The Objects of Her Affection

by Sonya Cobb

[Leah]

When I spotted The Objects of Her Affection on Netgalley, I thought it sounded really, really interesting. I was a big watcher of White Collar for a while, until it dropped off my radar, and I loved the idea of Sophie being an art-thief and no one even realising, it's the perfect crime! So I couldn't wait to dive in; some reviews said it was quite a high-class novel and I must agree - Sophie may be suffering after buying her new house, which leads to all the art-related thievery, but her and Brian are hardly suffering. They're certainly not poor and there is a tad bit of snobbishness to the novel, but I didn't let it effect my enjoyment of the book.

Perhaps the whole point of the novel is that because Sophie and Brian are the perfect family, with the perfect family house, that no one knew what Sophie was doing, but I thought it was great, and I rather got a sense of tension any time Sophie decided she needed a new 'score', for lack of a better word. The beginning of the novel sets up the need for Sophie's need to steal, and it was somewhat surprising that despite saying she was the one who took care of the family's finanaces, that she was willing to play so fast and loose with her mortgage just because she felt like the house was the 'one'. I would have expected her to be on top of her finances, to not be led astray by a dodgy mortgage broker, but I could also understand her blindness, and her need to get the house at all costs, damn the consequences, though it obviously comes back to bite her in the bum.

I enjoyed the novel - it was fun and quite frivolous, with an added edge of danger whenever Sophie went into the museum where Brian worked to steal more stuff. Cobb managed to make it quite tenuous and tension-filled. I felt kinda sad for Brian, considering he had no clue, but really he was way too interested in a French candlestick - Brian's whole purpose for the novel was to discuss that bloomin' candlestick! I was kind of surprised he didn't pick up on Sophie's change of mood, and that he was so oblivious to the trouble they were in, but it was all candlestick this, candlestick that. It was the same old Chick Lit trope, though, if Sophie had opened her mouth sooner perhaps she wouldn't have had to go to the lengths she did, although the best parts of the novel was when she was either stealing stuff or going up to New York, to meet Harry, an antiques dealer.

One thing I felt The Objects of Her Affection lacked was the ending. It just... ended. It was the one issue I wondered about before I started reading - because how do you end a novel that's about stealing? You can't really have a happy ever after and although I liked how serious the matter of Sophie's actions became, I just felt that it all came together too neatly, and that the ending was just a bit blah, for lack of a better word. I wanted closure. I wanted to know what was going to happen going forward, with Sophie, Brian, the kids, everything. It was a shame to have such a short, sweet, unexpected ending after quite the roller-coaster ride. It was a very interesting read, though. I really enjoyed it, The Objects of Her Affection was very different to most novels I read, and I enjoyed the art aspect and the thieving aspect - it was great, and had my heart pulsing.

This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read