In Which We Discuss Thirtynothing

Lisa Jewell's second novel is probably my least favourite.

The storyline focuses on Dig and Nadine, two people who've been friends since secondary school, and who have just turned thirty(nothing). Despite everyone thinking they must be together, and despite having dated for the grand total of one day, they are emphatically not interested in each other.

You can see where this is going, right? So could I. From the very first page.

Then, the girl who broke Dig's heart, Delilah, shows up. Her disappearance was just as mysterious as her reappearance, so Dig tries to solve that mystery while falling for her over again. In the spirit of revenge/competition, Nadine calls her ex, Phil, and then shenanigans ensue.

I think I dislike this book because of it's predictability. The character's spend pages and pages obsessing over why they shouldn't do what we all know they will, and I find that very frustrating. Honestly, you want to just slap some sense into them.

This book doesn't involve as many people or links between them as Ralph's Party did, but it does delve deeply into the past, and how events there formed people's reactions today, a theme Jewell revisited in her later novels.

As I said, Thirtynothing is my least favourite of Jewell's novels, but it's still better than some by other authors.