Goodness, Grace and Me - Julie Houston

When Harriet’s husband, Nick, throws in his safe, but boring job in order to set up a new business during the current recession, Harriet is distraught. More so when she realises Amanda, her and best friend Grace's old enemy from school is back in their lives. Amanda, it turns out, is Nick’s new boss’s wife and, because of her legal and language skills, will be accompanying Nick on his business trips to Italy. How will Nick not succumb to the ruthless charms of the utterly gorgeous Amanda once he’s away from Yorkshire and in glamorous Milan? Knowing Nick is being seduced is bad enough, but when Grace falls madly in love with Sebastian, Amanda’s precious, much younger son, it can only mean trouble ahead. Determined to fight for her man, Harriet’s seduction techniques go into overdrive. Unfortunately she is hampered in her attempts by two bolshy teenagers, an increasingly eccentric mother and a job teaching horrible children. Not to mention something very strange going on at the bottom of her garden! Can Harriet save her marriage, and also her friendship with Grace? And what will happen if Nick’s new venture fails, especially now that the one thing Harriet has not even considered in all this mess appears to be staring her right in the face…?


I was honoured when Julie Houston contacted me on Twitter asking if I would like to review her book as it sounded like the type of book I would usually read, but it did have it’s parts that seemed new to me, which intrigued me further. The book describes itself as being hilarious which I have to say worried me a little just in case I got my hopes up for a funny novel, but it was exactly right!

I don't want to give much of the plot away because I think this book is well worth a read! Harriet is happily married to the Nick and has been for 15 years, she is a mother of three and a teacher in a school alongside her best friend Grace. Harriet's life doesn't make you feel like it is made up, as you can often find in some books, she is written as a normal woman with a normal family and has problems that most people encounter at some point in their life. Each character in the novel is is well written and described to us, the relationship between Harriet and Grace is shown to us like any friendship between real women is, there are laughs, fights, crying and craziness. Harriett handles her problems in the same way any of us probably would, with a few witty and crazy things thrown in.

I loved how Julie described everyday life in such good detail, which I presume must have been taken from her own life, with some extra humour added. I think this makes you enjoy the book that much more because it's believable, yet so crazy it’s funny! The whole book just flows and is written so well which makes it so much easier to read and enjoy. You could relate to the novel and Harriet herself with the stresses of life, work and family. Julie makes you feel empathy for Harriet yet want to carry on reading to see what else might happen to her. I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Julie's novels in the future. I would definitely recommend this book if you want something you can relate to or as an escape book.