In Which We Discuss Vince and Joy

I personally found Vince and Joy to be the most frustrating of Jewell's novels. In short - and this section is going to contain spoilers - two people meet, and are perfect for each other. Due to a series of ridiculous misunderstandings, they remain apart for the next twenty years or so, having relationships and even children with other people, while continually catching glimpses of one another, but never saying anything. And then, eventually, finally they get together.

One of my pet hates is stories where every one except the main characters knows what's going to happen. Supporting cast, audience, everyone. And then, the entire story is basically waiting for the heroes to stop being idiots.

This is the main reason why I dislike Jewell's more straightforward love stories, like this and Thirtynothing, and even, to an extent, Ralph's Party. It's not so much 'will they, won't they' as 'get on with it already'.

In Which We Discuss A Friend of the Family

A Friend of the Family is the one novel that feels quite different from the rest of Jewell's style.

The friend in question is Gervase, an ageing rocker with a strange ability to empathise and see problems that people wouldn't normally confide in other people. The family is the Londons; mother, father and three boys, Tony, Sean and Ned. These boys each have their own problems - Tony feels that life has passed him by, and wonders how he went from being the catch to the chubby older brother. Ned just got back from three years in Australia with a crazy woman, and feels like he's fallen off the track at some point or another. He doesn't know where his life is going. And Sean, well Sean has it all - a best-selling novel and the fiancé of his dreams. Until, that is, he gets a bit more than he can handle.

It's hard to analyse why this is my favourite of Jewell's novels. It may be because it's less of a romantic comedy/drama, and more about a family. The point of it isn't to get the girl, it's to get the life (although in a few cases, the girl comes with it).

Perhaps it might help to compare it to my least favourite, Thirty-Nothing. What annoyed me about that was that I could very clearly see the ending from the first few pages. You've all seen or read stories like that, where absolutely everyone know who's going to get together, and it's just the very frustrating case of waiting for the two main characters to stop being idiots. That kind of scenario also shows up in Vince and Joy, and to some extent in Ralph's Party. While A Friend of the Family does include a bit of waiting for people to stop being idiots, at least Gervase is there to tell them that.

There's one element that did rather annoy me about the book. When one character becomes pregnant, she says that five years ago, she would have got an abortion. But, as an engaged woman in her early thirties, she doesn't have that option. Well, why not?

Later on, she also asks "Why would be propose if he didn't want babies?". Well, there are a number of responses to that - because he wanted to marry you being the most obvious.

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.

In Which We Discuss Ralph's Party

So, I finally got started on my Lisa Jewell campaign.

I first read Ralph's Party several years ago. At the time, the drug use really bothered me. I think I was about fourteen, and I just wasn't used to a world in which drug use was so casual. I'm still not a huge fan of them, but now I barely bat an eyelid. It's not like Kilo where the entire point is drug use - it's just people who occasionally smoke weed. And, at one point, cocaine.

As well as being the first Lisa Jewell book I read, this is also the first one she wrote. It began as a bet, much like Frankenstein, or Ozymandias (although, of course, they were challenges between writers, and this was a bet so, as the story goes, Jewell didn't spend all her time on the dole being depressed).

Ralph's Party is about a large house in London, split into flats were five people live, with another moving in at the beginning. In the basement flat, Ralph and Smith are best friends with nothing in common, who are looking for a new flatmate. They get Jem, short and sparky, who believes the flat is her destiny.

In the middle flat live Siobhan and Karl, who have been together for years. They're quite happy, for a given measure of happiness.

Finally, on the top floor, there is Cheri, a blonde, beautiful ice queen.

I'm about halfway through my reread now, so that's all I'll say about this one at the minute. Here's the rest of the list, in order;

Ralph's Party (1999)
Thirtynothing (2000)
One Hit Wonder (2001)
A Friend of the Family (2004)
Vince and Joy (2005)
31 Dream Street (2007)
The Truth About Melody Browne (2009)