ISBN: 978-0-75533221-2
My rating: 3.5/5
Someone Special’s main character is Romy, who is forced to come home from her job as a forensic archaeologist in Australia when her mother, Veronica goes into hospital for a back operation.
Romy is Veronica’s youngest daughter, from her second marriage to Dermot. Veronica also has a son, Darragh, and daughter, Kathryn, from her first marriage to Tom, and she’s recently divorced for the third time (although no children from that one!). Romy and Veronica are very different people. Romy isn’t into glamour and fashion though Veronica loves it – and so does Darragh’s wife, Giselle. Kathryn, Romy’s half-sister, is part of a power-couple and lives and works in New York. She’s very smart and sassy but has problems of her own. Darragh is the managing director of the family company and likes to see himself as a mover and shaker although the company is starting to lose clients.
Romy finds herself caught up in their problems as well as trying to accept her father’s second wife, Larissa and their daughter, Erin, too. Meanwhile she’s missing Australia, her work and her friends, particularly Keith, her best friend, who’s suddenly not as easy to know as he was before! (www.sheilaoflanagan.net)
My thougths
Usually when I read a book I already have an idea what to write about half way through the story .... but this time I’m a bit stumped.
My first book by Irish Sheila O’Flanagan is about Romy, an Irish archaeologist currently living in Australia who is suddenly called home by her step brother, Darragh, because their mother is going to have a back operation and will need some help. She has to leave her best friend Keith behind in Sydney and confuses things by kissing him as she says goodbye to him at the airport.
When I finished the book I felt a sense of “not satisfied”. The story in itself was good, the writing was well done with good character descriptions. But it was the characters that I wasn’t able to relate to, though the story would have been very easy for me to do so. At some point Romy said to her sister “I just lost that chip on my shoulder” and I had to re- and re-read the paragraph, but I still don’t understand what had happened or what had been said for her to “lose the chip on her shoulder”.
Also, O’Flanagan has added a lot of backlog, which I believe was necessary so to understand the family members more, but sometimes I felt like flicking through those pages, just to get on with the story.
All in all ... not sure what to say about “Someone special”. Perhaps there’s someone else out there who’s read the book and would like to add there view of the book ! I'd appreciate it.
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