Graeme Simsion: The Best of Adam Sharp, 9780718179502, paperback, Penguin Random House UK, available now

When I was still active in the publishing world, “The Rosie Project” by debut author Graeme Simsion became a huge success for Penguin and went on to become a bestseller by S. Fischer in Germany.   I noticed he had written a new novel and when the world looked particularly bleak, grey skies, winter, a dire political world, I downloaded “The Best of Adam Sharpe” hoping for an easy, entertaining read.

I do not read a lot of so called women’s fiction, so I may be a little too critical. The first part of the book I enjoyed but the second part is a little too schmaltzy for my taste. 

The book is told from the perspective of Adam Sharp, a greying, just 50tish IT consultant from Norwich, with a love for music and an accomplished pianist himself. His uneventfully content life with long time partner Claire is suddenly interrupted when an email from the past pops up unexpectedly. Angelina Brown, the love of his life, the woman all his musical choices are connected to, was a very sexy actress starring in an Australian soap when they met. Adam was on an working world trip in his twenties when their path crossed in Melbourne and they fell madly in love despite Angelina being married. What follows is a string of flirty emails and the feelings she still arouses in him make him realize how emotionally stale his current relationship to Claire has become. When Angelina proposes a week’s visit when she and her husband vacation in France, Adam is torn but he knows he has to make a decision.  Does he have a second chance to correct what now feels like a mistake? 

Adams current life, his relationship with Claire and his memories of the three month with Angelina in Australia make up the first part of the book. The second part is set in France where he is spending a very eventful week with her and her husband Charlie which is where Graeme Simsion lost me.

I am sure many readers will find this book highly appealing but for my taste it was a little too simply constructed. The sex parts felt a little like let’s add a dose of “Fifty shades of grey” magic.  Songs and music play a central role in the novel; I thought the reference to the songs in the book made available by the author on Spotify at the end of the book was a clever idea by Simsion. Other than that, make up your own mind whether this is for you or not, reading the book is care free entertainment for sure.