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    Sleeping Arrangements: A Novel
    Sleeping Arrangements: A Novel
    Sleeping Arrangements: A Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    Sleeping Arrangements: A Novel

    Written by Madeleine Wickham

    Narrated by Katherine Kellgren

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling author of the Shopaholic series Sophia Kinsella delivers another fabulously fun tale writing under Madeleine Wickham. Sleeping Arrangements tells the story of two families who are "accidentally" double-booked at the same lavish Spanish villa of a mutual friend.

    Chloe needs a holiday. She's sick of making wedding dresses, her partner Philip has troubles at work, and the whole family wants a break. Her wealthy friend Gerard has offered the loan of his luxury villa in Spain--perfect.

    Hugh is not a happy man. His immaculate wife Amanda seems more interested in her new kitchen than in him, and he works so hard to pay for it, he barely has time for his children. Maybe he'll have a chance to bond with them on holiday. His old friend Gerard has lent them a luxury villa in Spain--perfect.

    Both families arrive at the villa and realize the awful truth--Gerard has double-booked. What no one else realizes is that Chloe and Hugh have a history; and as tensions rise within the two families, old passions resurface. It seems that Gerard's 'accidental' double booking may not be an accident after all...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJul 8, 2008
    ISBN9781427204400
    Author

    Madeleine Wickham

    Madeleine Wickham is the author of several acclaimed novels, including A Desirable Residence, Cocktails for Three, Sleeping Arrangements and The Wedding Girl. As Sophie Kinsella, she has written a number of bestsellers including the Shopaholic series, Twenties Girl, Remember Me?, The Undomestic Goddess, and Can You Keep a Secret? Confessions of a Shopaholic was made into a major motion picture starring Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy. Born in London, Wickham studied at New College, Oxford. She lives in London with her husband and family.

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    Reviews for Sleeping Arrangements

    3/5

    215 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Madeleine Wickham knows how to write fun, awkward stories! Great book
    • 1/5
      There are books that are entertaining , informative, or liberating, but Sleeping Arrangement is unnecessarily pathetic as it serves no purpose other than to indulge the whims of 2 selfish people under the nose of their respective partners. Nothing to celebrate with this book!
    • 5/5
      Once again I enjoyed Madeleine Wickham's book hugely. It was a very touching story about life itself, about love, past and about family. Of course there was the holiday factor and I think we all have had at leas one totally messed up holiday. I'm quite young still, the same age as Chloe and Hugh were when they first met so I couldn't really put myself into their shoes but still this was an amazing story.

      The book itself was very quick paced so I read it really quickly. It took me about three days and I didn't read the whole time, I kept quite long breaks. It was very enjoyable reading experience and I learned a lot from it even though I'm still young and I have to wait a while to get into to that kind of situations.

      :)
    • 1/5
      This book was hard to believe. I found it hard to believe that this situation could be realistic. I thought the characters were quite superficial, dishonest, and had no backbone or morals. It was not a favorite.
    • 2/5
      It was a cute, easy read. I could have done without the infidelity because they "had to find out", the 16-year-old losing his virginity to the nanny while the mom turned her back, and the pot smoking ... but I won't be a prude on this one. I was glad it was happily-ever-after.

