Review: The Bow Wow Club by Nicola May

Ruby is back and never expected to be starting over…

…but after a shocking bereavement, she begins
to question whether or not she will ever be happy again.

A chance encounter with handsome author Michael Bell
throws her fragile heart into turmoil. Plus, a dark family secret
and completely unexpected love interest add to her confusion.

Encouraged to face her demons, she volunteers at the Bow Wow Club – (Boyfriends of Widows, Wives of Widowers).

You will laugh and cry along with a myriad of eccentric characters as Ruby searches for her inner peace. But will she let love win? Or allow her past to continue to haunt her?

Review: Now I am a MASSIVE Nicola May fan, having literally inhaled all four of her previous novels at the start of the year. Not only did she kindly agree to do an interview with me about her novels and her career as a writer, but I was also lucky enough to receive a copy of her brand new novel The Bow Wow club in advance of it being published to review. And what a gorgeous thing it is too. A beautiful pink cover that gives absolutely none of the story away. I was very excited to find out what Ruby from Nicola May's first novel Working it Out, had been up to and I certainly wasn't disappointed!

I loved Ruby in Working in Out. She wasn't over powered by anything. She was a strong independent woman who knew what she wanted and went for it. She is certainly back with a bang in this novel. She is still the same strong independent woman, but time has moved on. She has taken a few hits in the time since we last heard from her and now she is moving on with her life. The same mix of characters are there as in the first novel, wild child, best friend Fi and her lovely boyfriend James. Nosey neighbour Margaret who always has a few words of wisdom for our lovely heroine Ruby's family and even comedy character Tony Choi who worked with Ruby at the sex clinic in Working it Out. The characters are all just as well written as in this author's previous novel, and I think its great that they are all quirky characters who you might not necessarily expect to find in a romantic comedy novel. I think that this is one of the reasons I like Nicola May's novels so much-they don't contain cookie cutter girls and boys, there's space for the social outcasts as well as the typical guy next door, its a great mix!

As I said at the start of this review, Ruby has grown up and is moving on with her life. This must have been a big decision for Nicola May to make, to pick up the novel a few years down the line, rather than carry on from where she left off in Working it Out. I think it is a decision which has really paid off though. It makes sense for Ruby to have changed and evolved and the issue dealt with in the novel are more grown-up issues and have moved on from the first novel. I like the fact the The Bow Wow club itself deals with grief and yet in a light-hearted and realistic way. Infertility is dealt with as is the issue of infidelity. And yet May still manages to get some wonderful sex scenes in there, as she has done in previous novels. There is a new character Michael, an author funnily enough, who continuously breaks off from writing his own sex scenes to masturbate. I found this really funny, and yet totally believable! There is a lovely bit in the book from his perspective where he is described as such: "He wanted to squeeze her everyday and tell her everything would always be alright. Yes, she was independent, but also vulnerable. Like everyone was on a way."

Having been anxiously awaiting the release of this novel. I was not disappointed at all. Having been expecting a straight sequel to Ruby's story i was surprised to find the jump in time, and yet I was really pleased with the result. The fact that Ruby and the other characters have grown up and moved on with their lives was a great step, and made for a nice meaty read. The usual elements of Nicola May's other novels are still there so fans will not be disappointed and yet I think it also works well as a stand alone novel, and so if this is your first foray into this authors writing, you are in for a treat! A great sequel, Ruby has successfully been resurrected for our enjoyment!

Coming up on the blog...

Just a quick post today to mention what I've got coming up on the blog over the next couple of weeks. As I mentioned last week, I recently met author Paige Toon. She signed my copy of The Longest Holiday and I have the review of that coming up soon. I've been reading my way through her books, having had many of them sitting on my shelf for a while now. The Longest holiday was the starting point, but I'm on book number three now, so there will be lots more Paige Toon Marathon talk coming up over the next couple of weeks.

You may also have noticed that I've been reading a lot of Jane Costello recently too. I tried to finish off with her newest book, but unfortunately I didn't manage to get to The Wish List before my Paige Toon Marathon took over. I will be reading and reviewing that very soon though, and I will also have a guest review of Girl on the Run by Jane Costello before I wrap up my run of Jane Costello review with The Nearlyweds!

To kick next week off, I have a review of Nicola May's ,attest release The Bow Wow Club. You may remember in my interview with Nicola, she explained that this was the sequel to her first novel, Working it Out and revisits the lovely Ruby. I was very excited to read an advance review copy of this and my review will be up on Monday, the day before the novel is released!

Finally, of course there will be Top Ten Tuesdays. This week is books dealing with tough issues which I am quite looking forward to. I really enjoy putting together my top ten each week and it really makes me think about my reading habits and also the pattern in the kind of authors I choose. I think it is very clear to see what my reading personality is, just by reading through my top ten lists.

I might sneak in a few surprises along the way, but this is generally what you can be expecting over the next couple of weeks, I hope you enjoy...

Review! My Single Friend by Jane Costello

Four bad dates. Three sassy women. Two inseparable friends. And one way too successful makeover . . .

Lucy Tyler and Henry Fox have been best friends since primary school. So when he enlists her help to embark on an image makeover, she and her friends Dominique and Erin approach the project with relish. As well as the haircut and fashion overhaul, there are master classes in flirting and seduction.

But none of the girls imagine at the start of ‘Project Henry’ quite how successful it’s going to be. After a shaky start, Henry’s transformation from Lucy’s terminally single friend to an irresistible sex god takes on a life of its own. And Lucy isn’t at all sure she likes it.

It would help if her dates were more successful. Only, between breaking someone’s arm during a YMCA routine and leaving another in casualty, courtesy of an errant chopstick, they’re anything but. With a romantic history like that, is it any wonder Lucy starts to despair when she finds herself living with the man of everyone else’s dreams?

Review: I was given this book by a friend and told that I would really like it. You never know with that kind of book whether you are actually going to like it, or not, recommendations are difficult. I loved it. It was the first book I read by Jane Costello (and the only book I’d read by her for quite a while) and it was a very good start.

The two main characters in the book are instantly likeable, Henry and Lucy. I loved the fact that it was a male/female friendship, you don’t find that often enough in this genre of novels and I thought their relationship in general to be very realistic and something I could relate to! Lucy is a strong female lead in the book, which is something I love and yet her feelings of jealousy and the questions she has when Henry has his makeover were completely relatable! Henry is also a fun character to read about, I like the fact that his personality doesn’t really ever change, I would have loved to have known him in real life!

The idea for this storyline was truly inspired. Normally in this sort of situation, it’s the female who gets the makeover, and so making the guy get the makeover in this case was really refreshing! There were some truly laugh out loud moments and I literally couldn’t put it down-I read it over two days. There were also some fabulously unexpected moments, some real twists which only added to my enjoyment.

Given that this was my first Jane Costello novel, I definitely chose a good one! It was funny, captivating and a thoroughly enjoyable read, why this didn’t lead to me reading any more novels by Costello until now, I don’t know, but I’m definitely going to continue to work my way through everything else written by this fabulous author!