Book Review: How to Get a (Love) Life

Title : How to get a (Love) Life
Author : Rosie Blake
Publication date : 28 January 2014
Publisher : Novelicious Books
Purchase eBook: N/A
Rating : 5 out of 5 LeeLee’s!

The Blurb

Some people book last-minute holidays, walk barefoot in the grass or party on a week night. Not Nicola Brown. Nicola is the kind of girl who double-locks the front door, leaves the plastic covering on new furniture, sticks to a super-strict diet and definitely, absolutely Does Not Date. 

Her colleague Caroline – loopy, warm and exasperated by her, knows that Nicola’s reluctance to lose control means she’s living only half a life. And so she lays down the gauntlet: Nicola must cast aside her hang ups and go on as many dates as it takes to find true love in time for Valentine’s Day.

The pick of local men is, quite frankly, a bit rubbish. And there are only three months until February 14th. Surely it’s an impossible task? But, as Nicola is about to find out on her dodgy dates, letting go isn’t quite as scary as she imagined. In fact, it’s rather a lot of fun…

My Thoughts

How to Get a (Love) Life follows the story of Nicola Brown on her mission to find herself a man before valentines day, a real man, a tall handsome muscular man. The only reason Nicola actually wants to navigate away from her very orderly life of solitude is because of her work college Caroline.

Nicola works for a small acting agency with Caroline and their boss James, although they are a very small knit team the business is booming and she will do anything to help them succeed, even if it involves donning her own acting skills or dining with the most arrogant man on the agencies books, Nicola really does go above and beyond for her career.

Following Nic on her journey starts with a series of quiet possibly the worst first dates ever! If a man ever tells you to bring your bikini on a date in the middle of winter lock the doors and avoid him at all costs! He is NOT taking you to a spa or to any place remotely warm,  poor Nicola learnt this the hard way, with the salty ocean spray slapping her in the face and a neoprene hat on her head.

After a few not so perfect dates Nicola takes it upon herself to meet new men as much as possible and of course the best way to do this is do man stuff, right? Play golf, start carpentry, all perfectly normal things for a woman to do. So you won’t be surprised to find her efforts to meet single men isn’t going quiet to plan.

Throughout the course of the story we meet Nicolas lovely family and her charming brother Mark who has an unhealthy obsession with bats, he was one of my favorite characters, his determination to date the woman he works with is very sweet. At one point I found myself rooting for mark and his romantic endeavors more than I was for Nicola.

The trouble with Nicola is that she spends so much time concentrating on her OCD plan to find her perfect man that she’s not looking right under her own nose! We meet a whole host of different gents on the journey to find the one, some of them are so tragic its unreal and others will make your insides do a tiny flip.

I would however have liked to see a little more of Nicolas perfect man Mr *cough cough* sorry did you miss that? Yes him, he was such a fantastic character and throughout the novel I wanted more!

Verdict

How to Get a (Love) Life is a really fun and refreshing read, a novel filled with humour and a sprinkling of romance. The writing is easy to follow and flows well throughout leaving you eager to find out what could possibly go wrong next. Rosie doesn’t over do it with the romance element of this novel, and it works really well. Its not soppy and its not sexy but its funny and entertaining through to the very end.
The perfect companion for a relaxing weekend.