Meet the wedding belle ... without a ring (The Nearly-Weds - Jane Costello)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	The Nearly-Weds - Jane Costello
Date:	19/10/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Witty and a very funny read

Disadvantages: None

When Zoe is jilted at the alter by the person she thought she would spend the rest of her life with, she flees to America to rid herself of the pitying looks of those in her town. Taking on a job as a nanny, Zoe hopes to forget all about her thoughts of home and her recently left life.

And the Miller family let her do just that. The two children, Ruby and Samuel, are the most precious things and instantly take a liking to their new nanny. Their single father, Ryan, on the other hand turns out to be a little more difficult to get on with. Absent from his children's lives for the majority of the day, a completely untidy house and an attitude that explains the number of previous nannies who've quit, he and Zoe just don't see eye to eye. But Zoe somehow manages to overlook his stinking attitude as his gorgeous looks make her knickers do a dance every time she sees him.

But when eventually Zoe and Ryan begin to get on, the past decides to catch up with her and Zoe realises that she can't keep running from the past forever.

~ My opinion ~
Zoe is the perfect main character - bright, cheerful, friendly and optimistic about her new life in the USA, despite her difficult past, which instantly made me feel sorry for her and in turn, like her and want her to get everything she wants from life. She is also a perfect character because she is prone to making a fool of herself, including flashing her Superwoman knickers to Ryan's colleagues and shooting her new boss in the eye with a toy bow and arrow. Accidents and embarrassing situations seem to find her wherever she goes and this makes her even more loveable.

We don't see anything of Jason, the ex-fiancé, until near the end of the book so all we really know about him is that he ditched his wife-to-be at the alter, causing her heartache and humiliation, which does nothing but make you dislike him and think that Zoe is much better off without him. The other man in Zoe's life, Ryan, is a strange one. At first he seems very distant and isn't such a very nice person, leaving Zoe by herself with the children the moment she steps off the plane and never saying more than two grumpy words to her. But it's obvious that he only acts this way because of his troubled past and it's easy to see that there is chemistry between the two.

Throughout the book Zoe has the support of her three new friends who all happen to be English nannies all working in the same town as her. Trudie is a fun and bubbly beauty who Zoe immediately hits it off with; Amber is a hippy chick who follows the relaxed religions she's found on her trips around the world; and Felicity is posh, uptight and snobby. But despite their differences, they somehow all manage to make a great group of friends.

Although the story is a fairly predictable one (girl leaves guy, girl finds new guy, girl has to choose between the two, etc., etc.) it was still a fab read. Jane Costello is another brilliantly witty writer and I was kept laughing the whole way through, whether it was at something funny the children had said, the intense relationship between Zoe and Ryan, or the pure silliness of Zoe's personality. I was kept hooked throughout and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Summary: Definitely one for all chick-lit lovers