A Hopeless Romantic by Harriet Evans

Template:Infoboxsort Laura is really quite hopeless about men. She's had a series of unfortunate relationships for about as long as she can remember. Each man is always going to be The One despite his obvious unsuitability. The current man is Dan who is going to tell his girl friend soon that there's no future in their relationship and then he and Laura can be together. In the meantime their relationship seems to be nothing more than steamy sex when he can get away from Amy and the occasional outing to somewhere they'll not be seen.

You don't need me to tell you that it all goes wrong, disastrously wrong and in the aftermath Laura goes on holiday with her parents to stay with her grandmother in Norfolk. She's sworn off men and decided that her days of having a romantic head in the clouds are gone for good. When she goes out on a couple of dates with Nick in Norfolk she's determined that they'll just be good friends. Well, perhaps better than just good friends - but then it seems that he might not have been completely truthful with her either.

If you're looking for a long, lazy holiday read then this might be right up your street. The characters are vibrant and have your attention straight away. Laura is rather silly in the first part of the book, but then who hasn't been a bit silly at one time or another? She allows her obsession with Dan to get in the way of everything - her family, her friends and her job. You want to shake her, but the story does that for her rather more harshly than we would have wished. Dan is suitably dreadful - you're bound to know of someone just like him - and Nick has your heart from day one, even when you have some doubts about him.

The plot is a variation on an old theme. Girl loses man, goes into a decline and then has to pull herself out of the pit. I thought the book started a little slowly - or perhaps I was just too annoyed with Laura - but Harriet Evans captured her despair and the emotional ups and downs perfectly, along with the rollercoaster ride to self discovery. I really wanted things to work out for her and towards the end of the book I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough. There's drama and even a point at which I shed a couple of tears. It's not great literature but that's not always what you want - it's simply a good holiday read.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending this book to The Bookbag.

If this type of novel appeals to you then you might also like to try Made in Heaven by Adèle Geras or Louise Harwood's Hippy Chick.

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You can read more book reviews or buy A Hopeless Romantic by Harriet Evans 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 A Hopeless Romantic by Harriet Evans at Amazon.com.

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