      I have a few others by Sophie Kinsella on my list, and will read another one by her. After that, I'll decide whether or not she is an author worth keeping on my TBR.
    • 4/5
      Ms. WickHam sets the reader up - two lovers torn apart, married to spouses that are difficult, suddenly reunited in awkward circumstances. You are sure that you are supposed to be rooting for them to get back together. I liked that in the end, there was loyalty to existing relationships but didn't like that there was infidelity. There are some funny parts in the storyline.
    • 1/5
      I should start by saying that I am normally a huge fan of any book written under Madeleine Wickham's nom de plume of Sophie Kinsella. That's probably why I felt that this book was such a disappointment. I went into it expecting wit and charm, but I found myself feeling completely let down and unenthusiastic about finishing the book.My first issue is that characters. There are very few books out there where you look at all of the characters and just think that they are all horrible. I've read books with sociopaths and serial killers that had more decency than these characters. They all seem to be lacking perspective and none seems to truly realize just how good their lives are. They find excuses for their behavior, whether it's rage over a lost lover or depression over being kicked to the curb by your employer. It almost seems like when toddlers end up in a massive pinching session and blame it on another kid because the other person started it. I just wanted to scream at them for their petty attitudes and bickering.Other than the annoying characters, the book was extremely boring. There was very little flow to the story. There was nothing fun or enlightening. The book was just kind of a "what I did on my summer vacation" essay from elementary school that was stretched out over 300+ pages. I think an elementary school student would have probably come up with something a bit more compelling, though.There were some parts that I did like about this book, but the bad completely outweighed the good. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone I know, unless I really and truly thought that they deserved to be bored out of their mind.
    • 3/5
      This was a beach read while on vacation and a typical Wickham novel- fun, fast, and just a little sordid. Just like a sitcom, everything comes out in the end. Food: This is a bottle of Boone's Summer Hill wine. We used to drink it in college when we didn't have much money and hadn't learned how to appreciate wine yet. It's sweet, colorful, "adult", and gone before you know it, leaving a pleasant aftertaste in your mouth.
    • 3/5
      I am torn with this book. On one hand, I enjoyed it because it was a Madeleine Wickham; on the other, it was definitely not as good as her others. If you enjoy her books you should read it, but this one is not the one to get you hooked on the rest.
    • 3/5
      A book by the author of the Shopaholic series, under her real name, I believe.Wasn't quite sure what to expect of this -- two families, each desperately needing to get away for a vacation, end up bunged together in the same holiday villa which the same friend had "accidentally" lent to each family for the same week. Two very different families, under very different stresses, plus the fact that two of them have unfinished business from a romance in the past. Lots of pink che...moreA book by the author of the Shopaholic series, under her real name, I believe.Wasn't quite sure what to expect of this -- two families, each desperately needing to get away for a vacation, end up bunged together in the same holiday villa which the same friend had "accidentally" lent to each family for the same week. Two very different families, under very different stresses, plus the fact that two of them have unfinished business from a romance in the past. Lots of pink cheeks indicating hanky panky being just finished or interrupted, and a lot of conscious-checking. In the end it was satisfying, as the easy outs didn't happen, but the more real life, hard working ones did. I hope that's not a spoiler.Would have liked a little more of Spain and a little less poolside whinging.
    • 1/5
      This book was vaguely disappointing. I wasn’t sure what I wanted as I read this book, and the way it was wrapped up in the end made me feel that Madeleine Wickham (aka, Sophie Kinsella) must’ve had a bad batch of romance when she wrote this, because seriously, there was nothing romantic about it at all. I’ll chance a small spoiler by saying that part of what the message in the book seemed to be was, ‘be happy with what you got, and you only get one chance at that totally crazy-happy love and if you mess it up with bad choices, you’re out of luck and you’ll be lucky if you find someone else you can love, even if it isn’t that crazy-all consuming love.’ What closure there was seemed half-hearted at best and definitely not aimed toward making you feel good…and sure, that’s life, right? I mean, I get that reality doesn’t always work to give you closure that makes you feel good, but if I wanted to read a book that told me that, I’d grab a drama instead of a romance, seriously. I can't even say that it does much in the way of making me like or dislike any of the other characters either. This book has not improved my perception of Madeleine Wickham OR Sophie Kinsella one bit.
