Swimming Pool Sunday by Madeleine Wickham

I am a huge fan of all books by Sophie Kinsella. I have read every one of her books on more than one occasion. I was getting a little tired and impatient of waiting for her to release another book so I decided to visit her website to see if there was any information as to when she is due to release another book and what I found out to my surprise is that she writes under two names Sophie Kinsella and her real name Madeleine Wickham. I have now slowly started making my way through the books by Madeleine Wickham and I loved Sleeping Arrangements and Wedding Girl and have now picked up Swimming Pool Sunday to read.

The books written under Madeleine Wickham are a completely different style of book compared to Sophie Kinsella books. I think they feel more mature and more of a believable storyline but they do not hold the humour factor which the books by Sophie Kinsella have. Having said this I still have enjoyed both styles of books.

***PLOT***

Louise and Barnaby Kenmber have recently split up. Their two children Katie and Amelia still live at home with mummy Louise and Barnaby comes to see the girls once a week. When he arrives to take the girls fishing the girls do not want to go as it is the same day that Ursula and Hugh Delaney open up their swimming pool for all of the village to come for the day to raise money for charity. Although Barnaby is not happy about this it is what the girls want to do so they all head off to the Delaney's.

As the day begins to draw to an end Barnaby expresses his anger to Louise about not being able to spend enough time with the girls and it is whilst this happens that Katie has an accident and is rushed to hospital in a coma fighting for her life.

The new love of Louise's life is Cassian who works as a lawyer and he insists straight away the best thing to do for Katie's sake is to sue the Delaney's for the accident. Trouble is the Delaney's and the Kenmber's are friends and have had enough tragedy in their lives. Will Katie be ok and will the Kenmber's decide to take their friends to court?

** My Opinion**

As i mentioned this is a different style of writing compared to Sophie Kinsella books. There is no humour in this book at all. Aside from the plot I mentioned above there was also a side storyline about an older man Alexis who is friends with the Delaneys, who begins to have a relationship with 18 year old Daisy who has just moved to the village. I didn't really feel this fit into the book. I would have much preferred if they took the side storyline back into the relationship with Louise and Barnaby before they split so we could get to know their characters a little more.

I don't feel as though we was given enough connection with Louise she came across as quite a cold character so I didn't connect to her and feel the emotion we should feel for this lady who could be losing her daughter.
Before the accident the two sisters Katie and Amelia had such a close bond so Katie's accident must have affected Amelia in a big way this was slightly touched upon and I enjoyed this part of the book but I do think this could have been used a little more.

This book in my opinion is not a challenging read and the storyline slowly paces along. I do feel that this is a book which will be forgotten about in a few weeks as there was nothing shining about this book. Unfortunately this book is not in the same league as the previous Madeleine Wickham books or Sophie Kinsella books. It will not be a book which I shall read again and also not one which I would recommend in a hurry.