The Party Girl's Invitation

by Karen Elaine Campbell

Crystal took a moment to scrutinise the once familiar landmarks, strangely smaller and more faded than she remembered, she’d done this journey a hundred times or more in her youth, but now with adult eyes, it seemed almost inconsequential. Travel weary and jaded, balance was what she sought now. Her eyes pricked, and she rubbed crossly at her face, adding even more grime to the ‘panda’ eyes she’d applied so long ago at the make-up counter in Macy’s, on her way to the airport.A simple train journey, from glitzy corporate London, to the family firm in rural Wiltshire, liberates Crystal from her colourful past and delivers ‘Mr Right’ into her wretchedly barren life. With the dubious assistance of her amiable, slightly eccentric family, ‘The Party Girl’ swaps her jet-setting lifestyle and sexy Manolo’s for practical Hunters and a borrowed Land Rover, as she takes on the faltering arrangements for the ‘party of the season’. If she can avoid an infatuated suitor, her ex-lover and an ex-employer while controlling the ruinous party finances, then the struggling venture may be her salvation. The stakes are high and Crystal always plays to win, but will she find success, before her past catches up with her and threatens to tear her world apart?

226 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Diana Jackson]

I enjoyed this novel although it is not one I would normally read. Crystal the main character is running away from a very public humiliation but wherever she goes she seems to get into scrapes, including some very uncompromising situations. She has an unusual character, one moment business like and at others a tearaway teenager that just did not grow up.The story all hinges on arranging a fancy dress ball and you can imagine all sorts happening there...and it did.
The book was a refreshing change for me and although unpolished at times, had me reading enthusiastically to the end.