Girlfriend, Interrupted

Girlfriend, Interrupted, Patricia Caliskan

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Romance, Humour.

I hate it when book blurbs promise “you will cry with laughter/hilarious/laugh out loud” etc. Too often I find its forced comedy at best.
This book though is different, the humour was perfect, typical British understated, so carefully tucked in I almost missed parts ;-) and that's what I love. Subtle humour, words and actions that make me smile, while still delivering a story that's interesting.

Its a slice of modern day life, “blended families” as the self help books and Sunday supplements so often say. What they mean is that part where families break up, parents meet new loves, kids are caught between two homes, two sets of parents, and can play the emotions to their best effects sometimes. Its tough, my mum used to have a saying “you can't do right for doing wrong” and I guess that fits these scenes. Whatever you do is wrong with someone.

I loved the characters, so very real, not perfect despite first impressions, and I could see this story happening easily.
I so felt for poor Ella, she loves Dan, is trying so hard to be what the family need, to help the kids, to push her career at work, to be a good friend and sometimes it seems there just aren't enough hours. Among all that where's the time for Ella?
Pippa, Dan's mum, delights in encouraging the kids memories of idyllic times with perfect Bryony, pulls out perfect family photos, refers to the home as Bryony's still, but time sneaks in the truth. Perfect Bryony though is struggling in her new marriage. Then Ella's mum and the wonderful Jeremiah, I want to be her....and maybe have a toyboy like him ;-) The kids, Ethan is a great lad, so loving and accepting while like so many kids his sister, Grace, is struggling. Of course she wants Bryony and Dan back together, most kids want their parents together, and its beyond their understanding why that can't happen. She's awful to Ella, who tries valiantly to step forward, to help her, to hold the kids weekends as something precious. Ella however spends so much of her time flying round, mending events, picking up pieces, arranging things others have dropped, forgotten, ignored, and runs herself ragged trying to be all things to all (wo)men.
Then there's Dan. Oh how I wanted to slap in at times, he loves Ella, loves his kids but seemed blindly ignorant to just how hard it was for her. The chaotic party was so illustrative of everything she was fighting. It made me wonder how often scenes like these play out every weekend.

Its a fabulous story, subtle, perfect humour, so much emotion, a feeling of real love between Dan and Ella in danger of being broken by the pressures of step parenting and fractured families. The only part that stops this from being a five is the end, its too quick, too rushed and for a romance I need, if not a HEA, then at least a very, very solid HFN. This ending suggests things will work out but I need it to be written in stone ;-)

Stars: Four, a little more on the ending and this would be a five.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and Publishers

Elle falls in love with Dan, a divorcee with two kids. This book is about Elle coping with life after moving in with Dan. With the age difference and the sudden upheaval from single girl life to a live-in girlfriend seem to be too much for Elle to handle. What with Dan's kids turning against her, and Dan's mom turning up at every corner, it is a crowded life. Finally, Elle breaks up with Dan when things get out of control and then the rest of the book is her figuring things out.

What did I love about this book, it was a very light read. It was not one of those heavy family dramas and instead had plenty of lighthearted humour. I did feel a little bit difficult to connect with Elle though. Perhaps that is just me.
On the whole, it was a great book, a good story and a few laughs included.

I had never read Patricia Caliskan before she is a very realistic writer! I laughed a lot reading this book which was a good change from the mystery I normal read.