Alexander McCall Smith creates these wonderful characters, that essentially have rather agreeable lives. I think of all his characters, Isabelle leads the most charmed life. She is intelligent, well-educated, and well-to-do. She has a handsome, sensitive and younger fiance, who has fathered her beautiful and well-behaved son. And she enjoys her job.

All in all there is simply no angst, nor traumas and nary a crisis on the horizon. But despite the lacks these things, Alexander crafts a beautiful story... one that envelopes you in a cocoon of security. I enjoy Isabelle's stress-less living. Alexander's promise of these kind of worlds, is one makes me return ever so faithfully to his books.

I love a story every once in a while where nothing terrible happens. As a mom, I can really appreciate Alexander's worlds... always as smooth as silk... a fabulous suspension of reality.