Cassie McCullough

eloise yeah rowan and mariam have turned up with their kids which eloise um has unhelpfully barred from any of the cocktail events but they're also doing it a bit tough and so mariam's embarrassingly brought along some tupperware containers um so they can which they can fill up from the table of all these

events that they've been brought to because this costs a lot of money to go to one of these reunions you know like a 300 bucks for this dinner or it's you know you got to pay for your accommodation you travel all these kind of things and then on top of that they've got to pay for babysitting or a nanny

Yeah, and that's a really great and accurate description of that part of parenthood, I think.

The other characters, Jomo now, and Jules.

So Jules is the actress who's

being recognised by the waiting staff who are also probably studying at Harvard.

So they're not exactly, they're not outsiders coming into Gauke, but even they can't help sort of looking at her.

And there's a sort of frisson every time she's around because people instantly recognise her.

But she's trying to act normal.

Jomo is this guy who, as you said, is a gem trader.

So he goes around the world looking to buy gems.

And I don't know if you know this, Kate, but increasingly gems are becoming rare.

Certain types of gems are getting more and more rare.

It's a real trade, you know, and he'd made a lot of money on it, but lost a whole lot and he's clawing his way back.

But he and Jules from university had been the fastest of friends and he's quite charismatic.

And when Jules first sees him, Dovey describes him as looking even better than he did back in the day.

Like he's actually gotten better with 15 years on him.

Now, one of the interesting things about this, and I think Keridwyn Dovey's description and her lightness and deft handling of the language is one of the absolute joys of this book.

There's no wasted effort.

If our attention is being drawn to something, it's for a very good reason.