‘Chic lit’ that’s hard to put down

Oneof the Girls by Lucy Clark, Harper Collins, $32.99

Six friends arrive on a beautiful, but remote villa on a Greek island. It is a hen weekend for Lexi. Lexi is a former dancer and good time girl, but an accident where she injured her tibia put an end to the dancing. She took up yoga as a form of exercise and became so enamoured with it she ended up becoming a teacher and running herown yoga studio. Lexi is now about to marry Ed, the man of her dreams.

When her old school friend Bella suggested they used Fen's auntie's villa for her hen party, Lexi invited only five friends, Bella and her now partner Fen, Robyn, another old school friend, now a single mother, Ana , a newcomer to Lexi's studio, but now a close friend and Eleanor, her future husband's sister.

It has been some time since Lexi has been with her formerly close school friends, Robyn and Bella and a lot of water has flown under the bridge. Fen, Eleanor and Ana are newbies and appear to be on the outer circle, at first anyway.

The villa is magical, the sea a perfect blue, they have an abundance of food and drink. The scene is set for a perfect few days.

However, as the drink loosens the tongues some old hurts appear. As the story unfolds not everybody is who they appear to be and the idyll very slowly shatters.

I amnot de meaning One of the Girls if I class it as “chick lit”, because there aremany really accomplished authors writing for this audience. Lucy Clarke is a new author to me. I found this book hard to put down. It is both a coming of age and a crime story and could be be termed a slow boiler. It is told in little chapters, each person's story. Sometimes this can be annoying for the reader, but not here.

I am of the vintage when a hen party was a kitchen evening. A Greek Island would have been beyond a dream, but I really enjoyed reading One of the Girls. I felt Iwas there, too, one of the girls, then by the end very glad I wasn't. —