The Book Review ~ Villa America

Rating: 4+/5

I had no idea what Liza Klaussmann's new book was about. After "Tiger's in Red Weather" I saw this on the shelf of my local charity shop and grabbed it especially as it was on honeymoon reading list. However, I started it and then I left it on the shelf and its spine didn't crack until three days ago when I realised it was still unread and the honeymoon was only a week a way. I had been so excited to pick a book to take and fill my Kobo with some delights that I didn't want to take Villa America so I cracked the spine again, and I didn't put it down for the next 72 hours. 

Liza Klaussmann's writing is all absorbing. The characters and the settings just pull you in and they don't let you go until you are done. This particular story I had read before. Post World War 1, Europe and the artists. I had read 'Z' and "The Paris Wife" loving them both. Now was the turn of the Murphy's and their lives during this time and how it interwove with the Fitzgerald's and the Hemmingway's. This beautifully written semi-biopic book about the tragic love triangle of the Murphy's in the first half of the novel. Liza captures the age and the characters with utter perfection. I loved it which makes the last third of the novel so disappointing. 

The writing turns to correspondents among friends as the Murphy's story unravels into chaos. It is interesting, but it seems rushed. As if Klaussmann ran out of space and needed to close everything down. It got the job done. As in it closed the book down, but it lost its power. 

THEN, she pulled it all back with the most phenomenal ending that just broke your heart! The mystery trip that the characters continually mention during the heartbreaking times is finally revealed, and it is worth the wait. Klaussmann pulled it back from the brink and the rough middle part was forgotten. I just cannot wait to get her next book! 

It all Begins!

I cannot believe this is happening! The countdown has officially begun! 
In TEN DAYS time I will be getting married!

 After chatting to my work colleagues about not having a Hen Night my amazing manager put together a great night with wine tasting at Love Wine in Woodstock, a delicious dinner at the Woodstock Arms,  then a bottle of prosecco in the King's Arms and cocktails closing down the crown! 
A true Woodstock Village Hen Night!  Thank you Ladies!

It was the first event so what did I wear?

Outfit ~ Pedlum Dress by Maurie & Eve with LK Bennet Black Heels

Makeup ~ Laura Mercier Mineral Powder, Nars Blush and highlighter, Laura Mercier Mascara and Blake Lively Loreal Lipstick.

Special Thank You to Cyrus Mower for photographing the Wine Tasting

The Posh Gurl Rewrites

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for their emails. I received messages from friends and strangers and I am happy to say that despite the upset I won't give up just yet! 

Thanks to specific friends who reminded me that what I write is my art, and like art it is easily subjective. Therefore, what you think could be a personal attack is instead a social observation. Please don't take what I write personally. My blog is not my diary it's my art form. If you don't like it you should probably just not read it! 

Just for ABK I will repeat myself with her favourite line. Life is always ready to give you lemons, and its up to the individual to turn them into lemonade... not the annoying Beyonce kind but the yummy refreshing drink kind!

Wedding Dilemma Deepens...

Apparently taking life onto a blog and letting it all out doesn't work in real life. Carrie Bradshaw can write endlessly about her sex life and bad relationships without any sort of comeback. Me, I write about the cultural  pressures of planning and living the perfect wedding and it bites me in the ass! Maybe its just the British ... they don't understand blogging and its rules. Maybe its just the fact people read what they want to read without seeing a point being made. I don't know what it is, but its close to censoring me out. 

After a hardcore Pilates reformer class and a bar of Galaxy chocolate I took it to the amazing ABK for advice! She calls for a clarification rather than a retraction so that is what this is. A "Clarification" for all those who need it in S I M P L E terms. What I was trying to get across in yesterdays post was cultural pressure and how it can take a perfect day and make it disappointing. How reality is completely skewed  by media representation. You don't need a Vivienne Westwood wedding dress to be a beautiful bride. You don't need the plaza hotel in New York for the perfect reception. Even though we know these facts we still let the reality of not having those things effect our reflection on the day, and  it can make us crazy with disappointed and ungratefulness. I am not saying everything will be perfect, (I once went to a wedding where the bride cried because the tablecloth on the desert table was ivory and not white) nothing ever is that is not what life's about, but it is the cultural expectation that it should be perfect that drives the bridal unrest, the ungrateful lashings out and the unhappiness. Instead, as brides we should just look at the day and all the preparation and pre-events and go, "Yes, this is not a clipping from Bridal Magazine, but I love him and this is what it's all about". Another amazing lady I am honoured to call my friend told me at the start of the wedding prep, right after we got engage to always keep in mind that this is about the marriage and not the wedding. 

So, going back to yesterdays post. It was a blog written to comment on the social pressure of wedding planning, and how the 'dream' of things put in your mind with movies, books and magazines actually gets in the way of you being super happy with what is objectively a great situation. No malice, no back-stabbing, just a cultural observation with a bit of real life thrown in. Hopefully this post will CLARIFY what I was getting at, and ease the mind of some readers who took offence. 

P.S. I will not be censored so if your offended get used to it or stop reading cause The Posh Gurl ain't gonna stop writing!