The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton

by Catherine Alliott

Catherine Alliott, bestselling author of One Day in May and A Crowded Marriage, takes a heart-warming look at what happens when your whole world is turned upside-down in The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton. Evie Hamilton has a secret . . . one she doesn't even know about. Yet . . . Evie's an Oxfordshire wife and mum who's biggest worry in life is whether or not she can fit in a manicure on her way to fetch her daughter from clarinet lessons. But she's blissfully unaware that her charmed and happy life is about to be turned upside-down. For one sunny morning a letter lands on Evie's immaculate doormat. It's a bombshell, knocking her carefully arranged and managed world completely askew and it threatens to sabotage all she holds dear. What will be left and what will change forever? Is Evie strong enough to fight for what she loves? Can her entire world really be as fragile as her best china? Step into Alliott country with The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton. Praise for Catherine Alliott: 'Classy, wonderfully gossipy and breathless' Red 'We defy you not to get caught up in Alliott's life-changing tale' Heat 'Alliott at her best' Daily Telegraph

Genres: Chick Lit, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Adult, Ebooks, Womens Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 2009

About the author

Catherine has sold over 3 million bestselling novels worldwide and is translated into eighteen languages.

The first of these novels Catherine started under the desk when she worked as an advertising copywriter. She was duly fired. With time on her hands, she persevered with the novels, which happily flourished.

In the early days she produced a baby with each book - but after three - stuck to the writing as it was less painful.

She writes with her favorite pen in note books, either in the garden or on a sofa.

Home is a rural spot on the Hertfordshire border, which she shares with her family and a menagerie of horses, cows, chickens, and dogs, which at the last count totaled eighty-seven beating hearts, including her husband. Some of her household have walk-on parts in her novels, but only the chickens would probably recognize themselves.

All her novels are published by Penguin Random House internationally, and by No Shooz Publishing in America and will be available in the US in the Fall of 2017.

Reviews

[Nina Draganova · Rating 5 out of 5]

2023
Колкото й пъти да си препрочитам тези любими книги, не спирам да се смея с глас. Такава страхотна писателка е Катрин Елиът. Като се сетя за прасето наречено Ботичея, просто се смахвам от кискане. И какво ли още не. Липсва ми нейното писане , ма много .
27.06.19/
Колко невероятно , всяка нова или вече прочетена книга , идва при мен или се връща отново, точно когато имам нужда от нея. Все едно някой специално се грижи това да се случи.
Така стана и сега.
Разбира се, не винаги разбирам посланията или не ги виждам веднага.
Иви Хамилтън е друга моя любимка, която изказва мислите ми на глас.
Много мъдрост има в тези книги.
И няма как другояче да бъде. Те идват от истинския живот.
"Ако всеки започне да се вглежда в душата си, ако тръгне да изследва мотивите си, в този свят няма да остане нито един праведник."

12.10.2016
Тази авторка трябва да стане задължителна за четене :)
В това мрачно и студено време, така ме стопли и разсмя.
Само като се сетя за някой откъс от книгата , си се смея сама и то с глас.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was no " secret" life of Evie Hamilton, nothing about her life was revealed that wasn't already told to us from the start. She was lazy and swanned about through her days with her mind only on herself. The "selfish" life of Evie Hamilton or the "self-centered" life of Evie Hamilton would have been more appropriate titles. She was a kept woman, one child at private school, husband at work and a cleaner for goodness sake - she didn't even clean her own house and she had nothing else to do! And she forgot when she offered to help someone and took advantage of her sister in law and brother who were unbelievably busy. So by the end when she took on an enormous amount of responsibility in various ways I wanted to put my head in my hands as she was bound to screw it all up!! Nothing told us she was reformed in any way.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this book :) Lots of great characters, a plot with twists and turns AND, best of all, the author did NOT get caught up in the usual tropes...I love when characters behave in a believable way, rather than just being forced into stereotypical situations. In one instance, things did get solved a little too easily, but I can forgive the author for that because the rest of the book was so good :)

[Krasimira · Rating 5 out of 5]

5*

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read, bit frustrating, I wanted to hit her up side her head at certain moments when she was being completely daft.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

www.snazzybooks.com

The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton was so much fun! I laughed out loud at Evie's antics countless times; often 'chick-lit' which is supposed to be humorous is actually a bit try hard, or not quite to my humour, but I found this novel really entertaining.

