I thought the premise of the book sounded interesting; picking any five dinner guests, dead or alive, to accompany you at dinner. It would provide great questions for a book club. For example; who they'd choose to have dinner with, why, and what questions they'd ask their dinner companions. It also would probably be a good book for fans of Aubrey Hepburn. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this book. This was one of only a handful of books I've abandoned over the years. I did not particularly like the characters, especially the exboyfriend, and the back and forth between past and present wasn't a very smooth transition. Unlike many other fantasy books, it was hard to suspend my belief for this particular book.