Sometimes you just need a lighthearted read about friendship, broken hearts, exotic locations and love affairs. That’s exactly what Someone Else’s Honeymoon offers the reader.
When Charley finds herself suddenly single on Christmas Day it feels like her world has fallen apart.
Forced to move back in with her parents, she embarks on a journey of re-invention. When she meets Ed, who is on honeymoon alone after being jilted at the altar by a bride he’s never met, it looks like her life may be taking a turn for the better.
Fate, however, has other ideas, and she and Ed are forced apart.
Will she find her way back to him, or are they just not meant to be?
When Charley’s ten-year relationship with Josh ends on Christmas Day, over a toothbrush she does what any sensible woman would do – she picks herself up, goes to her parent’s house for Christmas Day turkey, which she enjoys as she’s no longer trying to adopt Josh’s vegan lifestyle, and starts again.
Of course, starting over isn’t always easy, she’s been living with Josh, in the flat his father bought him, so she needs to find somewhere else to live, but she starts living in an admirable fashion.
With the help of her friend, Mads – who I loved reading, because it’s clear from the start that she has her friend’s best interests at heart and she’s pushy, but not to the point where she becomes annoying – she gets a new wardrobe, a refreshed look and starts to discover who she is outside of a relationship that wasn’t working. Of course, the fact that Josh was cheating on her didn’t really help matters. But anyway…
Charley’s parents are clearly quite well off, taking several holidays a year, and when they invite her along for their two-week luxury holiday in Antigua she knows she’d be a fool to turn it down.
Antigua is everything and more than Charley expects, and it’s there she meets Ed, a lawyer who, for some unfathomable reason, decided to take part in a reality TV show to find a wife – this bit just made no sense to me, but as a plot device it does work. Of course, things don’t work out as planned and Ed is sunning himself alone poolside until Charley shows up and takes the empty sunlounger where Ed’s wife should be.
I’m not going to lie, there is nothing original in this book, but to be fair, sometimes that’s just what you need. It’s the perfect sunlounger book, the sort of story you can put down and pick up and not feel as though you’ve missed something important. I would definitely recommend it as a holiday read. I sat on my balcony and enjoyed it in the sun with a glass of wine.
I enjoyed the characters, I liked the fact that we didn’t get chapter upon chapter of Charley miserable because her long-term boyfriend cheated on her and then unceremonially dumped her on Christmas day (because that particular situation entitles you to behave pretty much how you want). I liked the fact that despite Josh being the true villain of the piece he wasn’t someone who was constantly harped on about. Did she mention him whenever she was doing things she knew he would disapprove of? Yes, but they’d been together for 10 years!
I liked Mads and her gung-ho attitude, Charley’s parents were the sort every girl wishes she had when a relationship ends and Ed? He wasn’t the traditional romantic hero, but he was sort of real. There were moments I felt he was too good to be true and was a tad suspicious of his motivations, but he was evidence that nice guys don’t always finish last.
Overall, a summer book that will give you exactly what you want and should be something you pack in your suitcase.
Pros
- Beautiful settings
Cons
- Cliche-filled
