As the saying goes, opposites attract. But what if they don’t? This is the question that Sophie Kinsella, the No.1 bestselling author, asks in her latest book, Love Your Life.
So let’s meet Ava – she is quirky and has some very strange habits. One of these happens to be rescuing anything that is abandoned – this odd affliction includes extremely strange books, no matter the topic or the language in which it is written. Furniture also is scooped up – if a chair has rickety legs, no problem, she intends getting around to fixing it. Needless to say, her beloved dog Harold is also a rescue animal.
Ava is searching for true love but has lost all confidence in the online dating scene. She feels the need to get away, reconsider her life and put “finding love” on the back burner. As she considers herself an aspiring novelist, she books into a semi-silent writing retreat in Italy. The semi-silent aspect of the course means that the participants do not disclose any personal information about themselves. In fact, they all use an alias to ensure total anonymity.
The obvious next thing to happen, of course, is the arrival of a very handsome stranger. Matt and Ava become totally enthralled with one another and the time they spend together is nothing short of idyllic. All this occurs whilst not divulging anything personal about themselves, only going by pure instinct and attraction.
This bubble eventually has to burst when the writing course is over and they all have to head home. Real life and the big bad outside world is ready to engulf Ava once more.
Matt, in real life, is a very different person to the perfect man that swept Ava off her feet. His parents are eccentric, his friends are odd, and his taste in art is in a different category from the sort of thing that Ava likes, to mention just a few obstacles that seem insurmountable.
The hilarious situations that arise during the course of their relationship makes for lovely humour and some laugh-out-loud moments. Ava’s dog Harold has a thing about chewing up Matt’s expensive shirts – he spends a fortune constantly replacing these. Then there is the occasion when Ava is invited to Matt’s parental home and meets his family – just picture dealing with a naked sauna situation with people you have just met, to have an idea of the level of Ava’s discomfort.
Without giving too much away in terms of plot development, it is of course inevitable that the two lovers realise they cannot make the relationship work in its current shape. Things need to change and compromise needs to be made. They both acknowledge that they are just too different from one another for the relationship to survive their quirks and habits in its current form.
As with most of Kinsella’s books, her writing is punchy and entertaining, frothy and light – just the right feel good bit of escapism that perks one up and puts a silly smile on one’s face.
Love Your Life is published by Penguin RandomHouse. ISBN 978-1-7876-3028-4 – Fiona de Goede
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