Review – Love is a Thief by Claire Garber

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Reviewed by Kay Brooks

Kate Winters thought she had it all: a French ski-instructor boyfriend, a chalet in a beautiful village and a future family to look forward to. When it all goes wrong and Kate is left single, penniless, feeling the ticking of her biological clock, she has to find a path back to happiness. With a job working at True Love magazine there doesn’t seem to be any escape from having her nose well and truly rubbed in the happiness of others. But surely not everybody else can be satisfied with their love-life? Kat decides to set herself the mission of finding out what love has stolen from the readers and how they can regain it.  

As a general rule, I tend to have a pessimistic attitude whenever someone tells me to read a book because it is life-changing. This view has evolved from my own experiences. Everyone around me seemed to be raving about ‘Eat Pray Love’ whereas I was bored and felt it lacked some mysterious but vital ingredient needed to make a book ‘a good read.’ So, when I say that I found this book life-changing, I won’t blame you if you roll your eyes! However, for me, this book has changed the way I view my own life! Kate, the main protagonist, is a woman who has been burned badly by love. Just when she thought she had everything, it all fell to pieces and she was forced to take a step back and question what love had taken from her. 

At first I assumed that she meant what her love had given her and then taken away but the real meaning was much more poignant and widely-applicable. The question refers to what you have not done or do not do because of love. It made me wonder about all those times I had spent sat watching a motorbike documentary when, if I wasn’t in love, the time would be spent doing something for me. The novel dips in and out of a variety of characters’ lives who are rediscovering who they are and finding that it benefits their lives in unexpected ways. For example, the woman who always wanted to be a mechanic finds that, rather than it undermining her husband’s masculinity, it gives him a renewed interest in her! My husband and I both discussed and answered the question, what would we fill our lives with if we didn’t have love? He would have travelled more and I would have continued to learn Spanish!  

The novel does seem a bit over the top at the beginning with characters such as Federico, who seemed like a caricature of a gay magazine editor at first, but I soon found myself getting into the spirit of the novel. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and made me laugh out loud in a way that I haven’t with a book for ages.  

To summarise, Love is a Thief is fun, inspirational and may just change your life. I’m off to find some local Spanish classes!  

9/10

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