I’ve just finished reading The Heartfix by Stella Grey.
About the book:
Mind-boggling, heart-rending and darkly comic, this is the full story for the first time, from the writer of the Guardian column Midlife Exwife…
When her husband fell in love with someone else, Stella Grey thought she’d be unhappy for the rest of her life. But then she realised that she needed to take her future in her own hands. She needed to meet someone wonderful, and find a heartfix for heartbreak.
So, she joined online dating sites and embarked on a mission. What followed were 693 days of encounters, on screen and in person: dates in cafes and over glasses of astringent red wine, short term relationships and awkward sex, but mostly there were phone calls and emails (many, many emails). Her journey was never dull, featuring marriage proposals, invitations to Tangier, badly timed food poisoning and much younger men – but was it ultimately successful?
As a single woman of 30-ish, I approached this book with some trepidation. I have considered online dating in the past, but dismissed it as the ultimate way to turn myself completely crazy. (I'm already halfway there, so it wouldn't take much.)
Thank goodness, therefore, for Stella Grey! She put herself through a punishing schedule of dating site messages, emails, texts, phone calls... just to find out whether it is possible to find love online after coming up on the other side of 50 freshly divorced from the only man she’d ever loved. This book is a testament to her hard work!
The ending is... I don't want to spoil it. But, after the journey we are taken on with her, it is a very satisfying finish.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest opinion.
Available from 4th Estate Books, from 22 September 2016.