How to Lose an Ex in 10 Days is less of a rom-com and more a contemporary women's fiction book, with a supernatural twist and a heavy focus on forgiveness and finding yourself/moving on. Without spoiling said twist, I, unfortunately, found this novel to be underwhelming. While I liked the writing style, I wanted more character and relationship development (a.k.a chemistry!). I also found the book to be quite slow-paced at time.

When I first saw this book, I thought it would be a cute romcom. I love how to lose a guy in 10 days, so I thought this would be a similar premise but with an ex, (so the characters would clearly have known each other). The storyline did not go as I had expected it to, and I found the characters very unlikable. I just could not enjoy this.

I was really excited to read this book as the synopsis caught my eye but after 100 pages, it fell flat for me and I made the decision to DNF.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC for a honest review of this book!

I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
How To Lose an Ex in Ten Days by Lottie Lucas is a lighthearted, fun to read rom-com novel. Six years after being left at the altar, Belle Delphine still exists in a stasis state, with no dreams or goals, merely existing and trying to get by. While on the first date she’s had in all that time, Belle catches a glimpse of someone who looks just like her missing ex, and then unbelievably, Ed turns up in the stationary closet at work. Why now when she’s finally ready to move on, and how does he manage to pop up at the absolutely worst moments? Belle has the ten days until her sister’s wedding to stop Ed from haunting her, deal with her attention-seeking mother, prevent said sister Rosie from turning into a Bridezilla, find out what’s bothering her best friend Tess, and see if just maybe Nate D’Angelo whom she’s spent the last three years crushing on is the one for her. The story has a nice balance of humour and angst with substantial supporting characters that made it, for me, the perfect escape read. Steam Level: Light
Publishing Date: November 19, 2020. #HowToLoseAnExInTenDays #LottieLucas #HarperCollinsUK #HarperCollinsCanada #BooksOfHCC #RomCom #ContemporaryRomance
#GhostStory #OnceMoreChapter #bookstagram #bookstagrammer

How to Lose an Ex in Ten Days by Lottie Lucas
Publication Date: November 19, 2020
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Description from NetGalley...
“A family wedding, a new love, an ex with unfinished business…

With her sister’s wedding just days away and gorgeous Nate D’Angelo finally returning her long, lingering stares across the newsroom, things are slotting into place for journalist Belle Delphine. But suddenly her ex – the one who left her at the altar – is back and haunting her every step … literally!

With Ed on a supernatural mission from above Belle’s past clashes spectacularly with her present and everything starts going wrong. Now she’ll have just to ten days to lose her ex, save the wedding and win the man of her dreams!”
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Thank you to @NetGalley @harpercollins @onemorechapterhc for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts...
If you’re a romcom fan, you might like this. Unfortunately, this was not the book for me. The theme was interesting, but the story fell flat. The romance wasn’t really there, which was disappointing because it is a romcom. The main characters were not really likeable and relatable. The most interesting character was the mom - she brought life to the book. This wasn’t the book for me but, this is just my opinion - it could be the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

1.5 stars

It’s been years since Belle was left at the alter by Ed, never to hear from him again. Belle has moved on in her life, she is preparing for her sister's wedding, working as a journalist and flirting with coworker Nate when all of a sudden Ed has turned up back in her life but not in the way Belle thought she’d see him again.

This book, first of all, wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, the major plot point resulting in her wanting to lose her ex in 10 says is not what I expected but I have to say I didn’t really have an issue with it. I thought oh okay that’s kinda weird but I‘m interested to see where this goes.

But largely this book was quite bland.

The characters were underdeveloped as were their relationships. The only character who had any sort of distinct personality trait was the protagonist's mother and that was just because she was chaotic.

We have Belle having feelings for current cute boy Nate whilst still trying to get over that her ex, Ed who left her at the alter and is all of a sudden back in her life. The issue is she doesn’t have any chemistry with either and we aren’t given any reason to be invested in either relationship. With Nate, it is very instalove and with Ed, we are told they have all this history together but are never made apart of any of it.

The writing was okay I have to say, there is often the case where poor writing deters me from reading a book and that wasn’t the issue here honestly neither was the premise. The premise of the book would have been interesting enough to make it a decent book if the characters were properly developed and literally anything happened in the plot. The plot was a lot of nothing happening for way too many pages and I had to push myself to keep reading.

Overall this one wasn’t really a win for me.

