This is the author’s first foray into fiction and I really hope it won’t be her last.

This book is funny and really relatable and you don’t have to be a single woman on her 30s to feel that way……I’m certainly not anymore. This is a really well observed and well written debut. Impressive.

I was all hyped up to really love this book after seeing so many fab reviews but unfortunately it didn’t quite ring any bells for me. I mean there were parts of it that I really loved, Nina’s Dad’s dementia journey was really touching and it felt so real. You really did want to reach into the book and give them all a massive hug, especially nearer the end of the book. It’s such a cruel illness but this book shines a light on the support that is out there and highlights looking for the bright star in a dark sky.

It was the relationship with Max that didn’t feel quite right to me, I still can’t quite put my finger on it but I felt like I was reading Nina’s diary entries and struggled to get drawn into the relationship like I normally would.

The ending of the book also kinda jumped up on me, I was happily reading along and then bam, that was the end and it still felt like I had another few chapters yet.

On another positive though Nina’s relationship with her mum and her friends was so realistic, it’s true how we grow apart from each other as life takes its toll but having friends that you know you can count on when things go down the pan really does help. Lola was like this for Nina, I loved their relationship and found myself chuckling along at the hen do - oh how awkward that must have felt!

Overall an ok book, I liked it and enjoyed the characters but it just felt a bit flat and didn’t grab me as I was expecting it to - maybe I’d hyped it up a bit too much before hand…

Finished this in a day! I loved the main character and found her so relatable. This was well written and an easy quick read.

Such a clever, observant and reflective book.

There were some very spot on observations about dating in your 20/30’s and they felt apt as I was going through dating while reading it.

I went in expecting a romantic comedy and it didn’t quite feel that way, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

I loved Dolly’s non fiction stuff and was super intrigued to check out her first novel. It was absolutely excellent. Recommend!

Brilliant book, Dolly never fails to impress. Weirdly a very similar situation has happened to me, so reading this was like reading about my life! Really enjoyed this, a super easy and enjoyable read.

I actually requested this book a long while ago and finally got around to reading. I did enjoy getting to know Nina and all the characters that make up her life. The book centres around her life as a single woman in her early thirties and how she juggles her own and others expectations around finding someone to settle down with

Sorry this wasn't one for me and I did not finish.
I found it tough going and to be honest stupid and this was my 2nd attempt.

A dnf from me. I found some bits amusing but other than that I couldn't get into it. I personally found it was trying to hard to be too many things and I couldn't get on board with the mc

How accurate and perceptive this book was. It was like a window into what life can be like as single woman. Tremendous skill and craft shown in the writings, I absolutely loved Dolly’s first fiction book!

This was actually a DNF for me unfortunately. I just couldn’t get onboard with the story and couldn’t connect with Nina at all which is a shame because i know this is an incredibly loved novel!

Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC.

As soon as I saw Dolly Alderton was writing another book, I was desperate to get my hands on it. Her uncluttered, sympathetic and insightful voice shone through in “Everything I Know About Love”, and it does in “Ghosts” as well.

I’ll admit I was nervous reading the first chapter as the narration was definitely more showing than telling, making it hard to relax into the story. However I’m glad I persisted as it gave way to a truly special story about a woman called Nina, one of the perennial singles in her friendship group.

This book joyfully captures the glorious mundanity of hitting your 30s and being made to feel left behind by others. The cast of characters - Joe (the now best friend, formerly boyfriend), Katherine (the smug yummy mummy), Lola (the wild single...), Max (the potential love interest) and Nina’s parents - all felt fully rounded and I enjoyed their journeys as much as Nina’s.

Overall this book offers a story that captures life, from new beginnings to coming to terms with being nearer the end than you’d like. It is an optimistic read and definitely one I’d recommend.

A nice read with a nice character but I did get a bit bored half way through.

Quite easy to relate to, she is single, goes on a great first date which leads to a great dating life. Gets ghosted. Her dad is sick and her mum doesn't really understand how sick nor how she needs to adapt to care for him initially.

Some good laugh out loud bits too but there wasn't much of interest to keep you going.

Ghosts explores the complications of dating in your 30s, ghosting, being single when your friends are settling down and a desire for parenthood. It was an enjoyable read, but for me the most unique aspect of the book was the main character’s relationship with her parents and the challenge of suddenly feeling like she needed to take care of them, rather than the other way around, as her father develops dementia. It was very sad, but sensitively done.

