Love your Life

Title: Love your Life

Author: Sophie Kinsella

Published: 20th October 2020

Genre: Romance, Humour,

Number of pages: 416

Start Date: 24th March 2022

Finish Date: 2nd April 2022

Summary

Call Ava romantic, but she thinks love should be found in the real world, not on apps that filter men by height, job, or astrological sign. She believes in feelings, not algorithms. So after a recent breakup and dating app debacle, she decides to put love on hold and escapes to a remote writers’ retreat in coastal Italy. She’s determined to finish writing the novel she’s been fantasizing about, even though it means leaving her close-knit group of friends and her precious dog, Harold, behind.

At the retreat, she’s not allowed to use her real name or reveal any personal information. When the neighbouring martial arts retreat is cancelled and a few of its attendees join their small writing community, Ava, now going by “Aria,” meets “Dutch,” a man who seems too good to be true. The two embark on a baggage-free, whirlwind love affair, cliff-jumping into gem-coloured Mediterranean waters and exploring the splendour of the Italian coast. Things seem to be perfect for Aria and Dutch.

But then their real identities–Ava and Matt–must return to London. As their fantasy starts to fade, they discover just how different their personal worlds are. From food choices to annoying habits to sauna etiquette . . . are they compatible in anything? And then there’s the prickly situation with Matt’s ex-girlfriend, who isn’t too eager to let him go. As one mishap follows another, it seems while they love each other, they just can’t love each other’s lives. Can they reconcile their differences to find one life together?

Review

This was my first Sophie Kinsella book, I decided to read it after hearing all these rave reviews about her books so I thought I give this book a whirl.

I do not have any respect for Ava and that made it hard for me to want her and Dutch to get together. She is all emotion, all the time and seems to just expect things to work out because the world is a good place and/or she is a good person. She keeps puttering around with 'courses', including the writing course where she meets Dutch but yet she very rarely completes them. And it makes me wonder what the heck she is living on.

I mean, I know everything in her apartment is a 'rescue' and half of everything was found in the skip. But how is she making rent? And the 'rescue books' that she takes in because it hurts her heart to think of them being pulped. I absolutely adore books but I am not going to cry if a random automotive manual heads off to the great beyond. I love dogs but Harold need to be disciplined and trained, not spoken to soothingly and giving him lots of love.

I resent that Sophie is not even bothering to make it a fantasy because her dog is awful and her life is chaos and when you see her life through Dutch's eyes (by proxy, we do not get his Point of View but Sophie is a good enough writer that we can totally see his reaction) you see exactly what you would expect with someone who makes their decisions solely on emotion and never considers the obvious downsides.

I decided to keep going because I know this is going to be about growth arcs and compromises; but Ava has so very far to go before she will rise to tolerable non-flake that I just stopped caring. Even though I stuck with the book I had a very hard time staying engaged, and the second half of the book felt rushed. The humour

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️