Review: The Dinner List

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, Flatiron Books and Rebecca Serle for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

So imagine you could choose 5 dinner guests for a once in a lifetime dinner. Living or dead, relative or not - the possibilities are endless. I love the premise for this book. Who would I invite? Would they be connected or random? What are the big questions that I want answered. Sabrina, the main character, chooses wisely, I think. First there is her best friend, Jessica. In some ways they have grown apart because Jessica is married, with a brand new baby. But they both know it is more than that. There is a rift between them and Sabrina doesn’t know if they will be able to make their way back. Also, Jessica knows her everything about her life and can bring perspective in regards to the other dinner guests. Conrad is a professor that Sabrina was very close to, in some ways a surrogate father. Robert is her real father. An alcoholic, he abandoned Sabrina and her mother when Sabrina was very young. He went on to get sober, remarried with new kids and never once reached out to the daughter he left behind. Then there is Tobias, the love of her life. They are not together and Sabrina hopes this dinner can help sort out whether or not they should be together or go their separate ways. The last guest is Audrey, yes that Audrey, Hepburn and still deceased. Audrey’s movies have played a big role in her life and has a special connection to each of the guests.

The book is well written and flows nicely. It was an easy read. I just didn’t connect with Sabrina, the other dinner guests and therefore, wasn’t invested in what was happening. I love Audrey Hepburn and I didn’t feel her character was flushed out at all, very flat, which was disappointing. For me, the suspense didn’t build. There are a few reveals along the way - I just didn’t care. I found the main character to be selfish, self absorbed, immature and I didn’t find a way in to like her. Even the dinner guests had to keep saying Hey, we are here just for you and some of us came a very long way! For me, it was a slog. I knew the dinner would have to end and she would find peace with some and not with others. There were lessons along the way, although I’m not convinced Sabrina was open to learning them. Either she was going to be with Tobias or she wasn’t - I was okay with it either way. That is not really my style. I’m usually the romantic that always wants them to be together whether they realistic or not, right for each other or not, I always tend to want it to work out.

Although I loved the idea, this didn’t work for me. It did make me ponder on what my dinner might look like and what I might have to say to certain people, or learn and that was fun.

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