Book Review: The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

“I think about her films. About my father’s collection. About Roman Holiday that first afternoon with Tobias. The myth, the magic, of this movie star. But Audrey Hepburn isn’t Holly Golightly, in the little black dress and trench coat in the rain. She isn’t Nicole, in Paris, planning a museum heist and falling in love with the handsome burglar. She isn’t Eliza Doolittle, climbing the ranks of society. All that was fiction. Ideas concocted in the minds of studio heads. Audrey Hepburn is simply the woman standing beside me now.”

Rebecca Serle, The Dinner List

Review:

As soon as I saw that Audrey Hepburn was a character in this book (and on the cover of the edition I bought), I picked it up, no questions asked. 

Sabrina lives out her ‘which five people living or deceased would you invite to dinner’ scenario on her thirtieth birthday. At the table sits her estranged father, her best friend, Jessica, one of her professors, her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Tobias, and of course, Audrey Hepburn. 

Although Audrey Hepburn keeps the dinner conversation grounded, the book is really about Sabrina and Tobias’ relationship. Jumping back and forth between dinner and flashbacks, we follow the ups and downs of their life together. The birthday dinner helps her process the past decade of her life and make sense of her future. 

Given the concept, I’d anticipated this being a silly and fluffy read. It’s actually quite emotional. Humor is woven into the writing, but I would say that that’s secondary. Even though it wasn’t the completely lighthearted beach read I’d planned on, I enjoyed the story and it’s stayed with me much longer than I would have guessed. 

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• Audrey Hepburn! It was fun to read about her in this context, fantastical as it is.
• A good ebb and flow of emotion.

What I didn’t like:

• The story would have been stronger with a solid focus. There were too many things going on for a book under 300 pages.

Afterthoughts:

Even though I love the cover I bought, I ended up reading this through Libby so I could read it on my Kindle at the beach.

Where to buy the book: