Christmas is almost here and from the charming chaos of our holidays in Piemonte, here is the last rom-com review for a while. If the 20 year old cat Poppy lets me write on the keyboard, that is. She is a bit deaf and blind and all that, but at her core, she is still a cat (meaning, she will bother you and sit on your keyboard).
Grab a glass of wine, throw that bath bomb in, and relax. (I fucking wish I could do it myself :D)
What is it about?
This novel is a weird crossover between the story told in the Vacation book and the Borrowed one. We have a love triangle and a long-standing friendship. And yet, it is quite different. Girl (Laurie) sees boy (Jack) from the bus and falls in love (yep, just like that) but she does not do anything about it and he is lost in the crowd. Girl’s best friend and flatmate (Sarah) brings boyfriend (same Jack as before) home and here the story begins.
What makes it good?
Ten years go by in the course of the novel. Through ups and downs, we follow the lives of the characters and root for the three of them very much. They go from naive kids just out of college to more mature and life beatened men and women. Not everything is nice in their lives and that, to me is a big positive of this novel. Not sure if it’s because this is a Brit book but it’s less happy-go-lucky than your average American rom-com stuff and it is appreciated.
The style
Chapters are divided between Laurie and Jack’s points of view. It is not lost on me that their different styles evolves with the passing time. Jack’s a bit laddish towards the start of the book and Laurie, similarly, is a bit like a Bambi in the headlights (and she loves her Bridget Jones). I know that we are not talking high literature, but the novel is well written and these details are what make it as good as it can be.
Final Mark
You cannot not like either Jack or Laurie (the first one is a bit of a prick but he is a good egg after all, which makes it the more endearing) and the ending is a bit on the cheesy side but still, I choose to believe it is a sort of homage of Miss Silver to the likes of Love Actually, which you have to respect if you have a soul. I also love that it is a book about friendship and that is not tour classic rom-com. And so, I really enjoyed it, and it was a high point of my rom-com genre exploration.
8.5/10
Plus, it’s perfect for this time of year!
On Goodreads.
Capitan Colazione 