REVIEWED BY KIRA SLAUGHTER
Tis the season to be jolly, but Jenny Breslin is feeling closer to gloomy. Everything about her life- its complete lack of romance, her boring job at the bank- has been untouched by holiday magic. The thought of another festive season with her larger-than-life mother and Harry, the new boyfriend, fills her with dread.
But that’s in Real Life.
On Twitter, things really couldn’t be better. Here Jenny is a career high-flyer with an amazing love life and a jam packed social calendar.
Then, one drunken night, Jenny sends out a tweet to her online pals Zahra, Fiona and Kerry suggesting a fun-filled few days in Dublin. As her virtual life careers towards a collision with real life, she’s feeling the heat. But it remains to be seen just how upfront her fellow Tweeters have been about their own lives.
As the weekend unfolds and secrets are shared, Jenny starts to see that while she’s been busy dreaming, life has been passing her by.
But is it too late for her to recognise what was under the mistletoe all that time?
At the launch for Jane Fallon’s new book, myself and the other girls from the site got chatting to Mel Sharratt (@writermels on Twitter if you want to give her a follow!) who is great friends with Maria Duffy, who wrote Any Dream Will Do. She was telling us all about the book and I immediately requested a review copy as it sounded right up my street.
Jenny is the main character and she’s having somewhat of an early mid-life crisis. She’s unhappy with her job, has no boyfriend and is really not looking forward to another Christmas alone. She’s also a Twitter addict (which I am also guilty of being, it’s just so damn addictive!) and one night after a drink too many, decides to send out invitation to her three main Twitter friends to come and stay with her a few days before Christmas.
What she doesn’t expect is one of the girls to show up with her son in tow. After Fiona and Zahra arrive and all is not what it seems, Jenny begins to question whether anyone on Twitter is who they say they are.
When reading this book, I also started to wonder how many people on Twitter embellish their lives ever so slightly. I’ll be upfront and say that what I say on Twitter about myself is actually true (yes I am that boring!) and that even though I will never meet most of the people I’ve befriended, I always like to be honest. When Jenny realises she’s not the only one to have lied slightly about her situation, she relaxes and gets to know her friends, and her own mother, a lot better.
There’s a twist in the story as well that really surprised me, and it completely turned the whole book on its head, in a good way. I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I must say it’s a good ‘un.
An impressive debut from Maria Duffy, who (very interestingly) was discovered by her agent on Twitter (all us writer folk are now dreaming about the day we’re discovered!) and can be found at @mduffywriter.
8/10
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