Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

“It’s the ineffable, mysterious connection that happens between two humans when they connect, and they feel it…and they just know.”

Sophie Kinsella and I have a love/hate relationship. I love her book series, Confessions of a Shopaholic, like none other. I even love the 2 star movie and I have no shame over that! Also the soundtrack is fire, okay?! My first time reading "chick lit" was the Confessions series. Since then I have read all her other books. Over time I’ve come to realize I enjoy her standalone novels more than the series I first loved. But now it’s time for some hard truths. I have not been enjoying her novels like I use to. Some have been hits, while many others have been straights fails to me. Sorry Sophie! So when I saw the upcoming Love Your Life novel, I was extremely apprehensive. I have enjoyed her last two releases, but that was surprising. So, I nervously added my name to the hold list at my public library and hoped for the best. When it was time to pick the book up I said a quick prayer of encouragement for myself and dove in.

Ava is a old fashioned woman who believes in true romance. No dating apps or filters for her. She believes in feelings not algorithms. After a bad breakup, she decides to attend a writer’s retreat in Italy. She needs to finish her novel, even if it means being away from her best friends and her lovable dog, Harold. At the retreat, no one is allowed to use their real name or give away any personal details about their lives. When the neighboring martial arts retreat is cancelled and a few of their members join Ava’s group, she meets “Dutch”. Dutch is a man who seems too good to be true. They embark on a baggage free, whirlwind love affair in Italy. Things seem perfect for the two, but that ends once real life starts again. As their vacation fling ends, they see how completely different their lives are. Things keep going astray and they start to wonder are they compatible in anything? As situations grow worse, can they reconcile their differences to learn to live life together?

The first 180 pages of this book were slow and boring. When I first started to read this book, it actually put me to sleep. I was afraid I wasn’t even going to make it halfway into reading this. I didn’t connect with Ava and instant love in books always comes off as unreal to me. It’s a trope that I cannot stand because in real life, this just doesn’t happen. Love takes time. It takes time to grow and to become something real. But Ava here falls in love with Matt, without even knowing his real name! I had to suspend all my belief to even go along with that foolishness. But once we were past the retreat and onto actual real life, I found the book somewhat enjoyable. Ava definitely wasn’t a narrator I could relate to whatsoever, but I don’t think most people will. Sophie Kinsella tends to write the same woman protagonist in most of her books. It’s fun sometimes, but exhausting most of the time. Women aren’t always flighty, super positive, whimsy dream girls. That trope worked in Confessions of a Shopaholic, but those days are gone. Let’s move past that please Ms.Kinsella.

I did enjoy Ava and Matt once they realized you can’t truly know someone in a vacation romance. Life is much messier and that’s okay. I didn’t enjoy Ava’s naïveté about people needing to have the exact same personalities to be in love. A lot of times the person we love is opposite from us. In many ways that can be frustrating but also that helps us grow in life. I liked how that was addressed and how she was able to grow from that idea. I felt like Matt wasn’t a fully fleshed out character until the very end. I constantly felt like why was Ava even attracted to him?! He seemed stale, set in his ways, and a big pushover. Even at the end, I was still giving him a heavy side eye for not truly being a supportive partner to Ava for most of the book. I loved the friends of Matt and Ava better than I liked them! How is that even possible l?! Their friends cracked me up and they definitely said the things I was thinking as I read the book. That’s how you write friends who read true to life. Make them funny, blunt, and truthful!

To be honest, I was thinking I was going to give this book 2 stars. It was a mess and a half in the beginning. I just knew Sophie Kinsella had another miss on her hands. But I was wrong and I’m happy to admit it. Once I was able to move past the beginning, I was able to enjoy the book. I wouldn’t say the book was life changing but it was enjoyable. I laughed out loud a few times and the ending put a smile on my face. I would give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. It’s not overtaking my love of Confessions of a Shopaholic series but it was cute! I recommend this to anyone who loves a good rom com, a feel good romance, or anyone who loves Sophie Kinsella as much as I do!