Other reviewers have done an excellent job of descrbing the main storylines and characters to be found in this novel so I won't repeat them again.

On the plus side, I really liked the Black Country setting and I thought that many of the characters were well-written and endearing. In particular, the Alex character was a top-quality romatic hero.

However, I have two major criticisms of this book. Firstly it was very, very slow paced. I was hoping for a bit of travel thrown in based on the synopsis on the cover, but we didn't get further than Oxford for about 300 pages. Secondly, the main character Harri was really a bit wet and unable to stand up for herself. I found that I couldn't identify with her at all and would have preferred a bit more feistiness.

I ploughed on and finished this, in the hope that both Harri and the pace of the book might gather a bit of momentum, but sadly it was not to be.