I received an ARC of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I needed a break from my usual reading and I usually like a cute Romance or rom com to break things up a bit. This wasn’t a bad choice, it was cute, funny and of course had the romance factor, but it just felt a bit flat to me. I lost a bit of interest halfway through since it got a bit repetitive.
Overall, it was an ok read and I’d pick up something from this author again.

I volunteered to read this book, through netgalley in exchange, for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. All the characters are enjoyable in this story. The relationships within this book is good. The pacing is what everyone looks in a book. The story is set in Edinburgh, Scotland and mentions London. I really enjoyed all the characters in this book. I really enjoyed this author's writing style.  And I can't wait to read more by this author in the future. This ebook will be in stores on November 19, 2020 for $10.99 (AUD). I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

3.5/5 stars


How to Lose an Ex in 10 Days is about Belle Delphine, a twenty-six-year-old journalist. Belle lives with her 10 months older sister, Rosie, and their best friend Tess. The novel spans over the course of the 10 days leading up to Rosie’s wedding. As Belle starts to take notice of her colleague and friend Nate, she has this internal struggle because she still feels haunted by her ex who six years earlier left her at the alter who she has had no contact with since, that is until he comes back just a day or two after this internal struggle begins. This becomes problematic for Belle in many ways, but mostly because her ex, Ed, is dead. Now she is being literally haunted by Ed while trying to juggle Rosie’s wedding, Nate’s feelings, why Ed is here, and decipher her own feelings.

While I really enjoyed the plot and the idea behind the novel, I am giving it 3.5/5 starts because there were a lot of things at play that made me question the validity of the novel. Lucas’s writing style and characters are amazing, but the pacing of the novel didn’t feel right and I will get into that shortly, but I want to really highlight and praise the things that did work. Lucas’s writing style is one that I absolutely adore. I have not read her other novel, but now I want to because her style, at least in this novel, is very unique. The story is told from Belle’s first-person perspective, but it is almost second person with Belle speaking directly to the reader at some points. When Belle first speaks to the reader, I was taken aback unsure if it was a mistake because this is very uncommon, but the way that Lucas executes this exchange through the novel does not pull the reader out of the novel but actually does the opposite and pulls them further into the story and you begin to feel like Belle’s closest confidante. It was very fun to read.

Lottie Lucas’s characters are another reason I enjoyed this novel. We have the main characters: Belle, Nate, Ed, Rosie, and hen we have some secondary characters like Belle and Rosie’s best friend Tess, their Mum and Grandmother and Rosie’s fiancé Leo (who is my favorite character and the best person who ever existed). Belle is a character with a lot of guilt, shame, and trust issues especially trusting herself. She is guarded from being jilted at the alter and one of my favorite things about her is that she talks about herself before her wedding day and how she misses that person and wishes that she could be that person again. Belle is an extremely relatable character, even though most of us reading this have probably not been left at the alter, her struggle is one that is very familiar for so many different reasons. Rosie, Belle’s older sister, is a very strict, very solid character and she is very blunt which is needed for Belle in some ways but the way that these characters interact with each other mirrors a lot of sister relationships the good and the bad of them. Our two main men, Nate and Ed, are very different on the surface and Belle compares them a lot throughout the novel. Both men are aggravating and yet I loved them both. Our secondary characters were very flushed out and really brought a lot of relatability and understanding to our main characters and the story itself.

How to Lose an Ex in 10 Days covers really important themes such as closure, self-absorption, trusting yourself, and what means to take control of your life. Belle was left at the alter and SIX YEARS later she is still not able to move on from it. She never hunted Ed down because her friends and family, especially her sister, told her it would be better to just put it behind her and she felt that she had to that for them to prove that she could be okay. Belle bases a lot of decisions off of what she thinks she needs to do for her loved ones. With all that Belle struggles with in these 10 short days she has to come to terms with how she wants to move forward in her life and what that looks like. Lucas does a great job at covering these themes, however, the quickness with which Belle comes to these terms seems too fast and that brings us to the biggest downfall of the novel which is the pacing.

The novel spans over the course of 10 days. Within those 10 days Belle starts to have feelings for her co-worker which in and of itself is not a problem but on top of that Belle is confronted by her ex, which she has made very clear that she is not over, finds out that he has been dead, and then finds closure with all this by the end of the novel. The stages she goes through makes sense but there is a sense of rushing and while I enjoyed the aspects, I was constantly questioning the validity of the novel every time I set it down. I just didn’t buy that things could be so resolved in only 10 days. If this novel would have been in the span of four months I could kind of see it, but it just didn’t make sense to me. With the pacing, the synopsis tells us that her ex comes back and haunts her but that main plot point doesn’t start as soon as you would expect, and it felt like Lucas was forcing herself to build up to it. I would catch myself trying to speed ahead or try to find where Belle finds out, but it just was unneeded build up.

