View source for Love and Other Things to Live For by Louise Leverett

{{infobox1
|title=Love and Other Things to Live For
|author=Louise Leverett
|reviewer= Sophie Diamond
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Despite the title, not a book to love. 
|rating=1
|buy=No
|borrow=No
|pages=384
|publisher=HQ
|date=July 2018
|isbn=978-0008237035
|website=http://www.louiseleverett.com
|cover=0008237034
|aznuk=0008237034
|aznus=0008237034
}}
Jess is single, again. She's recently heartbroken, jobless and has had to swallow her pride and move back in with her best friend. Jess looks to other areas of her life to lift her spirits, her friends, her city and her passion for photography. 

It was very difficult to write an accurate summary of this book because nothing happens. It's not about anything. The writing is flowery, using sentences which are way too long and contain too many adjectives. This is something you could maybe overlook if the plot was good but the narrative doesn't go anywhere. It's just a mess of a woman called Jess moaning about her life to her friends and treating her friends quite badly. But you can't even really feel sorry for them because the characters are all so two dimensional. I didn't feel a thing reading this book except for confusion as to why there were still so many pages left. 

I struggle to read non-fiction because I need a plot to sustain me in a book, without that driving force and unfolding nature I can't keep reading. This read like really bad non-fiction. The whole thing is written in the first person from Jess's perspective, she's the heroine we're supposed to cheer on, a bit like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. Jess is all deep, meaningless thoughts and shallow actions. She's an absolute mess and her story arc sees absolutely no progression on her endless character flaws. This is a poor man's Sex and the City and if you thought Carrie was annoying, just wait until you meet Jess. 

I thought this book was going to be empowering. I thought it would be about a woman in the city who has had a bump in the road and goes on to blow everyone away. Safe to say I was disappointed. There is nothing empowering here. It is just nothing. And when something occasionally does happen, it's not exciting it's just very misplaced. 

There was one character out of Jess's (ridiculously cliched) friends who had the potential to have an interesting story. However, poor Marlowe's story is swept to the side as a footnote in the general chaos of this book. What could have been emotive and engaging barely left an impression. 

The most positive thing I can say is that the author actually does make some well-observed points about modern dating but this sharpness can't cut the rest of the insipidness. 

[[Up Close and Personal by Leonie Fox]] is a little better. A good book about someone pursuing a wild dream in a big city is [[The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger]].  You might enjoy [[Would I Lie To You? by Clare Dowling]] more.

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