On Top of Everything

By Sarah-Kate Lynch.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sarah-Kate's Dunedin launch of this book the other night, and the opportunity for pink fizz and cupcakes.

Naturally I brought a copy of her book, and being a sycophantic groupie type had to get it autographed - it would have been rude not to.

I got to devour the book over the weekend, and it made a very pleasant change from my steady diet of crime fiction.

This is the story of Florence, and Florence re-defines having a bad day. It starts with her getting fired from her own business by her best friend, and then her husband leaves her for another man. And that's just the beginning. Sometimes bad days spill over to bad weeks, months, especially if you believe trouble comes in threes, or multiples of threes.

If all this sounds maudlin, it's not because Sarah-Kate infuses this novel with wit and charm and characters to make you smile.

Naturally, it wouldn't be a Sarah-Kate Lynch book if there wasn't food involved, and in this instance it's cakes, cupcakes, little cucumber sandwiches, fruit cakes and tea, plenty of tea, leaf of course, served in fine bone china. Sarah-Kate is the queen of foodie chick-lit.

I did want to slap Florence, frequently. She annoyed me a lot, to the point of teeth gritting at times. But I guess that means I cared about her. And I do wish the story had been told entirely from Florence's point of view, but that's by the by - I really enjoyed this book.

On Top of Everything was a perfect to while away a few hours over a weekend, and gave me urges to haul out the fine bone china and have a frilly high tea for my friends. Actually, I have a feeling that will happen. I feel a bake-a-thon coming on.

Put it on your summer reading list.