The Summer Job: A hilarious story about a lie that gets out of hand – soon to be a TV series

DNF at 8%. Birdie has run away from her life and is trying out someone else's. That sounds fun right? Unfortunately, I just found the whole premise of someone trying to pretend to a Michelin starred restaurant in a luxury Scottish hotel that you are a world-expert sommelier to be so far-fetched I couldn't get past it. I don't know why I could have accepted someone pretending to be an interior designer but not a sommelier, but there you are. Obviously my fault for requesting a book with such a preposterous premise, I tried a few times over the last five months to engage with the book but I couldn't get over it. I was invited to read this book by the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A joyful read full of love, romance - and a great deal of fun! Birdy Finch finds herself in a bit of an impossible situation; with no job and nowhere to live, her best friend Heather is heading out of the country for the summer leaving behind a temporary job in the Scottish Highlands. Something like that would tide Birdy over nicely and let her get her life in order - could she possibly take up the post in Heather's place without anyone realising? Surely it can't be that hard to pretend to be the world-class wine expert that is Heather? And can she keep it up even when she finds herself falling for an attractive Scotsman? With several thrillers on my list this week, I was more than ready for something a bit lighter and The Summer Job fit the bill perfectly. Birdy is a wonderful character, and I admired her ability to think on her feet and carry out the deception which threw her in at the deep end of a job she knew little - if anything - about. I know I couldn't have carried it off! This is sharp and funny with an undercurrent of love and romance as well as a serious side to the story. With a terrific cast of characters, there is plenty going on at all times and I lapped it up from beginning to end. The descriptions of my home country are really well done, and may do great things for tourism! Definitely an author to keep an eye on, and a novel I'm happy to give 4.5*.

The Summer Job is the first novel by Australian-born author, Lizzy Dent. Elizabeth Finch (Birdy to her close friends) is, without any knowledge at all of wine, posing as a sommelier for the summer in a newly-renovated exclusive boutique hotel in western Scotland. It was actually her best friend, Heather Jones’s job; it was meant to be a run-down family hotel with a tiny wine-list in a seldom-visited backwater; and it was supposed to have been cancelled. But here she is. And after a shaky start, during which she makes numerous faux pas, Birdy, er, Heather is now getting a handle on the whole thing. She’s pretty well memorised the Wine List and, with the help of a very cluey apprentice wine waitress, managing to pair with the weird and wonderful dishes the Michelin-starred chef/supermodel foists on his sous-chef. And Birdy can’t walk out if the going gets tough: she has to make it work, or it will blow back and ruin her best friend’s reputation. And kill their friendship. Tiny complications: the Loch Dorn Estate’s bar manager, Bill, seems to have a drinking problem; Birdy still hasn’t confessed to Heather what she’s doing; she is constantly terrified that a customer will call her bluff and expose her for the fraud she is; the dreaded restaurant reviewer is due for a visit; and, Birdy is seriously crushing on the sous-chef, James, a genuinely wonderful person to whom none of her boyfriends could ever compare; so, nothing too serious. Before Dent gives the reader a satisfying, if not entirely unpredictable, resolution, there are event successes and disasters, a sweet romance not assisted by the surprise appearance by an obnoxious ex, newly family connections and, of course, a dramatic exposé of true identities. With a gorgeous setting, a cast of both appealing and annoying characters, a good helping of humour and plenty of witty dialogue, this is a very entertaining read. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Penguin UK