What if your plus one could be the one...?
Cara has officially
run out of men. Her most recent dates have gone from bad to worse, and when her
dating app informs her there is no one left in her area to choose from, she is
at a dead end.
But with a summer of
events ahead of her, she needs to find a solution, fast; someone to keep her
company at the never-ending weddings, family gatherings and gender reveal
parties that she can’t face going to alone. So when she meets handsome,
confident, Millsy on a night out she may be in luck. They could not be more
different in personality, but he too has a summer of events ahead and is
desperate to get his family off his back about finding a ‘nice girl’. What
if they made a pact to help each other out and be a plus one for the summer?
Just as friends of course...?
I was lucky enough
to receive an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) of this novel, with thanks to
NetGalley and Boldwood Books. After receiving it yesterday morning, it was
promptly finished this morning at 1:21am (to be precise), because it had such a
good flow and kept me guessing, that I didn't want to put it down.
Before requesting
any ARC, my first test is the cover, does it appeal to me? I know you shouldn't
judge a book by its cover, but honestly, in the book world (but not in real
life, definitely don't judge a book by
its cover then), the cover tells you a lot about how good the book is. This
novel had a very appealing cover, and thankfully the story inside lived up to
the expectations.
The second test is
the rest of it, and that's simply the novel itself. The notion of being a plus
one to important events as friends has been around for some time, in both
novels and films, but this one stood out by itself simply due to the fact that
it wasn't a cookie-cutter plot-lift. Reading from one chapter to the next, I
honestly couldn't figure out for some time who our leading lady was going to
end up with. While typically in a romance novel the two characters mentioned on
the blurb are going to end up together, there were so many side-twists and new
information revealed that honestly, until about the last five or six chapters,
who Cara was going to end up with wasn't clear, and I thoroughly enjoyed that.
While this is a
light-hearted novel, it does cover some deeper subject matter, including the
leading lady's concern about her appearance and her reasons for changing it,
combined with her desire to find a partner, but not settle. Cara is a likeable
character, but I found that the book was a little lighter on character
development, but stronger in plot points. I would have liked to seen more
character development of both our leading lady and man, rather than the
realizations that occurred, which we're not always privy to prior to the
change, but this is not done in a way that is overly distracting, just more of
a niggle.
(Spoilers briefly
ahead)
I was also a little
perturbed with our leading lady's family decision to not only invite her
ex-boyfriend to stay with them, but to stay in her old bedroom. The old
relationship wasn't a good one, and I would hope that my family would have
respected me enough not to do that. Neither of our families seemed to be
perfectly on the ball, and that is real life, it's not always going to be
perfect, which did add a good sense of realism here.
Overall, this was a
light-hearted, fluffy romance that is perfect for a summer escape. Nothing too
serious, and not simply a re-used plotline with different characters, this
novel did keep me on my toes, guessing until the last quarter or less, who Cara
was going to end up with. I do have to note as well that I did love the light
nod to Bridget Jones, along with a few favorite tropes being utilized in a
clever way. A poignant novel in parts, leading to some excellent quotes ready
to go on my board, this was a great, light-hearted summer read.
Rating: 3.5/5
Click here to purchase from Amazon.
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