After the Party: The page-turning sequel to Ralph’s Party from the bestselling author

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Not a line on his face, not for a man of forty-seven, but his face looks dead, as if someone has taken a sheet of sandpaper to him and scoured away all the gloss, all the glitter. He pauses and Jem can hear the swoosh of other cars passing his, the blast of wind through an open window.

They bought it ten years ago as a set of flats and are still only halfway through converting it back into a house, so Jem and the kids have their own floor: a set of three rooms, a small terrace and a kitchenette. These are littered throughout and are an amusing way of providing insight into her characters, their thoughts and feelings, without spelling them out to the reader. Before she leaves she turns to her assistant, Mariel, who is making tea in the kitchenette, and says, “Off to see the recluse. As they try to find a way back to each other, back to what they once had, they both become dangerously distracted - but maybe it's not too late to recapture happily ever after . The book begins with a prologue, set in the present year, before being split into multiple parts set mainly in the year that causes Jem and Ralph to think about taking a break from each other until we ourselves come up to the breaking point in Jem and Ralph’s relationship.

She’s imagined this conversation a thousand times and every time her heart has raced, her skin has flushed. It’s harsh, but it’s for his own good, she reminds herself—without the threat he wouldn’t do the TV interview, and without the TV interview there is no career for her to manage. He didn’t show up at six so I phoned and left messages on his voice mail—nothing—then I got through to him just now, literally about three minutes before you walked in.

As soon as I saw it had been dispatched I eagerly awaited it, not wanting to start anything else for fear of it coming whilst I was half way through another book!If you are looking for a looking for a psychological thriller that will unfold secrets and truths in a shocking manner, this book is for you.

Ralph comes back from California determined to help Jem out more with the kids but Jem is pre-occupied with thoughts of Joel and it appears that Jem and Ralph, instead of becoming closer, are moving further and further apart. Summary: After eleven years together Ralph and Jem realise that their relationship has reached rock bottom and something has to change or it may be over. His paintings just don't look or feel the same and Jem feels like she is Ralph's wife and the children's mother - she's lost who she is. Plus a babysitter to arrange for Friday night when she and Lulu had planned a night out at the theater. While neither quite cheats, and both resolve to make their relationship work, they don't really address the problems and the ways that they are changing, and ultimately, they decide to separate.For Jem, motherhood is wonderful but exhausting and with Ralph abdicating responsibility for even the simplest of chores, she resents his desire for intimacy when she feels she is too tired and too busy to oblige. After the Party takes place in an up-and-coming London neighborhood, yet the themes and characters are universal. A small shiny object leaves his hand and hurtles toward her, catching the light as it falls, landing on the pavement within an inch of her toes. She managed to keep the spirit of these characters but yet developed them as older and wiser from what they were in Ralph's Party.