‘Ghosts’ is the debut novel by Dolly Alderton.

Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he’s going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan. A new relationship couldn’t have come at a better time – her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone’s moving to the suburbs. There’s no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who’s caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia.

‘Ghosts’ is Dolly’s debut novel even though she’s already published a book called ‘Everything I Know About Love’ and has a regular newspaper column.

‘Ghosts’ is seen through the narrative of Nina, who like many other females in the world is adapting to life as a singleton as everyone is pairing up around her. Her career as a food writer is going from strength from strength and just as her relationship with Max starts to develop, he disappears, ghosting her. Her father is battling dementia and disappears into his own world but already remembers Nina as his ‘Bean’.

This book is a powerful story and one that many will wholeheartedly relate to. The surprise and disappointment of online dating, finding the one only for them to let you know and to be judged on your status in life, married, children and if not, why not?

I loved Nina, I loved her independence and passion and how she was always there for others, no matter how they treated or disregarded her. I adored her best friend Lola, who was looking for happy ever after and was determined to find it, no matter how long she stayed on WhatsApp.

I loved the dynamics of the female relationships, how women behaved differently towards single women as if they were preying on their husbands and genuinely found this to be true of real life. I found the scene with Nina’s parents to be hard hitting as her mother dealt with her husband’s dementia by engaging now with friends to escape the pain, whilst Nina struggled with seeing her father become a different person. These scenes are hard hitting and emotional in parts and did make for quite tender reading.

Beautifully written and sadly relatable, ‘Ghosts’ is a poignant and bittersweet story about getting old, looking for love and finding your place in life. Filled with humour, cynicism and nostalgia for what has been, this book brought back all kinds of feelings and was truly a masterpiece of a read.

You can buy ‘Ghosts’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

This is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I’ve been unable to put down. I love Dolly’s podcast she does with Pandora Sykes, The High Low; the wit she demonstrates there carries over to her fiction beautifully. I’m yet to read Everything I Know About Love, but reading and enjoying Ghosts has bumped it higher up on my reading list! Dolly’s writing in Ghosts reminded me a lot of Heartburn by Nora Ephron so if you liked that, I’d happily suggest you’ll like this too!

👻 🎶 Yeah, yeah, yeah….🎶👻 I may be singing Wham’s, ‘The Edge of Heaven’ for a while (while seriously sniggering at the “proper” lyrics!) 😂 I loved this book. The protagonist, Nina, is fun, funny, witty, clever, a best friend, a wonderful daughter, an intellect, she is also human. The start of this book I felt it was going to be an easy osy frivolous chick lit read, I was so very wrong. It has all of the above, but so many deeper life issues, many of lives complications involving relationships but also mental health. Friends come and go, good friends always come back, and family is for life. Dolly Alderton has made me laugh out loud, cringe, cry, smile, rub my hands down my face in frustration! An all encompassing, hilarious, heart felt story. High recommend this one!

I'm a fan of contemporary romance novels/novels about young women and enjoyed Alderton's memoir but sadly, Ghosts was a disappointment. I feel like I'm swimming against the tide with this, so many people love it and maybe I'm missing something but it was just too thin and flimsy for me.

Didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did. The start had me scratching my head - all those people being mentioned, descriptions about who's who and what's what, and I was like, Do I want to push on? But something inside me told me to keep at it...and am I glad I listened!
This book is real. I don't have a better way of describing it. Real, raw, poignant, addictive, flowy, sad, quirky, on point, beautiful... Just like life. It really feels like we lived one year in Nina's life, but not just that - we lived it as Nina. We become her through the writing, the voice, the hold the author has on her, the depth and breadth and scope of her persona, all scrawled out so bluntly and sometimes harshly for us on the page.
I wanted to compare this book to chick-lit, but it also so much more. This is what an immersive read that made me totally become the character is supposed to be, what 1st Person POV is supposed to be. Wordy, messy, complex, deep, but most of all, resonant! Resonating for the character, but also resonating with us, the reader, as we cannot help but go along for the ride, dips and lows and highs and everything in between.
Loved it! Really, really loved it!

I really enjoyed this book about family, friendships, love, hope, disappointment. The characters were, on the whole, likeable and realistic. It was very poignant in places and overall quite a beautiful story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.