Thank you to the author, publishers Mantle and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

 

I have to applaud the skills of an author (or in this case authors since Ellery Lloyd is the pen name for a husband and wife writing team) who can create a world full of horrible people which is thoroughly enjoyable to read. The Home Clubs are designed for the privileged few. The home away from home where the celebrated and the famous can mingle in comfort free from the gaze of the paparazzi and the demands of fans.

 

The exclusivity is ramping up with the latest venue for the Home Group set on a private island available exclusively for the use of members. The launch weekend is set to be one no one will ever forget, but not necessarily for the reasons they expect.

 

Movie stars, chart toppers, celebrity artists and talk show hosts. You don’t have to be a big follower of celebrity gossip pages to recognise the kind of people on the Home Club membership lists. It would have been easy to have created characters to populate this book using thinly disguised parodies of real life celebs, but each of the people in this book manage to be both recognisable as celebrity types without ever feeling cliched or copies of real people.

 

What’s also great is that despite the number of characters, and there are a fair few, it never feels overwhelming. The characters are distinctive enough to easily keep straight, and the narrative is largely focussed through three or four really significant characters.

 

I really enjoyed how the story played out, and the ending - without giving anything away - feels absolutely spot on.