On the day I was born, 3rd August 1986, 'The Edge of Heaven' by Wham! was number one. Since I can remember, an annual tradition was playing it as loud as possible as soon as I woke up...
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The Blurb
He said ‘I love you’. And then he disappeared.
Things that are going right for Nina Dean:
She’s found her dream job.
She finally has her own home.
She’s met Max, a beguiling romantic hero who has swept her off her feet.
Things that are going wrong for Nina Dean:
She has the neighbour from hell.
Her friendships are fracturing, and so is her parents’ marriage.
She hasn’t seen or heard from Max for weeks.
Just as everything ought to be falling into place, it’s all falling apart instead. Nina’s beloved dad’s memory is slipping away from him, and her mum is caught in a baffling mid-life glow-up. Her friends are becoming strangers and her exes are moving on. Everywhere she turns, she’s reminded of time passing.
The last thing she needs is another ghost.
My Review
This is a lovely contemporary story which I enjoyed very much.
The main character is Nina. She is in her early thirties, has her own flat and is a published food writer. Encouraged by her good friend, Lola, she decides to try a dating app as all their other friends seem to be settling into marriage and babies. On the app she meets Max, and everything is going really well for a number of months until he suddenly stops answering her messages. This leaves her very confused and wondering what went wrong.
Alongside this, Nina is watching her father's health and memory slowly decline, and I found this the most memorable part of the book. My heart broke for her as she watches her father lose his memory. The parts where he is searching for his own mother, who died twenty years previously, were extremely moving.
The novel portrays Nina as she tries to juggle so many difficult things going on in her life. She is feeling left behind by her friends, abandoned by a man who declared his love for her, and is gradually losing the dad whom she adores.
I am surprised that this book is considered a romantic comedy by some, and if you pick it up hoping to be amused I think you will be disappointed. I actually think it is much richer for not focusing on the romance or comedy elements. Instead, the author has written a book which questions friendship, family, love and self-acceptance.
I think this book is well written and considers some challenging situations and their consequent emotions very well. The author has written a thought-provoking and emotional novel that is well worth reading. This is the first book I have read by this author, and I would like to read more.
Book Details
ISBN: 978 0241988688
Publisher: Penguin
Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 352 (paperback)
Purchase Links
About the Author
Dolly Alderton is an award-winning author and screenwriter based in London. She is a columnist for the Sunday Times Style magazine and is the former co-host and co-creator of the podcast The High Low.
Her first book, Everything I Know About Love, became a top-five Sunday Times bestseller in its first week of publication, won a National Book Award (UK) for Autobiography of the Year and was made into a BBC One TV series. Both of her novels, Ghosts (published 2020) and Good Material (published 2023), were instant Sunday Times bestsellers. Dear Dolly, a collection of her agony aunt columns from the Sunday Times Style magazine, was published in 2022, and was also a Sunday Times bestseller.
You can also find Dolly at:
(ARC courtesy of Netgalley)
(media courtesy of the author)
(all opinions are my own)
(Bookshop.org affiliated)
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