TEST
A book which begins with the hero having a hideous hangover, horrified over finding a seventeen-year-old stranger in his bed, might turn out to be too disgustingly realistic for some readers’ tastes, but I was hooked from the start. Reading Lisa Jewell’s thirtynothing was a refreshing experience after too many purplish historical romances in a row. Jewell is a British author whose debut novel, Ralph’s Party, was a success.
The plot is fairly standard “best-buddies-to-lovers” fare. Nadine and Dig have not had any serious long-term relationships recently; it seems as if they both deliberately choose to be with lots of unsuitable people. To avoid what? Perhaps confessing how they truly feel about each other. They used to be best friends at school, but drifted apart when Dig started going out with the beautiful Delilah. Delilah broke his heart, he broke Nadine’s. Later Dig and Nadine had one magical weekend, but somehow it just didn’t work out.
Now that Dig’n’Deen are thirty and intimate friends again they’re starting to feel it’s time to pull their lives together and find out what it takes to succeed in a relationship. Just when they’ve decided to try to find people to do that with they bump into Delilah, the love of Dig’s life. It seems like a sign to Dig: she’s more mysterious than ever, charming as always, has some big secret which is troubling her, and has named her dog after Dig. And Nadine finally figures out why she’s jealous of Dig. But there’s the small problem of Delilah (apparently ladies with that name always cause trouble). It’s a nice surprise that she isn’t portrayed as a cardboard villainess. I don’t think I could have stomached a villainess called Delilah.
My only plot quibble concerns an unpleasant incident involving illegal substances and an over-the-top repulsive ex of Nadine’s. It was unnecessary, a tad irresponsible and nearly turned me off the heroine. An intelligent person like her really ought to have known better, no matter how distraught she was. She redeems herself somewhat by openly acknowledging she’s been an idiot – but an ounce of backbone beats a pound of regret any time.
This book has a very readable style. There were a few abrupt changes in tense in the middle of a scene which annoyed me on second reading, but I didn’t notice them the first time when I breezed through, eager to find out what happens. Jewell’s characters are neither larger than life nor aggravatingly perfect – they are real people who’d fit right in the Real World. The dialogue actually sounds like authentic spoken language (although sometimes the characters do tend to make too-long speeches) and there are some memorable lines. How’s this for a lovers’ conversation?
“Anyway, all I’m saying is, you’re in no position to preach to me about how I should be conducting my love life. You’re the nicest bloke I know and one day you’re going to make somebody a wonderful husband. But right now you should carry a health warning.”
“OK, OK,” sighed Dig, smiling, “so we’re both as bad as each other. You dump perfectly decent men because they choose the wrong mugs, and I’m the Jerry Lee Lewis of Kentish Town… Let’s face it, we’re both crap.”
Granted, the plot is not very innovative and some twists are easily predictable. But here’s where the author shows her skill: Jewell’s narrative voice made the ordinary story so gripping I couldn’t put it down. Hilarious moments are mixed with touching emotion and the story is very well balanced. Even though it was easy to figure out what’s going to happen I just had to see how they got there. And if you’ll pardon the pun, I really dig Dig – stupid name and all.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.