Bookends - Jane Green

I am currently re-reading all of my books before clearing them out, and this is the second of my Jane Green books I have re-read. In general, I'm quite a fan of Jane Green, but the last book of hers I read, Straight Talking, was a bit of a disappointment. Luckily, I feel she is back on track with this one. ~The Plot~ The book is written from the perspective of Cath, who is 31 and is your stereotypical chick lit heroine - slightly overweight, bad hair, no confidence. The story starts back when Cath was at university. We learn how she quickly made a group of friends - there was Si, her (stereotypical) gay best friend - very camp and ...  Read the complete review

Bookends is the fourth book written by Jane Green. In this novel we meet Cath who has worked the same job for many years and suddenly she decides to follow her dream of opening a book shop, hence the title of the book. As she can't do it alone, she enlists the interest and help of Lucy, her old friend Josh's wife. Lucy has always wanted to run a cafe, so they decide to put the two ideas together and have a bookshop coffee shop. The novel is primarily centred around the above plot about how the girls manage to find and set up their shop and all the trials and tribulations that go with running a business. I found very early on in this novel that there ...  Read the complete review

You might have read my opinion on Jemima J by Jane Green, which I wrote in February. That was the first of her novels I had read, but it was so wonderful that it prompted me to borrow all her other books from the local library. Bookends is the second of hers I have read, with Mr. Maybe and Straight Talking waiting. I would love to say Bookends is as brilliant as Jemima J, but it wasn’t. It isn’t un-put-down-able either. It took me a couple of weeks to read it, instead of a couple of days. But it is a very good read though. You might struggle with it a bit in the middle, but the last third is a page-turner. I think the best thing about the ...  Read the complete review

This book tells the tale of a group of friends who met at university and are now living happily-ish in West Hampstead in London. The central character is Cath, who is nursing a broken heart following a bad break-up a few years ago. Cath gives up her well-paid job in advertising to realise her longstanding dream of opening a bookstore and cafe with her friend, Lucy which they name 'Bookends', hence the title of this book. Si is Cath's best friend; he is equally as unlucky in love as Cath and is desperate for a man of his own. Cath and Si are complete opposites but best friends nevertheless. As Cath says, "The first time I met Si I fell hopelessly in ...  Read the complete review

Bookends is the fourth novel by Jane Green, whose other titles include, straight talking, Jemima J and Mr Maybe. In Bookends we meet Cath, our narrator, scatter brained, untidy, a failure in relationships due to her emotional walls built up to prevent her getting hurt and who dreams of leaving her job to set up a cafe come bookshop, and settling down with a genuine man. Si, is Cath’s best friend in the world, he is as bitchy as the next woman, meticulously tidy, loves clothes and shopping and desperate for a man to settle down with. Josh and Lucy are married and appear to have the perfect relationship, adoring one another and ...  Read the complete review