There were some pretty emotional parts to The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton, and the way Alliott blends humour and poignance so seamlessly is a testament to her writing and skill. The characters are just brilliant, some more likeable than others, and I got so into the story that I really wanted to give some characters a good slap at times!

Having read Wish You Were Here recently I wanted to read more by her, and this certainly didn't disappoint! She's up there now with some of my other favourite authors in this genre (Marian Keyes and JoJo Moyes are another few of my favourites) and I'll be reading more as and when I can!

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

this could've been just another 'middle aged woman has cheating husband and leaves to find herself with interesting younger man' story, but it has much more levels than that. For one, the 'cheating' is in the husband's past and he is really quite a likable guy, if a bit too honest. The ends are tied up nicely and some great twists that you never see coming. A great read!

[Lisa van Zyl-Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed like it was going to be better than it was. A lot of interesting set up, but tied up too neatly.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Din când în când am chef de câte o poveste din colectia chic, si asta pentru că îmi doresc să mă relaxez, sa citesc ceva fara pretentii, amuzant si romantic, însă în ultima perioadă am descoperit numai bazaconii. Cartea de față nu face exceptie. Adică, povestea nu e rea... tratează relațiile de familie în toate formele ei, dar e prea serioasa. N am zâmbit nicio dată.
Cred ca este încadrată prost la categoria chic-cocktail...
E o poveste clasică, a unei femei din zilele noastre, careia ii este pusă la încercare toata viața, dar autoarea nareaza acest lucru fără niciun gram de umor sau romantism. Exista o poveste de dragoste, dar este deja consumată, deci ioc scântei, nema fluturași și inimioare. Ce trist! Se pune mare preț pe familie și chiar dacă autoarea a vrut sa creeze o cumpănă care sa puna personajul principal in dilema, n a fost cine stie ce.
Nu o mai lungesc. O fâsâială de poveste... ce m-a plictisit teribil.
Nu o recomand celor ce cauta ceva amuzant tipic colecției chic... pt ca n are nicio treaba, însă dacă vreți o poveste de viata, merge... 2/5 stele pt ca nu mi a plăcut.

[JLR · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t expect much from this book - I was looking for something light to read...you know, comically bewildered British woman working her way through whatever life troubles she had and a happy ending. It’s a good thing my expectations were low.

This book was a mess - the writing was solid but the story was sloppy, scattered, slow, and littered with so many random characters that I just didn’t care anymore. There’s like ponies, lingerie, estate fraud, a dead kid (which I THINK was supposed to be a key point in Evie and Ant’s backstory but just fell flat and awkward), mysterious neighbors, paternity drama, wedding planning, pig orgies, book stores, photographer shot to death - I can’t even remember all the randomness.

The biggest issue was that Evie was an awful character. She wasn’t funny, smart, sympathetic or even snarky or mean. She was just a whiny, spoiled brat of a woman who was completely uninteresting. She spent the whole book trying to find someone to prop up her privileged delusions and tell her she was right. She didn’t strike me as anything other than incredibly dull with a streak of grating. I feel like if I’d met Evie in real life, she’d be the person I’d avoid at parties bc I’d know I’d be trapped into a 45 minute dialogue about her imaginary problems or peccadillos. Ugh.

Big miss for me on this one.

*DISCLAIMER* I try to review books on their own merit or against the author’s other works. I recognize that it is not equitable or useful to compare emerging authors against long-established authors.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

After the first few chapters I really started to enjoy this book. Evie grew on me. At first I found her to be a bit silly and not really in touch with reality but after I got to know her, I found her to be a really endearing character. She's sweet and more intelligent than she gives herself credit for. She just lacks a bit with the follow through at times.

This story wrapped things up a little too nicely for me. I understand the need to tie up lose ends at the end of the novel but everything was just a little too perfect for my liking.

I also had a few issues with Ant. Not the fact that he had the one-night-stand and semi-emotional affair he had with Bella all those years ago, but rather how he dealt with matters now. I didn't like that he was hiding what he was doing from Evie. All that secret email communication and the lunch that he went on and only really told Evie about at the eleventh hour.

I just can't BELIEVE that he didn't think Evie would accept Stacy into their family after Bella died. I know that it was never going to be an easy transition but to think that he thought Evie would just cast Stacy out like that... I can't really forgive him for that.

It's the first book by Catherine Alliott that I've read and I'll be checking out some of her other work in the future.

[Kerryn (RatherBeReading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story, i actually found parts of it extremely amusing.

