Sarah Sargeant has been single for a while, and its beginning to worry everyone, even her mum and dad. So Sarah decides to embarke on a challenge to find 50 Ways to Find A Lover. With the help of her best friend Julia and flatmate Simon, she goes speed dating, blind dating and various other disastrous ways to find a man, all with no luck. Sarah feels she is destined to spend her life alone, but is that about to change with the arrival of suave Paul?
But as well as finding herself a man, Sarah's obssesed with updating her blog about her dating escapades, but is her online life becoming more important than her day-to-day one?
As usual, I was totally oblivious that it was based on the author's real life blog about her attempts to find a man, albeit a fictional account of this blog. The names of the other characters stay the same (Julia, Simon and Paul) although some roles are switched around, and of course the main character name is different as well. I haven't actually bothered to go and read the blog after reading the book because I loved the book so much, I didn't want it spoiling my image of that by changing my perceptions of it. I imagine those that have loved the blog with love the book, but its good to know you can still enjoy it even if you don't know the origins of the story!
I found that the characters were all really likeable and believable, and consequently I enjoyed the book that little bit more. It started off with Sarah's narration in the first person, and carries on that way throughout the book, aside from the odd parts taken from Sarah's fictional blog which always made me chuckle as I read along. Sarah's narration is easy to like and read, and seems like you are hearing a friend speak which always bodes well for an enjoyable book. The other characters in the book were also great too. My favourite with a doubt was the flatmate Simon - hilarious and I laughed out loud so much at him, my other half did give me some strange looks! Julia was funny also, but not my sort of person, and Paul wasn't someone I liked but again was good for the story.
It does sound like a bit of a mad storyline - a woman trying out 50 different ways of finding her one love, but the book does try well to make it believable and exploring a few different ways too. I was expecting all 50 to be covered, so was a tad disappointed when they weren't - nowhere near in fact but it didn't really spoil it too much that that didn't materialise. The book did take a few twists and turns along the way, but whatever happened seemed to do so in the context of the book and didn't seem out of place. It was almost like a diary of a real person, and definitely had hints of being based on the author's real life and there were times I could tell it really was based on someone's real blog.
If you love chick-lit, then you will definitely love this book. It's a fun, light-hearted look at the world of dating in the modern age, and an insight into blogging as well for those of us not in the know! With great characters, a lot of laugh out loud humour, it has all the things that make a great read and I was so disappointed to turn the last page as it just seemed to whizz by far too quickly! I hope that the author will continue following the characters because they were so great I want to know more about what they get up to! A quick word of warning though - if you don't like frequent use of the f-word and c-word, this book probably isn't for you, but I tended just to ignores those bits! A fab read, perfect for the summer hols!
Rating: 5/5
I wasn't very fussed on this book to be brutally honest. There was too much going on, too many tedious story lines and Sarah got very annoying after only a few chapters.
ReplyDelete2.5/5