Irresponsible Adult by Lucy Dillon

 

Sisters Cleo and Robyn may be close in age but their attitudes to life could not be further apart. While Cleo's a fully-fledged adult with a family, a business and a signature scent, Robyn is still waiting for the instruction manual to Adult Life and success is keeping her houseplant alive. Skating by at her job as an estate agent, she's adept at avoiding housework, ignoring admin, and evading her mother's anxious questions about her love life. But then Robyn's fired in the most publicly humiliating way imaginable - and her chaos catches up with her.

Although Cleo steps in to give Robyn a temporary job in her cleaning firm, it comes with very firm instructions: Robyn must BEHAVE RESPONSIBLY. And that includes meeting the high standards of Jim, her enigmatic supervisor. But when Robyn learns to navigate the catastrophic kitchens and judgemental dogs of total strangers she learns some unexpected truths about her own messy world. No one's life is spotless...

Is it time - finally - for everyone to stop sweeping their secrets under the carpet?

Lucy Dillon is back with a remarkable read in my opinion and although we are missing her furry friends that usually make a big presence in her books Irresponsible Adult is without a doubt my new favourite by this author.

The book feels like two books merged together because the first half of the book feels a little lighter as we watch Robyn who has lost her job because of her chaotic mind and what others will see as her lazy lapse ways. With bills to pay and no jobs in the pipeline her sister Cleo gives her a job as a cleaner for her firm which is certainly not what Robyn envisaged doing with her life!

It is whilst working alongside Jim and seeing the way others live that Robyn starts to learn more about herself and she begins to discover ways with the help of Jim to make things a little more structured and manageable.

The second part of the book takes an unexpected spin and digs deeper into Robyn and Cleo’s family life and their lives are about to be turned on its head.

This book explores some touching issues and for me I am so thankful for one in particular and this is a little spoiler in that Robyn discovers that she has ADHD so all of her life where she has been judged or even been hard on herself for mess, tasks unfinished, distraction all have an explanation rather than it being assumed she is just careless and lazy. This is the first book I have read that really looks at the characteristics of this condition and I hope it will help others to start noticing the signs and raise the awareness that it needs.

Lucy Dillon has really created such engaging characters who felt so real and the issues they face are day to day struggles which some will relate to but these are all weaved around an addictive and enjoyable storyline as we see Robyn rebuild her life with some learning curves and some romance along the way. The story also looks at family dynamics and the impact secrets between family members have such a dramatic effect on all those involved.

I couldn’t put this book down and it has certainly left its mark on me and is one I will be recommending to everyone.