Darcy Rhone used to have it all - thinner and prettier than Rachel, her best-friend-forever, Darcy was engaged to Dex - gorgeous, wealthy and successful, Dex was everything she ever wanted in a boyfriend. So when, only weeks before the wedding, Dex breaks off the engagement (Darcy Rhone is always the dumper, never the dumped), Darcy's shocked. When Darcy dashes to Rachel's apartment for the comfort and self-esteem inflation she's relied on all her life, she's devastated to discover not only Dex's watch by Rachel's bedside but the semi-clothed person of her (only just) former fiancé in her best friend's closet.
Okay, fine, so she'd also been having a little fling with Dex's best man, Marcus, who she knew Rachel was interested in, and had just discovered she was pregnant (to Marcus - she and Dex hadn't had a minute to sleep together in over a month, between wedding preparations and her urgent need to spend every minute with Marcus), but Dex didn't know about either event. And her affair in no way mitigates the outraged angst Darcy feels by Rachel's betrayal. Unable to return home to Indiana, and certainly unable to stay in New York (where everyone knew about her humiliation), Darcy flees to London. Prepared to spend her entire pregnancy there, Darcy invites herself to Rachel's friend Ethan's tiny flat 'for a few days.' A writer, Ethan doesn't really like Darcy very much, and he has no time for her game playing or her angst. And, as her pregnancy advances and Darcy finds the real man of her dreams - a Harley Street obstetrician - Darcy finally grows out of her spoilt princess attitude into something more like an adult and mother.
A companion to Rachel's story, Something Borrowed, Something Blue is a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying novel that, unlike a recently read disappointment, lives up to its chick lit promise. Like its predecessor, Something Blue has a somewhat too-neat ending, but the plot and the character development more than make up for this. Okay, it's a little predictable, but that can be somewhat comforting (and nobody except Lynn likes a romance where the characters don't end up happily ever after). I felt a special resonance with this novel because it, to a degree, mirrors (without the pregnancy, affair and betrayal) one of my sister's lives. Not too frothy, a nice sense of place, and a satisfying ending - perfect. - Alex
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