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Friday, October 18, 2013

Don't Want to Miss a Thing by Jill Mansell





Dexter Yates loves his fun, care-free London life; he has money, looks and girlfriends galore. But everything changes overnight when his sister dies, leaving him in charge of her eight-month-old daughter Delphi. How is he ever going to cope?

Comic-strip artist Molly Hayes lives in the beautiful Cotswold village of Briarwood. When it comes to relationships, she has a history of choosing all the wrong men. Leaving the city behind, Dex moves to Briarwood - a much better place to work on his parenting skills - and he and Molly become neighbors. There's an undeniable connection between them. But if Dexter's going to adapt, he first has a lot to learn about Molly, about other people's secrets...and about himself.
The story soon becomes a collection of emotional, hilarious, heart-warming and romantic narrative. We get taken on the journey of Dex and Molly's roller coaster relationship.  We also meet and get thrown into the antics of the Briarwood locals, and their hugely entertaining and entwined dynamics. Although there is certainly a lot going on in this book, I remained fascinated with all of their lives throughout it.

The beautifully written relationship between Molly and Dex is an absolute pleasure to read. It was clear that they would eventually get together. I adored how natural and entertaining their dialogue was throughout the story. How even just a simple and accidental touch between the two of them, became breathtaking to read.
 I really can't say enough how much I enjoyed reading this wonderful book. As a fan of Sophie Kinsella's stand alone novels; I felt like I'd found a book that was reminiscent of the type of "chick lit" that allowed the main character to be strong, yet emotionally open.  Molly was a sweet character that only annoyed me in her judgement of Dex, who really manages to warm the heart. Dex isn't the regular Lothario that you're eager to hate; he's actually much more complex and filled with surprising depths of kindness and generosity. I think that I fell in love with Dex!
I loved the escape factor of the story, and the sweet love story that unfolded. The other thing I really enjoyed about Mansell's novel was the number of other characters involved in the story. Sometimes I feel as if a writer needs to fill space and keep you reading, so they introduce a number of characters to get your attention. In this case, they each felt important and lovely in connection with the story as a whole. I came to care about Frankie, Molly's best friend who finds out some rather disturbing news about her husband. Towards the end of the book, as everyone’s stories begin to come to a conclusion, I couldn’t stop the feeling of joy. This is a thoroughly satisfying emotional read and I loved every word

Overall, I give Don't Miss a Thing a 10 out of a 10. I loved the escape factor of the story, and the sweet love story that unfolded. As mentioned, if you're at all a fan of Cabot or Kinsella, then I can readily and happily recommend this novel as another fun addition to the genre.







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