While the pacing of the novel was not great and really hindered the novel, Lucas’s characters, and themes along with this fun plot was an enjoyable read. It is not a new favorite and my issue with the pacing makes it hard for me to recommend the book, but the writing style alone is enough for me to give Lucas’s other book and future books a read.



*I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.*



(Will update my feedback with Amazon and BN Review once they become available)

I feel like writers need to stop making these similar plot lines to the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, because there is just nothing that will compare to that movie. This is the third book I've read that tried to compare to one of my favorite romcoms, and it fell short, I love writing rant reviews but I feel bad writing them for books that were given to me. That’s why I’m trying to make this more critical and less of a negative one. This just wasn’t my cup of tea.

The whole book wasn’t that interesting to me, to be honest and I found that most of the stuff happening didn’t make that much sense and also like it just wasn’t that important to the story.

Belle was jilted at the altar, and since then she hasn't been able to have a relationship. When she starts getting close to her gorgeous work colleague, the boyfriend who left her at the altar makes an unusual appearance.

The book was ok at first, but I have to say I'm not a fan of supernatural encounters, and this put me off. It reminded me of Working Wonders by Jenny Colgan, so if you liked it and / or you are into supernatural encounters, you might enjoy this book.

** Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion. **

How to lose an ex in 10 days by Lottie Lucas is interesting, romantic comedy with a twist. Very different from any other romance story I have read before and I like that it is set in my own home city, Edinburgh.

Six years after being left at the alter, Belle has never recovered, feeling hopeless she hasn't dared date since, she is in a job she has no passion for and has been secretly falling for a man she has no courage to ask out.
Things start to look up, as all her dreams come true when handsome co-worker Nate, asks her out on a date.

Retuning from her lunch date, feeling on cloud nine, Belle's world comes crashing down when she is met at the office by none other than Ed, the man who jilted her six years ago.
This kicks up a lot of old feelings Belle hadn't worked through. She hates him with a passion and needs to know why he left in order to gain closure. But Ed is here for a reason, they have unfinished business and he can't leave until they work through it.

To begin with this seems like a classic chick-lit romance, but unfortunately lost me after the "twist", I persevered as I hate to give up on a book. A few things I couldn't get my head around, Nate ended things and wouldn't hear her out because she didn't tell him about her ex-fiance, after just ONE lunch date.
Who airs out their dirty laundry after one date?
I also found her older sister very petty and completely selfish, a fair few of the characters weren't very likable but I suppose that was the authors intent, they all just seemed to act like children.

I gave this book 3 stars, although the story wasn't particularly my cup of tea, the sentiment wasn't lost. The overall focus is very much on forgiveness and dealing with feelings rather than burying them, moving on and learning to love again.

I found this book to be a pleasant enough read to start with, meandering along in the typical chick-lit style. Belle Delphine is getting ready for her sister’s wedding. With that distraction and handsome Nate now returning her smouldering looks across the office, she’s finding it difficult to concentrate on work. Add in to the mix her ex-fiance returning after six years of no contact and she’s certainly got a lot on her plate. Then we have the twist and from then on I just found I lost interest in the book. I suppose it is a quirky take on the whole ‘ex’ scenario but it just want for me. I would rate this book 2.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter and the author for the chance to review.

Belle Delphine experienced everyone’s worst nightmare and was left at the altar. Six years later her sisters getting married and a new man is on the scene but suddenly her ex is back too. Can she help with wedding prep, sort out her love life and get rid of her ex all in 10 days?

This is such a mixed review for me as I really loved Lottie’s writing style and would definitely read more of her work but this story just wasn’t for me.

I love a good romance book and was really enjoying this one UNTIL we find out half way through why her ex is really back. Honestly, it was like a switch went off for me and I was no longer interested at all. I hate leaving things unfinished so carried on reading but was unfortunately completely disinterested from there. I would’ve much rathered that the whole supernatural element was left out and that he was just trying to win her back. I also feel this book was a lot longer than it needed to be? I wouldn’t recommend this book but it certainly won’t put me off of reading more of her work!

