The Last Piece of my Heart by Paige Toon
| The Last Piece of my Heart by Paige Toon | |
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| Category: Women's Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Morris
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| Summary: A girl with a lot of ex boyfriends ghost-writes for an author with a lot of ex boyfriends in this busy book that falls just short of the mark | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 432 | Date: May 2017 |
| Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1471162558 | |
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Bridget is a travel writer and blogger with dreams of writing a book, but so far that has remained just a dream. Then an opportunity arises: not to write a book of her own, but to ghost write someone else's. Nicole died with a bestseller in print and plans for a sequel, and her publishers are keen that Bridget picks up where she left off. It's an unusual proposition, even more so because she will need to go and spend time with Nicole's husband and baby daughter as part of her research, but it might be the foot in the door she needs to segway into that book she's been planning.
I have read all of Paige Toon's previous works, so was keen to get my hands on this one, expecting a love story with some awesome, spunky characters and maybe some nice, exotic destinations. And all of those did feature, sure, but once I finished the final page and closed the book I was surprised to find that for once it was a book I certainly liked, but didn't love. The main reason for this is that it is an incredibly busy book with story arcs all over the place. As part of Bridget's research she reads Nicole's old diaries, so we're regularly transported back in time to when she was young. These diaries have a theme to them, namely love and loss, and although Nicole has passed away before the book starts, she lives on through these parts where Bridget learns about all her old boyfriends from her teenage years up until she married husband Charlie.
Alongside this, we have Bridget's blog which is also about…..love and loss. She has a theory about each love taking a little piece of her heart and she's on a mission to track down former flames to ask for these pieces back, convinced she won't be able to fall fully and hopelessly in love with Mr Right until her heart is intact again. It's a cute idea, but it does rather complicate things because now not only do we have Nicole's former loves on paper, we also have Bridget's in real life. Throw in the characters from the actual plot of the sequel Bridget is ghost writing and that's a lot of couples to keep track of. And of course, with handsome Charlie and his equally handsome brother Adam in Cornwall, not to mention Bridget's long distance boyfriend Elliot over in Australia, you can imagine the hilarity, confusion and potential for heartbreak.
It's a shame because the book showed such promise, but I just found there to be too much going on. I could keep track, near enough, but it wasn't a relaxing experience and I worried I might be missing things or confusing who was who, so for me it wasn't the perfect summer read so many of her other books are. I didn't find all the various men distinct enough in their characterisation, and they all just merged into one blob of exes after a while. There were some very entertaining scenes in the book, and some equally touching and heart warming ones, but these were the ones in the here and now, during Bridget's Cornwall days and only involved two or three of the 5 million characters that had popped up in the book by the end.
I would nonetheless like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review. Die-hard fans might still enjoy this, but from me it gets a middle of the road rating. If you're after another of the author's works we really would recommend, do have a look at The One We Fell In Love With.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Last Piece of my Heart by Paige Toon at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Last Piece of my Heart by Paige Toon at Amazon.com.
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