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)

Stoic in Love: Ancient wisdom to make dating, domestic boredom and breakups a bit less terrible by Annie Lawson & Illustrated by Oslo Davis - #blogtour #bookreview

 

The path to love is strewn with swipes in the wrong direction, unanswered texts, declarations of love followed by silence, and disappointment when someone claims to be 30 and then tuurns up to a date looking like Dumbledore...

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The Blurb

You're on date #17 since your last relationship ended in flames, and within a nanosecond of meeting Doug at a bar you realise you've made a huge mistake. You head to the bathroom to text your mate Lizzy and complain about how your date says aaaahh after every sip of beer, seems to style himself after Donald Trump, and definitely sniffed your hair. Ten seconds later, you realise you accidentally texted this to Doug. You sit frozen on the loo, wondering if there's a back exit, or if you should fake your own death.

The philosophy of the Stoics can help us all navigate the life cycles of love, whether it's dating someone wearing horns and a kaftan, a relationship where blobs of toothpaste are left smeared in the bathroom sink, or being dumped via text with just one word – enough! Across 45 rules, from dating tips like Do your due diligence to relationship advice like Don't tell your partner to calm down to break-up wisdoms like Resist putting your foot in your mouth, Annie Lawson applies ancient wisdom to the modern world of being in love, out of love, lovesick, love-bombed or just love-tired.

Romance and its rocky pursuit often sucks but, fortunately, not always, and Stoic in Love helps us realise that we can all use a little help getting together, staying together, or moving on.

My Review

This is the perfect little book to read in snippets and is brilliant for dipping in and out of. 

It is broken up into three main sections Dating, Relationships and Breaking Up. Most of us will recognise ourselves in some of the elements that the author describes, and many of them caused me to smile or have a little chuckle to myself.

There are 45 individual areas where she discusses the pitfalls of the seeking/doing/finishing of a relationship. The author then provides examples of how the wisdom of the Ancient Greeks can be applied to modern situations such as ghosting and gaslighting. It is a unique presentation of a book on relationships and I enjoyed reading it.

It is full of amusing anecdotes from the authors own experience, along with a good dollop of sound advice.

The illustrations by Oslo Davis are of a cartoonish style and add another layer of amusement to the text.  

I would recommend this book.

Book Details:

ISBN:  978 1761500404

Publisher:  Murdoch

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  224 (paperback)

About the Author

Annie Lawson is a former journalist who has had a diverse love life, from a first pash as a teenage with braces to several boyfriends including one who alphabetised cereal packets, and finally to marriage, which ended. This all taught her that the key to a good relationship is not only lots of storage, regular holidays at a nice resort and someone who is funny, but finding a partner to do nothing with. She now works on the dark side of the corporate world and is a devoted student of the

Stoics, taking every opportunity to apply their wisdom to life's hard things – from the workplace to matters of the heart.

(book and media courtesy of Random Things Tours)

(all opinions are my own)

Not That Kind of Ever After by Luci Adams - #bookreview

I want what all those Disney princesses had before the producers and writers got better and found independent non-male-orientated storylines. I want a good, old-fashioned man to sweep me off my feet and make me feel like royalty, but I'm living in the twenty-first century so I also want a man who treats me with respect and admires my strength and talents for what I'm worth whilst he rides me off into the sunset...

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Once upon a time, in a flatshare south of the river, there lived an aspiring author names Bella Marble. Above all things, above her wish to be a writer, above absolutely anything and everything, Bella wants to find love. But one fateful week changes everything.

When her best friend moves in with the most boring ogre in history and her perfectly paired parents tell her their own love story is coming to an end, Bella's illusions of finding 'the one' shatters.

With the help of her very own knight in shining Armani, Bella ditches the fairytale and decides it's time to write herself a brand new kind of happy ending. And while London may be fresh out of Princes, it's got a surplus of frogs - and as Bella learns, kissing frogs can be extremely fun.

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This is a highly humorous book in which we observe the protagonist, Bella, pursue her dreams of a fairy tale romance in the modern world.

From the very first line it is attention grabbing. It is an apt opening line for this book as this dark romantic comedy focuses largely on Bella's sexual exploits, firstly in a bid to find 'the one', and then as subject matter for her own writing.

It was hard not to feel that the majority of Bella's problems were of her own making. However, the writer conveys this in a fun and quirky way. This made the book a quick and easy read and it would make for an ideal holiday read.

Bella was an interesting character to read about. Although, she is thoroughly self-centred, I did develop a soft spot for her and accompanying her along her journey towards self-realisation made this a worthwhile read.

Publishing today, anyone who likes contemporary women's fiction or chick lit will enjoy this book.

ISBN: 978 0349431130

Publisher:  Piatkus

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  464

About the Author:

Leaving LAMDA for Leeds and graduating with a first class degree in Maths, Luci spent her early career torn between creativity and logic until she realised it’s possible to do both.

She started out life in the tax world before swiftly seeing the light. She has since worked copywriting for Apple Music, assisting with Amazon and BBC productions at Working Title Television and now works as an analyst at the Guardian by day whilst writing tales of heartbreak, adventure and truly terrible dates by night.

She lives in leafy St Albans and when she’s not writing, she spends her time drawing, animating and exploring the countryside with her little puppy.

(author photo and bio. info. courtesy of Watson, Little Ltd)

(ARC courtesy of the publisher)