Flora and Julian have a relationship that all their friends aspire to, and sometimes Flora even feels a little smug about how their relationship has fared over the years, where others have faltered and fallen apart. They often team up with another couple, Margot and her husband, and make up a close knit foursome. But then Flora finds the wedding ring that Julian claimed he lost years ago, hidden in a drawer.

Good Company is the authors follow up to The Nest, which was highly praised. The title of the book comes partly from the fact that it’s about a relationship, or relationships, and is also the name of the theatre company that Julian and a friend of his started years before the events of the book.

This book was a real slow read for me and I really struggled to get into it. From the start, I didn’t like Flora. She was very judgmental and had no loyalty to her best friend Margot. She was always thinking about how Margot was prettier, more successful, had more money. Which is a shame, because Margot worked for what she has: a successful acting career on TV, a good relationship, nice things. And Margot is also generous. Flora, it seems, is not the kind of woman who supports other women.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Julian has cheated on Flora. I think that’s obvious from her finding the ring in the first chapter. It feels like there should be more to the story than that. But that’s really the whole thing. He’s an actor and he has issues, so it feels like it’s a no brainer that he’s not going to be faithful. And it’s a no brainer that she has done loads of thankless work for his company and earns more than him and supports him. I kept expecting there to be some twist, some plot point, some revelation. But nothing happens really, and no one really changes or grows. At the end, everyone is still together. And Flora still hates Margot.

These people felt kind of generic and paper thin to me and the book really had nothing to say. There are loads of books about someone whose partner cheats, so that’s not new. And nothing really happens. There’s no plot. I wasn’t a fan of this one at all.

Read It If: Perhaps fans of The Nest want to read this one. I found it really dull, predictable fare.

Thank you Harper Collins Canada for the ARC and copy of this book for review.

Good Company is out 21st May