F, 34, London WLTM... (Dot.Homme - Jane Moore)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Dot.Homme - Jane Moore
Date:	07/06/07 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I got the book free

Disadvantages: poor story

The author of this book, Jane Moore, is a columnist with the sun, and often pops up on TV shows. I don’t regularly buy newspapers, so I don’t read her column, but whenever she appears on TV I find her intensely annoying, so I wouldn’t have chosen to buy a book by her, but this one came free with an issue of Cosmo, and I thought I’d give it a go.

~The Plot~

The story centres around Jess Monroe, a single 34-year-old woman working behind the scenes on a daytime TV show. After a string of hopeless relationships Jess has decided that she is happy single, until her bitchy ‘friend’ Kara decides to buy her an ad on an Internet dating site for her 34th birthday. At first Jess is annoyed and embarrassed, but after thinking about it decides to give it a go.

What follows is a string of predictably disastrous dates, with all sorts of strange men – most of whom have somewhat twisted the truth- whether it was sending Jess a photo that was taken 10 years ago or the fact that they are actually married! Will Jess ever be successful in her quest for the perfect guy?

Apart from the light-hearted ‘chick lit’ side of this book, there is a more serious tone to this book, when Jess discovers her older sister Livvy, whom she is very close to, has breast cancer. How will she cope with this unexpected occurrence? You’ll just have to read to find out!

~What I thought~

At first the book was quite enjoyable, it was quite funny in parts, although I think some of the humour was fairly predictable, and there was a distinct feeling that the author was trying too hard to make it funny, where that wasn’t really necessary to the story.

I thought the part where Jess found out that her sister had breast cancer was quite interesting, in that it dealt with the way a relative feels when they find out someone close to them is ill. It was probably quite accurate in the way that Jess was having lots of thoughts along the lines of ‘how will I cope without my sister’, and the way she felt she couldn’t talk to anyone about it, as they would think she was really selfish. It also brings the problems of her love life right into perspective for her, and makes her realise what’s really important in life.

However, on the subject of the breast cancer storyline, I thought perhaps it was a bit glossed over (if that’s the right expression!). What I’m trying to say (without giving away too much of the plot) is that it probably wouldn’t be much help or comfort to anyone who was actually suffering from cancer, as it was written almost as if she just had flu or something.

All in all, although this novel was readable, it wasn’t particularly gripping or thought provoking. I think the author tried to move away from the whole chick-lit genre by adding the cancer storyline to make this less of a ‘fluffy’ novel, but on the whole it failed to make it that. The internet dating side of the story was predictable and very clichéd and stereotyped, and the ending was fairly predictable and somewhat rushed. On the strength (or should that be weakness) of this novel, I wouldn’t buy another novel by this author, and wouldn’t really recommend this book.

Summary: predictable novel about internet dating