This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Suzie Miller earns a living giving advice to those who are unlucky in love. When she finds herself let down by a man again, she realises that her usual methods of spending ages dwelling on what she could have done differently followed by drunken phone calls begging for a second chance are not working. She needs to look at relationships from a different angle. That’s when it dawns on her; why do women allow men to use and abuse them? What happened to empowerment?
In order to take a stand, Suzie decides to get revenge on each of the men who have wronged her in the past. Soon, everyone is after some of Suzie’s hard-hitting advice.
Suddenly, Suzie’s life has taken a turn for the better. The single life doesn’t seem so bad with so many disappointing men around and her career is going from strength to strength. But her list of perfect men, having a solo member who being the President of the United States and happily married is pretty much unattainable, is about to double.
The front cover of this novel is more than reminiscent of a self-help guide, contradicting the witty, romantic novel beneath the jacket. The cover wouldn’t catch my eye in a bookshop although, now I have read one of Bloom’s novels, I would seek out more.
Although the reader knows from the beginning something is going to develop between Suzie and her co-worker, Drew, the events leading up to this are far less predictable. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as Suzie gets revenge on all the men who have wronged her in imaginative and humiliating ways. Some of the chapters begin with letters written by readers of The Herald which Suzie then answers with unfaltering honesty, even if that means telling the writer that they are a complete idiot who is allowing themselves to be walked all over by someone who is not worth it. Alongside Suzie and Drew are their respective, though not respectable, best friends, Jackie and Jamie, who are brilliantly written, adding to the humour with their slightly twisted views on life.
This, despite the cover, is not a self-help book but Suzie does learn not to dwell on the past so much and more importantly, not to allow past relationships to jade her view of love, otherwise she will never be able to give any man a fair chance at winning her heart.
Throughout the novel, there are lots of references to different romantic comedies, which only highlights how well this plot would translate into a film. There would certainly be plenty of fist-pump moments for the female audience as disrespectful, dirty love-rats get their comeuppance.
An empowering book. Beware, if you read while in a bad relationship… you may get the urge to reach for the scissors and change your name to Ms Bobbit…
7/10