Connie, who is attractive, candid and exhilarating. So many novels these days focus on finding Mr Right, it is refreshing to come across one that looks beyond the wedding and proceeds to undermine the traditional stereotype--only men are tempted to stray. A scorching, subversive debut novel, this novel has all the ingredients of a successful modern romance but with a healthy dose of reality.

Adele Parks joins the new elite of twenty-/thirtysomething female authors who are sustaining the spirit of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary. By deepening the genre's significance and adding a sting to the tail, they are finding innovative ways to achieve more resonance with today's women. Nicola Perry

Review:

"The Belles and Beaux of Romance"

Sometimes shocking, hilariously funny, and true to life....Perfect for 'nineties who are caught in the grip of love, marriage, relationships and powerful sex....Very thought-provoking.

"Marie Claire"

A light comic novel...This month's Pick of the Paperbacks (April 2000).

"Publishers Weekly"

"Playing Away" is a very edgy book. It's also wickedly funny and very sexy.

"The Times" (U.K.)

Plenty to entertain yet the overtly girly stuff conceals a much more serious agenda.

"Daily Mail" (U.K.)

A modern fairy tale in the classic sense of the word: a story of wanting what you can't have, filled with perils and beasts...

"Kirkus Reviews"

An affecting first novel successfully conbines a cheeky first-person narrative with a serious look at the consequences of adultery....A balanced exploration of the rules of marriage.

"Publishers Weekly""Playing Away" is a very edgy book. It's also wickedly funny and very sexy.

"Elle""Playing Away" is compulsively addictive!

"The Times" (U.K.) Plenty to entertain yet the overtly girly stuff conceals a much more serious agenda.

"Marie Claire" A light comic novel....This month's Pick of the Paperbacks (April 2000).

About this edition

• ISBN 10: 1472210573
• ISBN 13: 9781472210579
• Binding: Paperback