The Disengagement Ring

by Clodagh Murphy

[Leah]

Kate O’Neill wants to settle down and have a family, so when her tree-hugging boyfriend Brian finally asks her to marry him, she says yes. She doesn’t even mind the fact there’s no ring to go with his proposal. Kate’s family, however, have other ideas and her mother Grace and sister Rachel set about sabotaging the engagement. Their plan is to have Kate spend the summer in Tuscany with Will, the love of Kate’s life, in a bid to show Kate what she could have if she broke up with the tree-hugger. As Kate, Will and Walking Wounded (the band Will manages), head off to Tuscany, will Kate see that settling for second best isn’t what she wants and that it’s Will who truly is the love of her life?

The Disengagement Ring is Clodagh Murphy’s debut novel and is one I’ve been looking forward to reading for a while now. I loved the sound, cover and title of the book and couldn’t wait to finally get my hands on it. Imagine my surprise when Clodagh offered me the chance to read it – I was thrilled and couldn’t wait for it to arrive. I started it a few days after it arrived and I was immediately sucked in.

The Disengagement Ring has a rather fantastic yet devious plot and that was what immediately had me hooked on the book. It helped, of course, that right from the off I felt that Brian was all wrong for Kate. I truly couldn’t stand him. When Grace, Kate’s mother, and Rachel, Kate’s sister, hatch the plan to have Will flirt with Kate in a bid to break Kate and Brian up, I was all for it. I knew it was devious, but I also felt that, actually, Grace was only acting in Kate’s best interests. I can’t say what Rachel’s motives were and I didn’t particularly like her either as she seemed very vindictive. The plot kept me hooked throughout and I genuinely had no idea how the book would end. Just as I thought we were heading to one conclusion, something happened which made it swing completely the other way.

While Kate is seemingly the main focus of the book, the book also focuses on family life and, for me, that was another factor in my enjoyment of the book. Most of the time when I’m reading chick lit, the heroines don’t have particularly close relationships with their family whereas the O’Neill’s are practically in each others pockets all of the time. They’re a huge clan but they all seem to have time for each other. The bit that touched me most about the O’Neill clan was about how welcoming they were to Will when he ran away from his father. That summed the O’Neill’s up for me: anybody who wanted to be part of their family would be welcomed. The main reason they didn’t like Brian was because he didn’t seem to want to be a part of their family. I’d go as far to say that he wanted Kate away from them and the family obviously sensed that and didn’t take it well hence the plot.

Bar the obvious characters who were only there to be disliked, I loved every single character throughout the book. Kate was a fantastic central figure to the book and she seemed very determined about what she wanted whenever she wanted it. I warmed to her immediately and really cared about how everything would work out for her. I loved the O’Neill clan and in particular, Grace, the matriarch of the family. Grace wasn’t afraid to voice her opinions, whether they were right or wrong. It’s safe to say I loved Will the first time he appeared in the book, which was early on, and even when he agreed to Grace’s plot I still really liked him. Seeing his and Kate’s relationship play out was an enjoyment to read. One of my favourite characters was Freddie, Kate’s gay best friend, I thought he was hilarious and it was a shame he didn’t go to Tuscany as that meant he was only in half of the book – if that. Walking Wounded, the band Will manages and Kate goes out to Tuscany to cook for, also seemed incredibly nice considering they’re huge rock stars. Owen, Rory, Phoenix and Georgie were all hilarious and I loved how their band came to be. As you can see, The Disengagement Ring is filled with quite a few characters but don’t fear, it’s easy to keep up once you work out whom is whom. We had quite a few villainous characters: Brian, as I mentioned, Will’s girlfriend Tina who was rather high-maintenance and irritating, Tessa, Rory’s girlfriend who was like Tina. It was a wonderful cast of characters, all who added their own sparkle to the book.

The book is written in third-person and flits from one person to the next. It could be talking about Kate one minute before immediately switching to Will/Grace etc. and, at first, it made my head spin but I quickly got used to it and enjoyed seeing everything from everyone’s point of view. It gave a well-rounded view of events although knowing how everyone felt at all times while the other wondered how they were feeling drove me insane as I wanted them to just figure it out and stop wondering. The book has quite a few twists and turns and while I did wonder how it would all end, I was safe in my assumption I would be happy with the outcome.

The Disengagement Ring is a hugely enjoyable novel and Clodagh Murphy is a very promising writer. I say this a lot, but she’s an author to watch and I can’t wait for her next book. It’ll have to be something special to beat this book and it’ll also have to have another fantastic plot, not to mention a unique one. Although I have to say, it does remind me of a film… I can’t for the life of me figure out which one! I recommend you give this book a read – you won’t be disappointed.