Review – The Greatest Love Story of All Time by Lucy Robinson

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978-0241952986

It’s Fran’s thirtieth birthday and things are good . . .

She’s
bluffed her way into a Very Posh Job and her outlandishly handsome and
talented boyfriend Michael is escorting her to the Ritz with a bulge the
shape of a ring box in his pocket.

But something has gone wrong.
Very wrong. By the end of the evening Fran is howling in bed with a
bottle of cheap brandy and one of Michael’s old socks.

In her
quest to figure out why her life has suddenly gone down the pan, Fran
comes up with a failsafe plan: live like a badger, stalk a stranger
called Nellie and cancel her beloved Gin Thursdays in favour of drinking
gin every night. But then Fran’s friends force a very different plan on
her and it’s nowhere near as fun. How could eight dates possibly make
her feel better?

But eventually she agrees. And so begins the greatest love story of all time . . .

This has so many good reviews, I thought I was in for a great read. I was disappointed.

There
was a lot of swearing in this one and despite not being bothered by it I
did think it was a bit overdone for a Chick-lit read. That’s not the
reason I didn’t warm to this story though…the single defining reason
that this was a terrible read for me was Fran’s Scottish friend, Dave.
Yes, he’s funny and yes he’s a good friend to Fran but as soon as he
called her by the cute little ‘nickname’ he had for her I couldn’t bear
him.

I’m Scottish so I’ve heard that word used plenty, and in
it’s proper context. It’s really NOT a nice name. It certainly isn’t a
name to be used in affection for a close (female) friend by a man.
*shudder*

There’s no grey area here, it’s just simply not a name
anyone would want to be called. It’s derogatory. The word might sound
harmless to someone who’s unsure of it’s meaning, but it’s really not.

Had
it been used once I might have been able to overlook it. Maybe. But
it’s used over and over and over. If Dave were real he’d find himself
without any friends if he persisted in calling them that name.

I
can only assume the Author knows the word from a Scottish acquaintance
and used it without knowing the connotations. It was a terrible choice
of word. Had she checked the Urban Dictionary she’d have been in no
doubt that it was a poor choice.

For me, that word just sucked all the joy out of reading this.