I need to preface this review by saying that if I had not been under the impression that this book was a romance then I probably would have given it a higher rating. As it was, I picked this book to read because it was #17 on the Apple iBooks ROMANCE best sellers list. I read the book description and thought, “Yep, this sounds like a romance I want to read.” Unfortunately, by my way of thinking, this isn’t really a romance, but more of what is termed ‘women’s fiction’ or ‘chick lit’ (both terms are problematic for me, but that is a whole other blog post) and I’m not a big fan of this genre.
The book is about Polly, a woman who is turning thirty, has a less-than-exciting love life and is over her job. All in all, Polly is not happy with the direction of her life and determines that with the new year she will turn over a new leaf.
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There are some fun moments in this book and the cast of characters are well-fleshed out and relatable. I especially love Polly’s mum, Susan, and Susan’s boyfriend, Sidney. I also adored Polly’s flatmate, Joe and wish there was more of him in the book.
This book is well-written and unapologetically English and the author has done a good job to make you feel like you are living in London with her characters. You can almost hear the British accents as you read. The whole experience was immersive and the author gets points for that.
Unfortunately, for me, the book has quite a few issues as well. At one point it left me wondering where the story was going. It seemed, early in the book, that it was just a string of events that happened to Polly—there was no cause and effect to pull the story along. It was like reading a diary and not really having any context for the events that were happening. One event in particular—when Polly goes home with a guy named Callum—seemed completely unnecessary to the story.
The other issue I had with the book and the reason I gave it such a low score, was because it did not give me what I was promised…it didn’t meet my expectations. When I read the book description, I went into the book thinking I was getting a certain type of story but instead I got something else entirely. If you don’t want the story spoiled, then probably don’t read any further…
I picked up this book thinking it was a fling-to-forever story or even a relationship of convenience that turns to something more. The book description told me that Polly needed a date for her best-friend’s wedding. It then told me she was going to meet a handsome Marquess, Jasper, with a playboy reputation but that she wasn’t going to fall for his charms—which of course means she will. I was fully on-board with this type of story. I wanted the poor girl to meet the rich guy and find out he wasn’t the playboy everyone thought he was. I wanted them to go from a fling to forever. This was the book I signed up for. This was the book I was expecting when I paid for it.
It was not the book I got.
The end of the book left me with the feeling of WTF. (There was a happy ending…just not the happy ending I wanted.)
When I read a book, the author makes a promise to me in those opening chapters and by the very book description about what I can expect. This book did not deliver on those promises. I felt cheated.
As I reflect on why the book left me feeling so unsatisfied, I’ve come to the conclusion that the author didn’t have a clear idea of the type of book she wanted to write. Was it a Cinderella story? A Fling-to-Forever Story? A Friends-to-Lovers story? Or a Love Triangle story? There were elements of all of these tropes, but no cohesiveness to feel satisfying.
It is not until the end of the book that we discover that all along this book has been about Polly and Bill, one of her best friends. Seventy-five percent of this book focused Polly and Jasper—the Marquess. I liked the two of them together. I wanted the two of them to be together at the end of the book.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked Bill too. He is a great character and if it had been handled differently then maybe I would have felt satisfied with the ending. But as it was, the relationship between Polly and Bill came out of left field and felt a little awkward. Like watching a brother and sister kiss. There was no—or not enough—foreshadowing of their latent attraction to one another. There were no lingering looks between them or any hints at underlying chemistry.
Polly and Jasper had great chemistry and when they were on the page together, they really shone. The author had set up the story so that it seemed Jasper was a bit misunderstood and under-estimated. The son of a crazy Duke with money to burn and looks to make women’s panties disappear that the press just loved to villain-ise. I wanted him to prove that he wasn’t the man everyone thought he was. I was disappointed.
I think if I had gone into this book knowing that I wasn’t reading a romance then maybe I would have been more forgiving, but the fact was, I thought I was buying one particular story and in reality I was buying something completely different. If you are a fan of Women’s Fiction and Chick Lit, then this might be right up your alley. But for me, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
After thought—The quotes from people used in the book description said this book was ‘hilarious’ and that the sex scenes were ‘saucy’ and ‘amazing.’ I have to say that it wasn’t all that funny and the sex scenes were just okay.
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