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Not Quite a Fairytale
Not Quite a Fairytale
May 9, 2025 12:22 PM

Author:Cee Liddy

Not Quite a Fairytale

For years, Evelyn, the hopeful realist, and John, the hopeless romantic, entertained each other with tales of one disastrous love affair after another. Then they fell out.

From her first boyfriend in college (who allowed her to do his assignments) to her most recent (who allowed her to pay his bills), Evelyn has so many disappointing suitors that she starts to wonder if the heartbreak is worth it.

In college John was the dreamer in their gang, always pursuing a vision of perfect love that no woman could live up to. But experience has quashed his dreams and he has settled for no strings sex and an uncomplicated life.

After years of bitter estrangement, Evelyn and John are thrown together again. So much to catch up on - careers, houses, ageing parents, and of course, affairs of the heart. When it comes to love they feel weary and battle-scarred and they agree that it's time to give up on fairytales. But should they give up on love too?

'A wonderfully creative storyteller' Evening Herald

'Liddy's imagination thrives in the shady regions of small hopes and misunderstandings' Irish Times

Reviews

Darkly comic, bittersweet and intoxicating

—— Fiona Looney , Irish Daily Mail

Unmissable ... a wonderfully creative storyteller

—— Evening Herald

Liddy's imagination thrives in the shady regions of small hopes and misunderstandings

—— Irish Times

Like slipping into a warm, scented bath. Maupin's back, with an eighth instalment of his lovely Tales of the City series... Lie back and enjoy

—— The Times

Those who loved the last book will rejoice in the fact that Maupin hasn't finished with these much-loved characters yet. More please

—— Time Out

It's a joy to be reunited with the Barbary Lane family

—— Elle Magazine

This novel is extremely good... There is warm-heartedness, spirit and elan here... Fans will be delighted

—— Independent

As salty as ever, with breezy, brazen love-lives rubbing up against darker material

—— Guardian on Saturday

Anyone who enjoyed [Maupin's] earlier books will welcome this opportunity for a return trip to its setting... Has the warmth of a reunion long overdue

—— The New York Times

Maupin remains a great storyteller, a magnificently unrepentant liberal, and a wise, witty observer of the differences which make us human

—— Sunday Telegraph

A creepy tale….set in a country house awash with secrets and strange happenings

—— Bella magazine

She takes relish in recreating a familiar Edwardian landscape, peopled by eligible cads and imperious dowagers... Jones’s highly combustible period piece makes the dramas at Downton look like a stroll in the park

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

Darkly humorous, quirky and engrossing, this is a ghostly tale full of twists and turns

—— Choice Magazine

What a delicious read! Like something written by a wicked Jane Austen, here is love and error in a ramshackle manor house complete with railway survivors, a birthday party and a pony. I was completely captivated by its madcap nature and then, utterly unprepared for the strange fruit that the story became. Passing like a spring fever, here is a fairy tale that stays with you long after it is gone. I couldn't put it down

—— SARAH BLAKE, author of The Postmistress

The Uninvited Guests is at once a shimmering comedy of manners and disturbing commentary on class. It is so well-written, so intricately plotted, that every page delivers some new astonishment. It is a brilliant novel

—— ANN PATCHETT, author of State of Wonder

What opens as an amusing Edwardian country house tale soon becomes a sinister tragi-comedy of errors, in which the dark underbelly of human nature is revealed in true Shakespearean fashion. Sadie Jones is a most talented and imaginative storyteller, and The Uninvited Guests is a very clever novel

—— JACQUELINE WINSPEAR, author of Elegy for Eddie

I will be surprised if I read anything stranger this year but I can’t help admiring Jones’s whimsical invention and the quality of her writing

—— Vanessa Berridge , Daily Express

A modern Mitford saga

—— ASOS Magazine

Award-winning Sadie Jones' third novel is her best yet. Hugely enjoyable with a superb, supernatural twist

—— Tablet

Cooly playful...the luscious prose is precisely steered

—— Helen Dunmore , Guardian

An intelligent and poignant reflection on death and loss… a fabulous read

—— Lesley Mc Dowell , Glasgow Sunday Herald

Sadie Jones…enters new literary territory with a whimsical Edwardian farce that takes its lead from the darker offerings of Saki and JB Priestley...The novel's denouement is satisfyingly outlandish

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

With elegant ease, Jones spins a good old-fashioned comedy of manners

—— Katie Owen , Sunday Telegraph

Andrew Motion brings lyricism but, more importantly, rollicking adventure to this sequel to Treasure Island

—— Mail on Sunday
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