I did have some issues with it however, it was overly long, i don't really feel like this story needed to be over 500 pages.

I felt the story was just tied up a little too nicely at the end which just gave it an unrealistic feel.

Also, i I feel like the title of this book is misleading.. what does this actually have to do with a secret in Evie's life??

Overall this was enjoyable though.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having long been a Catherine Alliott fan I was looking forward to reading this book. However, while funny in places, it was a disappointment. It was very long and could have been severely edited (in my opinion). I think the problem was the main character just lacked any substance. Although I still shed a tear a the end.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a really long-winded book where not much seems to happen. The book could easily be half the length and capture the same material; there are too many pointless descriptions of things.

I would have given up with the book, but I wanted to know what happened and the book has been sitting in my bookcase for years so felt it deserved to be read.

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing I didn’t like about this book, was....I started reading it along with 2 other books but when I finally settled down with just this one, I Was so ENTERTAINED 🥰🥰 This book made me laugh and cry.... more laughing than crying😂

[Val · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant, I loved it, so funny in places, will definitely seek out more of her books. I really could identify with Evie, her thoughts and actions are so what I'd do.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was lovely LIGHT story I purchased Allen an audiobook when it was on sale, with some surprises and also some amount of predictability. This was nice for my long commute to take my mind off of work and the holidays and would make a decent rom-com movie! Very British so if you are a Yank like myself, you may not initially understand some of the slang, and have to look up some of the pop terminology and colloquialisms uses, but it does not hinder comprehension of the storyline! I took one star off because I felt that the story moved a little slow in the beginning, and I needed to take a break because there wasn’t really anything happening. The character was a little cringe in her selfishness, and as it turns out, there was not really anything secret about her life so I am not sure why it got that title. The second half of the book is great and worth the wait and wrapped up nicely.

[Betsy Fatzinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book. It was a feel good story, for the most part, and enough intrigue to keep me interested. I recommend it!

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good escape book.

[Patti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Evie is such an obnoxious hot mess. The author must have realized how obnoxious towards the end and gave her one (1) redeeming quality mentioned by two (2) characters (that I recall).

She continuously lets people down, acts in ways that somehow miraculously do not cause injury, rams her vehicle into another vehicle - more than once, and on and one throughout. But then somehow manages to start a business and take on a new guardianship totally without incident.

Despite that one quality, generosity, she has not one iota of her own money to be generous with, has never done charity work and rarely visits her niece and nephews until she wants her sister in law to house a horse for her. Then she takes $$ from an older widow. Such a generous spirit.

Honestly, Evie just grossed me out. I’d like to read a book about her mother and Felicity though.

[Jayne Ormerod · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still sorting out my feelings over this one. I'm not sure what cubbyhole to shove it in to. First, at 474 pages of tight font, it was a big time investment. I do think the "humor" scenes were overwritten (and unbelievable), and the main character needed to get off the emotional roller coaster. My thoughts may have been jaded because the last book I read also involved a character closely related to a small independent bookstore, as did this one, and I had to stop and sort things out in my mind a lot. Redeeming factors were the colorful British-isms and an overall decent storyline. Good for a day at the beach when not much thinking is involved. I award it 3 (out of 5) beach umbrellas.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t enjoy this book. Not sure what was so secret about Evie’s life - it was all a bit depressing really.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a sweet enough book.

I found it incredibly long-winded however and for me, there were just too many elements of none important info, without enough of a focus on the main plot of the book.

I found myself skimming the last 10 pages and just wondering when it would end.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another wonderful, fun read by Alliot, who is one of my favorite writers. I was SO impressed by the way she brought so many conflicts together, and she granted a lot of pleasant time to giving everybody a happy ending as well. A joy to read.

[Dianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

What was the big secret? Do the people who write these blurbs read the books? An annoying, lazy and self-absorbed character who took a long time to grow up. And who really should not drive a car. Not a fan.

[Nicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book as it was a good fun read and the first book by Catherine Alliott that I read. It had me laughing out loud a lot and felt very indulgent. The characters are good too.

[Krista Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out well, dragged in the middle and then wrapped up maybe a bit too perfectly?

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written chick lit for the discerning thinking woman.

[Kay Tennant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laughter and Tears

This is a story that touches both the heartstrings and the funny bone. I couldn't put it down . I hope it is made into a movie!

[Nessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great read, I absolutely love Catherine's books.

Thoroughly enjoyable and can't wait to read more by this author.