A blog in book form, chronicling the adventures of a woman who agrees to an experiment her husband proposes, leaving London for the northern English countryside. O'Reilly comes across as a personable woman, a loving mother and wife, a good friend. None of the other characters came alive for me, though--perhaps because none of them had names. I understand protecting anonymity in a memoir; that's what pseudonyms are for. I had no mental image of "the four-year-old," no way to distinguish "the Patient Mother" from "the London Diva," and so on.
Reilly is a talented blogger. If you're looking for sometimes funny, often thought-provoking mini-essays from a fish-out-of-water in the north of England, this is an enjoyable read. If you're hoping for a story arc, character development and growth, a plot that's stitched together in a meaningful way--this isn't it. For better or for worse, this is real life, blogged as it happened, then printed out almost verbatim, and bound.
To your second paragraph, I say 'yep. everything she said.' It really could have been much more. Which she probably didn't have time to write!
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