I Followed the Rules by Joanna Bolouri - #bookreview

He's late. He's half an hour late.

I nervously tuck my hair behind my ears and continue scrolling on my smartphone. That's all right, I tell myself; people are late all the time. Maybe they're not HALF AN HOUR LATE on a first date, but he's obviously been held up...

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I am required to make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from Netgalley. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

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The Blurb

My friends think I'm insane, I'm stalking men all over town, and I'm on a deadline.

High-flying journalist Cat Buchanan has been single for six years. So she's sceptical when assigned to write a story on The Rules of Engagement, a book which promises to teach women how to find the man of their dreams in ten easy steps.

As far as Cat's concerned, the book belongs in 1892, but she's promised to follow it to the letter. After all, what does she have to lose by playing love at its own game?

My Review

This book was really good fun to read and I enjoyed it immensely.

The main character, Cat, is a single mum and journalist who writes under a pseudonym of The Glasgow Girl. In her column she discusses the disaster that is her love life. When a colleague tells her about a book called The Rules of Engagement, which details a man's view of the successful rules of dating, her Editor suggests she gives the rules a try and write about it in her column. What follows is the cynical and hilarious journey of Cat navigating her way through this list of rules... to a copy deadline.

Cat was a great character. The author developed her on the page really well and I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. She is wonderfully plain spoken and easy to relate to.

It's well written and paced for it's genre. It has an enemies to lovers trope that was irresistible. It was pure escapism and I loved it for that. 

This was an entertaining and run read which made me chuckle throughout. It made for quick and easy reading and I enjoyed it from the first page to the last.

I now can't wait to read the author's previous and debut novel, The List.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1784291075

Publisher:  Quercus

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  352 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Joanna Bolouri was born in Portsmouth, but grew up in Glasgow where she currently lives with her daughter. Her initial leap into writing came when she won a BBC comedy writing competition with a script that formed the basis of her first novel, The List. 

She has since worked on a live sketch show with TV production company Kudos/Brown Eyed Boy. She writes and blogs for various publications including Huffington Post UK, The Scottish Sun, Hecklerspray, The Skinny, and Sabotage Times and has also written for Newsjack on BBC Radio 4E.

You can also find Joanna at:

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Other Blog Posts for Books About Dating

The New Normal by Michelle Paris

Stoic in Love: Ancient wisdom to make dating, domestic boredom and breakups a bit less terrible by Annie Lawson

Floored by Chrissie Harrison

Love or Your Money Back by Suzy K. Quinn

(ARC courtesy of Netgalley)

(author media courtesy of Susanna Lea Associates)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)