It is the eve of a huge party for Livia to celebrate her 40th birthday. Twenty years of thought and planning have gone into this party, and so everything must be perfect. Livia's husband Adam has secretly arranged for their daughter Marnie to travel home from Hong Kong to surprise Livia. However Adam has no idea that Livia has been keeping her own secrets and she is privately glad that Marnie won't be at the party. And so, an eventful evening is about to commence.

This sounds fascinating, doesn't it? It should be a great novel, and yet it isn't. The plot and characters are interesting. The themes - deception, secrecy, family expectations - are all relatable and draw the reader in. The difficulty with The Dilemma lies in the execution.

The story is told from two alternating perspectives, Adam and Livia, giving two very different views on their family life. However instead of increasing the tension, this becomes a play-by-play of the events and their endless thoughts, which becomes tedious. The narrator did quite a good job, but I was soon increasing the playback speed and monitoring how much was left. It is problematic that this two characters spend an inordinate amount of time in their own heads, making assumptions and jumping to wild conclusions.

If Adam and Livia had communicated better, this could have been a short story. I did not enjoy this one and cannot recommend it.