4* from me. Full of humour but with a serious side. This book was just the antidote for me as I have read a heap of thrillers which although great, can be a bit heavy going at times. Moves at a great pace. I was anxious to find out more about Molly's life and why she came to live in the countryside when she appears to be such a city girl at heart. Given the opportunity, she's got a second chance at life. Read it, it's light but very enjoyable. One to recommend. My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book exudes charm and humour in equal measure. It was so easy to picture Molly's small holding and her problems with cashflow (all of it in the wrong direction). Her terrible guilt after the accident which she blames herself for because of the liaison with Henri. Then the light at the end of the tunnel; a possible inheritance from her dead husband's relative. The too good to be true Felix trying to deny her the spoils and the shining knight Paddy coming to her aid.
Of particular note were the children's responses to various situations, it was so accurate. Much midnight oil was spent totally enthralled with the plot, with the occasional stifled chortle over the very funny situations and dialogue.

A nice cosy book, to snuggle up with a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

Back of the book :

Molly has moved from London to rural Herefordshire, chasing the Good Life. Swapping the tube for the saddle, she is living the country dream.

Except that it isn't really her dream. It's her husband David's. And David is, well, rather dead now.

Then a distant relative of her late husband kicks the bucket, leaving a London townhouse in her possession, and Molly dares to consider chucking it all in. Quitting the Good Life and going back to her good life.

But there is a problem. In the shape of a man already living in Molly's new house. And when a face appears from her past, Molly is more confused than ever.

Will Molly's London dream replace her muddy reality ? Do any of the men in her life really have honourable intentions ? And has she said goodbye to the country too soon ?



What I think :

Molly and David moved to the Herefordshire around five years ago. It was David's dream to move to the country from the hustle and bustle of London. The only trouble is, that after only living his 'dream' for five and a half weeks, David had a car accident and died, leaving Molly and their three children, Lucy, Minna and Nico. Ever since David's death Molly has struggled to make ends meet. What with running the farm, feeding the animals, Turning her hand at selling the oddest things and fending off the bailiff's (even although her particular Bailiff, Tia is lovely) she realises that something needs to give.

Then out of the blue, David's uncle Cuthbert dies, and seeing as she's the only living relative left on David's side of the family, it seem's she's inherited his house in London and quite a bit of money. She's quite undecided on what to do for the best. Does she sell the farm and move to London, or does she Sell the house in London and do up the farm ?

There is however, a sticky point, there is a older gentleman already living at the house and how does the handsome Felix fit into the whole thing ? When a face from her distant past returns into her life, bringing secrets she though she'd buried with David, she's more confused than ever. What's Molly to do ?

I'm so pleased about this book, it seems far too long since Catherine published a new one. It was really worth the wait as this book is quite fabulous.

I really loved Molly's character, she was so down to earth and normal, Her life mirrors half of the populations, apart from the inheritance of course ! It has some really excellent laugh out loud moments as well as some serious moments too. The relationship between Holly and her daughters is quite typical, however I did find Nico slightly spoilt. And don't get me started on felix, I really didn't like him at all !!

I really wanted to be Holly's friend and try and help her through all those important choices she had to make. I also thought it was a fabulous ending too. Like I said at the start of this review this book was a long time coming but really worth the wait. I really hope the next one isn't quite as long !

I give this really excellent yarn about love and family a really well-earned 9/10.

5 gold stars

Published by Penguin (Michael Joseph) on 09/03/17.

This was a very good read. The main character suffered tragedy (some may say of her own making) and then tries to put her life back on track. Her children are not much help and at times comical. You feel like shaking them all at times. All ends are tied up by the conclusion of the book.

A little disappointing to be honest, the lead character really irritated me. Apart from that the storyline was OK - some nice descriptives and a fun cast.

I've just finished About Last Night, and I enjoyed it. It's an adult contemporary novel, which I normally like. The book was released on 9th March 2017, so it's available to buy now...

