Vintage Alice lacks any real depth, but is a light, if odd ,chic lit read. Alice and her boyfriend, Nash, are planning to emigrate to Australia from England, hoping the 'lucky country' will deliver better weather, more opportunities and reinvigorate their waning relationship. As the date to leave draws near Alice wavers back and forth, reluctant to leave her mother and friends. When Alice discovers that Nash has cheated on her, and that he intends to take up a new job offer that will keep them in the UK, Alice breaks off the relationship and with gentle encouragement from her cousin Joel decides to go ahead with the move and finds her world turned upside down.
I didn't find Alice immediately appealing, I struggle to sympathise with characters who make little effort to take responsibility for their own lives. Alice martyrs herself to her appalling relationship with Nash, daydreams about creating her own clothing label (Vintage Alice) while ignoring the opportunities she is given to develop it and seems to determined to sabotage herself at every turn. It's not until she leaves the employ of the kennel despite having no real back up plan that I become more comfortable with her, but I have to admit that is tainted by the slight ickiness of her growing relationship with Joel.
Even though they are cousins in name (not actually blood relatives)the romance was more creepy than sweet, perhaps because at every opportunity Adams stressed the cousin relationship. The relationship developed at suitable pace, it just wasn't a pairing that worked for me.
I wanted Alice to develop some ambition and independence. I kept expecting Alice to move ahead with her Vintage Alice dreams but there is no real follow through. I was also disappointed by the plot convenience of a large inheritance when her mother meets and marries a millionaire in a matter of weeks.
I wanted to like Vintage Alice much more than I did but for me the premise was skewed.