Virtue

by Serena Mackesy

Saints, sinners, and the mere mortals in betweenWhat do you need to be a saint these days? Ambition, determination and good PR. But what do you do if your mother's a saint and you just want to be human? Anna and Harriet are about to find out.Anna and Harriet share a hellishly saintly mothers. So when they meet, initial loathing turns swiftly to recognition and firm friendship. Happily settled in a chaotic flat and armed with a wicked sense of humour, they set out to paint the town red. And for a while life goes swimmingly. But when they tread on one toe too many, they find that they have only their worst instincts - and each other - to rely on.Be good. And if you can't be good, be careful...

Genres: Chick Lit

464 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Serena Mackesy is a British novelist, author of four novels under her own name and several bestselling psychological crime novels under her pseudonym, Alex Marwood. She is the granddaughter on her mother's side of the novelist Margaret Kennedy and on her father's side of the novelist romantic novelist Leonora Starr/Dorothy Rivers. She grew up in Oxford, and graduated in English Literature from the Univeristy of London. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a dreadful, dreadful cover, but was actually one of my favourite reads of the year: the sins of the parents are visited upon the daughters of a sainted Princess Di-type figure and of a Nobel Prize-winning polymath, who fail to live up to their mothers' perfection, but succeed in making lives of their own albeit working as waitresses at a kinky school dinners restaurant. Featuring Henry, one of the most delightful felines ever presented in fiction. (I had to read the end of the book first, to make sure nothing bad happened to Henry. It doesn't.)

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Harriet. She's just fantastic. I tend to read fantasy titles but I've read this one a few times and I love it. Definately twisted family issues for both Anna and Harriet lol. This book goes to some very dark places but its also got the lighter side of life. Props to Serena for a great book.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it quite hard to get into this book, I don't think I had heaps of faith in it from the beginning but picked it back up after putting it aside for a period of time and kept on reading. Intially I found the alternating flow of the chapters quite hard to follow but got with the flow to some extent later in the book. Think I found Anna's story more interesting than Harriets, I didn't really get the whole Godiva 'saintly' thing, although it was mostly when the truth behind Anna's upbringing began to unravel that it became interesting but then I didn't get the whole twist in the tail and her mother's motivation for attacking her?? I look back and kinda ask myself what it was all about/what was the point of the story?

[Karschtl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I abandoned this book after only a couple of pages. The story on the backcover sounded boring, and by now (1 week after reading them) I can't even remember what the first pages were actually about.