I got About Last Night through NetGalley, so thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review it!

3 Stars!

It tells the story of a middle aged woman, Molly who's alone with her three children and her ups and downs with life and living on a farm.

The story is quite simple. It follows Molly and her three children, now adults and a husband (David) at the beginning of the story. She gets caught up in falling for someone else though and cheating with him, which David finds out about. Then David doesn't then trust her, obviously. He has a car accident and dies. Molly is left on her own with her children. Molly is a struggling farm wife as well, since David's death.

Molly then hears about a will from a family member of David. When she looks into this she sees there's a house that Cuthbert left to any family in the event of his death. Molly, although not blood family herself, had David's children so she goes to look at this house to see if it's true or not.

When she sees that it is true, she's shocked that she basically owns a house in London! The big question is does she move to London or stay at the farm in the countryside?

The inhabitants of this house, Cuthbert's partner and his son Felix, seem nice at first but it's pretty obvious that not all is to be trusted with these two characters. One in particular.

There are romantic themes running throughout About Last Night. Molly and her husband's story, Molly's affair, Molly's supposed relationship with Felix, and Molly's confused feelings about her local vet. Do any of these relationships work out? Does Molly find her happily ever after with any of these men? You'll have to read to find out...

While I enjoyed About Last Night, it was sometimes a slog to read. There were large chunks of text that just didn't need to be there. I skim read a lot of the book and I followed it just fine still. The characters were a little one dimensional as well. The only ones we got to know were, Molly because we were in her head as the story is told in first person, and Felix cause he was the character that Molly had the most interaction with. I also didn't really understand why this was called "About Last Night" as the story's not just about a one night stand. There are a lot of other things going on as well. We also don't really get an overall answer about where Molly's life is going at the end. We just see who she ends up with, not whether she indeed sells the farm or not. That's why I'm giving About Last Night 3 stars!

Five years after the untimely death of her husband, David, Molly still finds herself toiling the land of his dreams and struggling to make ends meet. Moving to Herefordshire and buying an “almost” farm had been David’s idea of the good life, and out of a sense of duty Molly has upheld his dream by any means possible.

When an unexpected inheritance comes to light, in the form of a gorgeous London house, Molly has a choice to make. But upping sticks and moving isn’t that simple. Firstl, one there’s the animals, almost part of the family rather than livestock and secondly, the newly acquired house is occupied in the form of a rather handsome lodger.

Will she stay put and make do in the ramshackle farmhouse with the bills piling up around her ears and the bailiff at the door, or hotfoot it back to London to regain some semblance of her old life, her “good life”?

I found I enjoyed this book for the most part. Although unbelievably rude at times, the scenes between Molly and her children often made me chuckle, a certain horse ride especially. Along with the comically flirtatious sparring between herself and local grumpy vet Paddy I thought I was onto a real winner. However, whilst some of the situations Molly found herself in had me laughing out loud, others had me rolling my eyes.

Therein lies my main issue, from page to page I could change my mind from loving the main protagonist to wanting to give her a good hard shake. It was somewhat implausible that this woman who had raised three children and kept a farm afloat for five years singlehandedly could make such rash and naïve decisions in the face of a handsome man! In fact, for the most part I skim read the London scenes as I found this set of characters to be tiresome.

All in all it was an easy and entertaining read, I just wished Molly possessed a little more gumption!

A familiar set-up: middle-class woman living the country "dream".....except it's her husband's dream, and he's dead, leaving her with a ramshackle farm and 3 slightly tricky offspring (actually I liked her imperfect kids, although they were rather selfish).. Naturally, there's a handsome, surly guy, who she overlooks in favour of a handsome slime-ball. You know how it's all going to work out, but that really doesn't matter with this kind of book.
A lovely read for a wet weekend, or a holiday.

An amusing story about a widowed mother trying to come to terms with her life. It was not the life she imagined but one imposed on her by her late husband. His dream not hers. In trying to find her own identity she is helped by a large inheritance from an unknown uncle of her late husband. All manner of complicated and overlapping plot lines ensue in this romantic tale.

