A funny and sassy read that delivers light relief

ABOUT LAST NIGHT Catherine Alliott Loot.co.za (R265) Penguin

REVIEWER: JENNIFER CROCKER

MOLLY is living on a farm in rural England – Hertfordshire, to be precise – but she wasn’t always a farm girl. She and her husband, David, upped sticks and left a seemingly perfect life in London, with friends and a busy lifestyle, to follow a dream.

This sounds lovely and is one of the things city dwellers frequently say they dream about doing, but it appears that the dream was David’s, and David is dead.

So what do you do when you are left with someone else’s dream? Well, you continue to live it, but with debts around your neck. You plod through your days remembering the past, but perhaps an edited version of it. You simply put one foot in front of the other, but there isn’t a lot of joy in it.

Molly is surprised to hear that a relative of her late husband has left a lovely house in a nice part of London to David, and that, as his heir, the house is hers. She goes back to London to find out about the house and the long-lost relative, and finds rather more than she bargained for.

Mostly that is because sparks fly between Molly and a very charming man.

This is a light novel, ideal for snuggling up with, but it has something a little darker that gives the tale a bit of edge. No dream is ever what it seems. Molly is faced with huge decisions about her future, but she is also forced to face her past. In her past, she has done something which led – in part – to the fulfilment of David’s dream of moving to the country. This leads to the question: Are we allowed to forgive ourselves or not?

Molly must wrestle with this problem as she hops between the farm and London.

About Last Night is not going to win any great literary prizes, but it is jolly readable. It’s also well written and has some lovely characters. It delivers in terms of entertainment and light relief, while being brave enough to touch on some of the darkness that hovers at the edges of all our lives.

The drama begins to unfold as Molly opens herself up to the possibility of another love in her life. At the same time, she’s dealing with an irascible vet and a horse that just won’t behave in front of new owners.

This is a funny and sassy read.