A review by vikingwolf
Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini

Did not finish book.
Having enjoyed the first one, I was very disappointed in this one. What made the first book so good was how much I liked the characters. This time round, all the characters I had liked, other than Sylvia, had turned into horrible characters!

Lets start with Diane, who doesn't really seem to have much interest in her kids or their interests, and likes to show off in front of the neighbours. She likes to judge her friends and tell them what they should be doing based on her standards, which I also found annoying. Her dumb feud with Mary Beth was childish, immature and pointless, and took up too much of the book.

Sarah was annoying me. I had sympathy with her about why she fell out with her mother but because she won't tell anyone the details, they all take Carol's side and think Sarah is over-reacting. Jeez Sarah stop being such a dummy and tell your friends what she did!!!

Sarah's mother Carol is a dreadful woman who finds fault in everything that Sarah does, right down to the way she cuts carrots. She is constantly on at Sarah about having children when it is obvious to anyone with a brain that there is an issue there. And of course she tried to bribe Sarah with money not to marry Matt after trying everything else to break them up. What a bitch! It's actually beyond me why so many reviewers seem to be on Carol's side!

Matt is a real asshat in this book, moaning at Sarah all the time, not showing any sympathy for her and then telling her that marrying her was the biggest mistake of his life. Oh you are such a sweetheart aren't you?

Then we have Bonnie, who discovers that her husband is having an online affair with another woman and is planning to spend time in a hotel with her. So does Bonnie throw him out or stand up to him? No, she decides that she must make herself look prettier to stop him cheating. Oh that was just the last straw for me with this book. Of COURSE it is the woman's fault for getting older and FORCING her poor devoted husband to look for a younger woman! That really made me mad. I did like how she finally shows him up but the whole women being doormats to men bevaving badly thing does not entertain me.

The cast of monsters, I mean characters, was not entetaining. I wish the book had focused a bit more on Sylvia's story instead of the very annoying dramas of the others dominating it. I've decided that I don't want to read on with the series based on what I saw here.