Book Review: A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger by Lucy Robinson

Title : A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger
Author : Lucy Robinson
Publication date : 31 Jan 2013
Publisher : Penguin 
Purchase eBook: Kindle – iBooks
Purchase paper book: Amazon – Waterstones
Rating : 4 out of 5 LeeLee’s!

Charley Lambert has worked hard at creating a perfect life. She has an aspirational flat, a job of international significance and a very good pair of legs, thanks to a rigorous health and fitness regime. Best of all, her boss has asked her out after seven years’ hard flirting and a covert fumble in a mop cupboard.

Then she breaks her leg in three places, watches her boss propose to someone else and – horror – is forced to hand over her job to her nasty deputy. Charley, a certified workaholic, fears that she will go mad.

Dangerously bored, she starts helping people who are talentless at internet dating. Then William arrives in her inbox and rocks her world. Helpless, she watches herself fall in love with him and discovers she’s not who she thought she was.

But can she turn her back on her old life – all for a total stranger?

My Thoughts

A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger is a love story, not your average soppy predictable love story; Lucy Robinson has brought a whole new meaning to love stories and it’s exciting, it’s not just about passion and romance it’s filled with mystery and abundant with hilarity.

This is a love story with a twist and without giving away the entire plot (which is rather expansive for a story of love) I can say that you will be guessing more or less until the end. You just couldn’t predict exactly what is going to happen like you can with so many generic love stories.

What do you do when you’re a workaholic and you throw yourself down a massive bloody hill resulting in breaking your leg in three places?
If you’re name is Charley Lambert you’ll ignore your doctor’s orders for many weeks of rest and find a way to work from home.
As an outlet and use of her newly found free time, Charley sets up a business as a ghost writer for people who are  terrible at trying to be romantic but want to meet people via online dating. It’s called First Date Aid.

The business is going really well, but when you start to fall for one of your clients love interests it can never be good. Charley finds herself falling helplessly in love and can’t control her feelings, but is William everything Charley thinks he is and more? How can she communicate with William as herself and not Shelley her hopeless romantic of a client without breaking all the rules of her new business?
She’s spent the last seven years in love with her boss John and this is the first time she has had feelings for somebody other than him.

Charley is on a journey of self discovery and realizes that maybe she doesn’t love her life and her job as much as she thought, maybe she really just wants to sit back and be normal for a while and take care of her own needs before everyone else’s.

I particularly like Charley’s relationship with her friends and family, my favourite character is her house mate Sam who is a bit of a slob but overall a real sweetheart who is there in times of need just like a good friend should be. Throughout the story I could never trust John, her love interest of seven years and boss at the big corporate pharmaceutical firm she works for. He seemed a little sleazy to me and like he was always up to no good.
Margot my least favourite character is a colleague, she tries repeatedly to steal Charlotte’s job position from her while she is unable to work and in a vulnerable position as her life comes crashing down around her.

This was a great lesson in how people on the internet especially within dating aren’t always going to be what they seem but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a bad thing!
It also shows you how easily you can be blind to what is going on around you, especially if you’re always caught up in work and not stopping to take a moment for yourself.

This is the first book I have read by Lucy Robinson and I really enjoyed it, so much that I would like to read her previous novel to see if it is as enjoyable as this one was.
I read this book over 3 days commuting to work and back, I even found myself spending my lunch hour sneaking in more as I was eager to know what was going to happen next. It’s a very witty light hearted novel and I found it to be a really relaxing read, perfect to put your feet up with on a weekend and just enjoy a few quiet hours. I absolutely loved it.