Friday 22 May 2015

Reviewed: The Vintage Cinema Club by Jane Linfoot.







The Vintage Cinema Club will be published by Harper Impulse on May 24, 2015. The paperback will be published on July 30.


Thanks to HarperImpulse for auto-approving me on Netgalley for a copy of this book.



Simply from the cover you can tell that The Vintage Cinema Club is going to be a different kind of book to what we’re used to from Jane Linfoot. Jane is one of my favourite authors and she never fails to make me smile with her flirty romance novels but I was very excited to see a different side to her writing and as I had expected, Jane wrote another wonderful novel, this time with its wit and warmth and three leading ladies so different but all so strong and willing to fight for the thing that bonds them – Vintage at the Cinema. Not to mention a hunk or two along the way…

So far for me, I like each new Jane Linfoot novel a little more than the last and it was the same for The Vintage Cinema Club, except that I loved this book for so many different reasons that I lost count. This book was not just a pretty cover – it was the beautiful story of three women whose lives (or one certain horrible husband) decide to hit them where it hurts by putting the vintage cinema building so precious to them up for sale. It would have been very easy for Dida, Izzy and Luce to sit back and whine and let their business be taken away from them just like that but no, they stood up and fought with everything they had. And whether that would be enough didn’t come into it – they were fighting anyway and that is why I loved this book. Who doesn’t love a bit of girl power!

The book switches in perspective from Dida, Luce and Izzy although Izzy’s role in the story ends up making her more of the main character. Individually, I loved all three of them but I also found their friendship really interesting to read. They were very different and that did mean that quite often they didn’t necessarily understand where one of them was coming from. But all three of them were caring and loyal in their own way as is proven throughout the book when they each have their own issues – mostly men related – to deal with.

Izzy was the character that struck me from the beginning, right where she is rooting through some guy’s skip trying to rescue unwanted, unloved items – like that cherub. When she gets her shoe stuck in the skip and requires a little bit of help to get out, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the traditional kind of scenarios Jane likes to throw her main characters into - stubborn girl meets stubborn but very attractive guy. Said skip rescuer turned out to be Xander, who as gorgeous as he was, Izzy was under no circumstances going to look past the fact she didn’t do dating, even though that aftershave was lingering… After all, she wasn’t going to see him again (like we believed that), and he was very arrogant and cocky. Apparently. I couldn’t help but think Izzy was wrong about Xander but maybe that’s because I was kind of falling hopelessly in love with him very early on, even though sadly he was very much fictional.

Izzy was my favourite character and I loved how it was her that really brought out the vintage side to this novel, through her appearance and the items she was so convinced needed to be rescued. But I did also love Dida and Luce. Dida came across as very strong willed and brave at the beginning of this novel, but then we learn about her joke of a husband and I couldn’t understand why they were still together, not that she ever saw much of him. Dida was so eager for her friends to have happy love-lives but didn’t seem that concerned with sorting hers which to me showed a lovely side to her character in that the front she put up was just that because deep down, she just wanted everyone to be happy and living the life they wanted. All three of these women had anti-romance outlooks on life given that Luce also claimed to be happy with her one night stands, despite the fact she works on vintage bridal dresses and creating the perfect dress for the perfect wedding. I’m a sucker for a happy ending so I did want to see them all loved up in the end but that didn’t look like really being the case.

The Vintage Cinema Club had everything I loved to see in a novel. There was the will they-won’t they aspect between Izzy and Xander, two characters sworn off relationships thanks to emotional pasts (which were very movingly told by the author) but ahh the chemistry between them was rolling off the pages! I adored the friendship between the girls, adored seeing them work hard and put themselves out trying to save Vintage at the Cinema, adored seeing them learn more about themselves than they ever imagined. I also loved Jane's scene-setting and the way she noted the setting at the beginning of each chapter. The vintage feel to this book and the switch in setting, from Matlock to France, wouldn't have worked as well if it wasn't for the style of writing which draws you right in. There was also a hugely satisfying ending to another brilliant book by Jane and all I can say is please hurry up with the next one(!).


Gorgeous book with characters full of heart, and an impassioned story to make you smile.





4 comments:

  1. I have this on my kindle ready to review and am really looking forward to it. More so know after reading your review. X

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  2. Thank you SO MUCH for this Sophie - thanks for loving the book, and summing it up so well - my first review, and tears in my eyes as i read it xxx

    ReplyDelete

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