I read this in almost one sitting (and the ‘almost’ was not for want of trying!). Really enjoyed About Last Night: laugh-out-loud funny in places, with a very real, very likeable heroine and a sweet love story at the back end of it all. If occasionally I could have happily strangled those three children, Molly’s back story made me understand completely why she became the person she is: flawed, warm-hearted and spirited. Would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, fast-paced read with an emotional zing.

Started off a bit slow and a bit all over the place. I love Catherine Alliott books. It was intriguing getting to know all of the characters and how they linked with each other. Also getting to know the chaotic family Molly had and her life on the farm.

Very funny and entertaining story! Not my usual style but I really did enjoy it. Perfect for a holiday read!

Definitely an Aga saga, but written with wit and self-deprecation, which is always appreciated. Our heroine is at her best when roaring in fury at those who cross her, falling ass-backwards into a wheelbarrow full of dead sheep and generally ageing disgracefully; she's much less appealing when - every time she is asked out by a man - insisting on having her hair professionally done, buying new frocks and only ever fancying them once they have shown evidence of wealth, social mobility and an interest in art. For some reason it doesn't occur to Catherine Alliott that middle aged women can like men who are neither rich or comfortable living in upper-middle class London enclaves, nor that they can go on a date in clothes they already own!
That aside, this was a Jilly Cooperesque countryside romp, an easy read with cheerful sidekicks and a couple of fairly interesting subplots to keep you guessing.

Lovely, easy, holiday-type reading. But with the added depth of a bereavement.
Ms Alliott clearly knows her stuff, Molly's reactions, introspections and feeling were spot on, and this added to the reading experience.
I very much identified with the main character, Molly, she wasn't stupidly ditzy as these types of characters so often are.

This is a very enjoyable read. At first I wasnt sure if it was for me - too middle-class perhaps, a little too cosy even, but Ms Alliott drew me into the story effortlessly and I was hooked.

'About Last Night' is posh chick-lit admittedly, but with a great cast of entertaining characters, amusing dialogue and intriguing situations and a very engaging and refreshingly human heroine. What's not to like?

A warm and satisfying novel.

I did enjoy this some of the story was strong, especially her past but parts of it were just silly and unbelievable. Especially her son!
Whilst it wasn't a bad book it didn't have the edge that some of her older books did.

Goodness, here's a novel you think will go entirely according to the usual format - and then it doesn't. Our heroine is revealed to have rather large feet of clay, in addition to the usual, and expected, hang-ups of a single woman entering her middle-years. The consequences of an ealier bad choice inform her every decision, snowballing to a potentially catastrophic conclusion. However, the normal rules of 'chick lit' kick in and the happy ending we all spied early on, and wish for throughout, starts to look positively possible - or does it? Our heroine is wholly capable of spoiling her own happy ever after and needs a strong dose of self-awareness to ensure she tips the balance in her own favour.

An easy, entertaining and enjoyable read, About Last Night offers not only some happy hours whiled away your favourite way, but raises some modern moral dilemmas: what would you do if... and points out those very human flaws we all carry but could do with being more aware of perhaps. Vanity, fear, jealousy and greed...it's all here - and a little healthy lust too!

Sparkly upper middle class story of high flyer with a secret whose country idyll is a smoke screen for chaos and offspring revolts , amusing and frothy . I knew how it would end from the start, but getting there was oodles of fun!

Wow I totally loved About Last Night it was a real page turner that I struggled to put down.
We meet Molly and her family that due to circumstances move away from London to a farm in Herefordshire and live 'the good life'. This was her husbands dream not Mollys but he dies quite early on and Molly struggles to run the farm on her own and with the rising repairs and bills from running a farm decisions need to be made.
A surprise inheritance comes Mollys way but all is not as it seems and there were a few twists and turns that I wasn't expecting.
Overall a great book that I loved.