I have mixed feelings on this one! I’ll start by saying I liked the writing and I would read other books by the same author but this story just missed the mark for me. I was enjoying the first half until we find out more about the main characters Belle’s ex and why he has suddenly reappeared and then I lost interest. It just seemed really stupid and unnecessary and it didn’t really add anything to the story. It would’ve been better, for me, if he was just an arsehole ex boyfriend who was hanging around trying to win Belle back rather than this whole supernatural element. From that point I just couldn’t take anything seriously, it all just seemed a bit pointless. The characters were also quite unlikeable, Belle was really whiny and I felt she was just toying with Nate and Ed and constantly changing her mind about who she wanted to be with. Although to be fair, her whole relationship with Nate was kind of nonexistent, they just shared flirty glances across the office but apparently that means they’ve been in love the whole time? None of the characters really felt complete or well rounded, I felt like I didn’t know much about any of them. Suddenly halfway through Belle’s sister kind of exploded and turned into a bit of a bitch for no reason. She was really mean to Belle which I don’t think was justified, she was being haunted by the man who left her at the alter, that’s kinda more important than making confetti cones for your wedding hun. The mother was also awful, she’s really selfish and kind of toxic. She constantly trying to upstage her own daughters. The only character I kind of liked was Belle’s friend Tess but to be honest, all we really know about her was that she has rich parents who she rarely speaks to and that she’s an artist. I felt her character didn’t actually do anything, she didn’t bring anything to the story.
All in all, I liked the first half and I liked the writing, I think it’s just for me personally I don’t like these far fetched ‘supernatural’ type aspects, I like real life contemporary fiction. If you’re looking for a romance with an unusual twist, then I’d definitely recommend.
Thanks very much for allowing me to read this.

-- Read this review, and others, on my blog at https://hookedbythatbook.com --

Belle is devastated after her fiancée, Ed, disappears on their wedding day. He never made it to the church on time, and she never had any kind of contact with him after. Six long years later, and Belle is still stuck half in love with Ed, but also still angry at him. She hides this really well from her sister and her best friend. At the office, there is a tentative romance brewing between her and Nate, a senior journalist for the paper.
There was a very unexpected, shocking twist there in the middle. And for a few seconds, I was completely thrown for a loop. This added an element to the story that I did not expect at all. It wasn’t bad per se, but up until then, I wouldn’t have said it fit in with the story. But if you can assemble this new bit of information, then it works all right with the rest of the story.

I did not buy Belle and Nate as a couple. Their entire relationship consisted of a view furtive looks at the office, some mild flirting, and plenty of misunderstandings. There really wasn’t any kind of relationship development between them. I think they spent more time at odds with each other, than trying to get to know one another. And Belle’s time was a bit consumed with all kinds of other shenanigans.

So, it was okay. I did find it interesting enough to read until the end. I agree with other reviewers that the writing is excellent, and this book certainly did not put me off reading other books by the same author.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book reminded me a lot of the classic romantic comedies of the early ‘00s — sort of like Just Like Heaven meets How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

It all starts out in a pretty standard rom-comy way: It finally seems things are going Belle’s way. Her sister is getting married in a few days and, finally, her newsroom crush on Nate D’Angelo is reciprocated.

But then her ex, Ed — aka: the guy who left her at the altar — is back. And he’s haunting her every step.

It isn’t long until Belle’s past and present come crashing into each other, leaving her just 10 days to save the wedding, get the guy and lose the ex. Easy, right?

I found the writing throughout the novel to be really well done. A lot of the characters felt really well fleshed out — even though there were moments where I wanted to shake Belle by the shoulders and ask her what was she thinking?

I wasn’t sure if I liked the big reveal at first but, as we got more insight into Ed and Belle’s relationship and found out what really happened that day, it really grew on me.

I just kind of wish there’d been a little more interaction between Belle and Nate. While we’re dropped into the story long after the two of them have first met, their interactions all felt a bit rushed — which made it a bit difficult, at times, to root for their relationship.

This book had an interesting premise, but in the end it felt very miscategorized to me. It's not really a Romance, more like Women's Fiction. It also slowed way down around halfway through and I was kind if slogging through it eventually.

If you want a read about healing after heartache and learning to love yourself then you might like this one, but it wasn't for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Left at the altar with a twist. This was an enjoyable tale of a woman jilted and trying to put the pieces of her life back together. A light hearted, easy read that is engaging and entertaining. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Ed left Belle at the altar. She's struggled to get over it and now, at long last, she thinks she might be ready to move on with Nate. But wait- Ed's back! With a twist! No spoilers but this isn't really a romance novel - much as I wanted it to be- but rather it's a story of a woman dealing with lots of issues and moving on. That said, I found myself rooting for Belle (also occasionally wanting to whisper advice in her ear). It does sag a bit in the second half but still it's a good read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.