    • 4/5
      (Madeleine Wickham also writes as Sophie Kinsella)Two different families have been double booked into a mutual friend's villa in Spain, and have to work out how to share the space. Unknown to everyone else, two of the characters have a prior connection which they are unwilling to mention.You can see a tragedy taking shape, and it starts to build towards it's climax. The first part takes place, with all attendant dramatic atmosphere, and then the second part - and then someone says "What?" and everything suddenly changes and they all live happily ever after.I have to confess I picked this up as holiday reading, and it's not my usual genre. It fulfilled it's function admirably, though; most of the book was reasonably engaging without being compelling, so it kept me occupied when I needed it to, without absorbing me so much that it kept me away from my holiday activities (which is what usually happens). The ending was disappointing, though; but I notice the book is billed as a New York Times bestseller. I have to say as well that the nanny irritated me with her constant inappropriate remarks which she excused as "Joke!"
    • 2/5
      Lots of story lines. Love the Nana that comes along. Adultry...which I never like. Disfunctional ending. Not my favorite book, still entertaining. Two familes go on a holiday and end up in the same villa. Come to find out two of them have had a prior relationship and two men are working for the same company...ones about to be let go by the ohter. Horny, teenage boy. Crazy!
    • 1/5
      Silly and unrealistic story with very little value. I listened to this while driving and needed something to pass the time, however, I'm not sure that I would have finished it if I had been reading the book instead. The woman who performed the audio was obnoxious to boot.
    • 5/5
      Although the ending is a little unsatisfying (no tidy ending for a story like this), this book is very engaging and witty. I do love British chicklit, so I'm easily sold, but this one put lots of butterflies in my stomach which is my number one criterion.
    • 3/5
      Sleeping Arrangements is a HUGE improvement on Wickham (Kinsella)'s Shopaholic series. The characters are multi-dimensional, human, and at least reasonably intelligent.That said, this book still isn't a stand out for me. Great for a read by the pool, but it's definitely going back into my PaperBackSwap trading queue
    • 4/5
      Even if I never got this book via Librarything, I got to buy it in a used book store and loved it.Any book written by Madeleine Wickham (Sophie Kinsella: 'The Shopaholic Novels') get my attention. Her witty style of writting is marvelous and very entertaining.
    • 3/5
      When two couples and their children land in the same Spanish villa for their holidays it forces the adults to examine their lives and to reach predictable conclusions. It turns out that, just coincidently, two of the adults have a secret past. At first being thrown together brings up all kinds of suppressed emotions. Later they both try to balance their actions against their present lives, partners and families. Along the way the reader is mildly entertained with this domestic navel gazing and some snappy dialog.
    • 3/5
      Two separate families are anxious to go on a holiday. Chloe and Philip are both frustrated with work. Chloe is a seamstress who is tired of squeezing women in dresses a size smaller than they really wear and a recent takeover in Philip's company has left him wondering if he will have a job in the near future. Amanda and Hugh are going through a rough patch in their marriage. Philip is obsessed with work and spends so little time with his family that his children barely even know him and Amanda is currently stressing the redecoration of their home. When both families receive an invitation to their friend Gerard's villa they each look forward to a restful week in Spain. What they find out when they arrive is that Gerard has accidentally double booked his villa and they end up having to share it as every hotel in the area is fully booked. To make matters worse Chloe and Hugh were once a couple whose relationship ended badly and their respective spouses have no knowledge of the past relationship. Faced with the shared sleeping arrangements stress mounts between the couples and soon all the adults are fighting between themselves and Chloe and Hugh are drawn to each other again. Overall I thought the book was an okay read but I was a little disappointed in it. I love Wickham's writing as Sophie Kinsella in the Shopaholic series and really enjoyed The Wedding Girl by her but Sleeping Arrangements was a let down. The characters were not as likeable as characters in her other books. Hugh is a major jerk throughout the whole book, Philip's lack of a backbone was annoying, Amanda is too uptight and Chloe was just not likeable. The only bright spot in the book was the nanny, Jenna. She had a weird sense of humor and always made the scenes she was in surprising. I'm really on the fence about recommending this one so I'll say read it if it's readily available but I don't recommend searching it out.