Time to review Would Like To Meet... by Polly James
About the book:
Could the worst thing that’s ever happened to Hannah Pinkman also turn out to be one of the best? She and her husband Dan have reached the end of the line. Bored with the same gripes, the same old arguments in fact, bored with everything they split up after a trivial row turns into something much more serious. Now Hannah has to make a new life for herself, but that’s not easy. She’s been so busy being a wife and mum that she’s let all her other interests slip away, along with her friends. And when Hannah is persuaded to join a dating site, her best match’ is the very last person she expects it to be... A clever, funny and poignant novel about life after a long relationship, the importance of friendship, and rediscovering your identity.
I was drawn to this book by its cover. Turquoise wall, purple tablecloth, mugs with tea... onto a winner, surely?
Well...
Hannah is approaching The Big 5-0, which I’m sure can be a pretty scary time in anyone’s life. However, breaking up with your husband of over thirty years - Dan - over a petty squabble when you’re both tired enough to know better? That just makes your life hard for no real reason. Then add in a mix of ‘awfully dreary job’ and ‘manager from hell’, along with ‘my old friends have all disappeared on me’ and ‘my new friends are either excellent or out to steal my (sort-of-ex-)husband’ and you get a little glimpse of the plot line.
Sometimes (quite a lot), Hannah really frustrated me. Hacking into your husband’s dating site profile is a really petty thing to do, more so when you yourself have signed up at least five different dating sites. Her newest friend, Eva, often came up with brilliant ideas to help Hannah get out of her rut and back on the up again. She takes Hannah clothes shopping and at one point tells her, “Clothes are only vintage if you don’t look old enough to have worn them the first time round... otherwise, they’re simply your old clothes.”
One of the characters (the ‘manager from hell’, aka The Fembot) is only spoken of using her nickname, and her actual name is finally revealed three quarters of the way into the book. This grated on me from the get-go, unfortunately (no matter how awful a person is, they’re still a person and they have a name, so use that instead of resorting to petty school playground tactics). A description of another character went as follows: “a man who looks just like Will Smith. A slightly camp Will Smith, admittedly, but one who probably shares his lookalike’s personal trainer.” At no point is this person physically described by any other means, the only way his skin colour is spoken of is by describing him as a Will Smith lookalike. It felt an immature way of handling a character description.
There’s a lot to like about this book. There are moments when I laughed aloud at descriptions and things characters said. But I really feel like I spent most of the time shouting through my Kindle screen that Hannah and Dan should just bloody talk to each other. Funnily enough, when they finally do, everything is sorted.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest opinion.
Available from Avon Publishing.