All reviews are written by members of The H2G2 Bookworm's Club. We hope this review is helpful and that we'll see you airing your views at the Club soon.

Reviewed by Kat and frenchbean

This isn't the most challenging read of the summer but, in the heat this year, who needs challenging? I care about the people in this book and I worry about their shortcomings and their futures. Yup: I got lost in it. It is a good read and that's more than can be said for some.

Gresham (sassy, sexy and work-driven) and Eupheme (socially responsible, self-doubting and well-meaning to a fault) are self-confident and rivalrous half-sisters. Sitting on a delayed train at Milton Keynes station, they enter into a wager that Eupheme can turn a trainspotter into a sex god in 6 weeks: in time for Gresham's up-market wedding. The subsequent drama centres on the transformation of Ian Ringfold from 'dud to dude', as it says on the cover. I found myself feeling slightly (but happily) voyeuristic as I read, which says a lot for the quality of the writing. It was a bit like sneaking a look through somebody's front window, then realising that everybody else is doing it, because it's a show home.

There is a series of scenes in shops, the gym, cinemas and restuarants where Ian shows his social ineptitude as Eupheme cringes, but her motivation to prove her domineering half-sister wrong keeps her going. Ian's motivation is that he has a gorgeous woman spending thousands on him, no questions asked. So when, after 5 weeks of indulgence and change, he discovers that he is the subject of a bet, the friendship he has developed with Eupheme falls apart. Perhaps this is the part of the book where I wanted more. I was itching for Ian to rant and shout and take great revenge, but he doesn't. He returns home and comforts himself with what's familiar. Until he realises it's no longer what he wants.

Ian develops an 'interest' in Gresham, once she is finally persuaded that he is, indeed, that trainspotter. This gives Robert Llewellyn the chance to display a quite remarkable ability to write about sex from the female point of view. So the sisterly rivalry inevitably becomes centred on Ian's affections, until he can work out who he is and who he needs to be with.

Whilst Eupheme doesn't face up to her hypocrisy and prejudices, and Gresham doesn't turn into an angel, I enjoyed the book, as Ian's character is well drawn and convincing. There is ultimate delight that he does benefit from the manipulations: in the end he is the most 'normal' of the three central characters.

It's a modern-day, politically correct Pygmalion story. It's a woman who decides to manipulate a man's life, to make him more socially acceptable. In the end he bites back. But overall, the message is the same at Henry Higgins': you will be happier if you conform. I'm not convinced that is true for everybody, but it certainly works for Ian.

The highlight of the book? Old Mrs Ringfold's spectacular death: the best for a long time.

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