The List by Joanna Bolouri
Quercus
Contemporary Romance
Published January 6, 2015
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Why I picked up this book:
It looked very cute.
Blurb (From Amazon.ca):
Longlisted for The Guardian's "Not the Booker" prize, The List is the hilarious debut novel from Scottish comedienne Joanna Bolouri. Phoebe Henderson may be single but she sure doesn't feel fabulous. It's been a year since she found her boyfriend Alex in bed with another woman, and wine-fueled nights of relationship analysis with her best friend Lucy have done nothing to improve her dating situation.
Faced with another year without love, Phoebe confronts her fears and decides to forgo romantic love altogether. She comes up with The List: ten things she's always wanted to do in bed but has never had the courage to try. One year of pleasure, no strings attached. Simple, right? In a chaotic, embarrassing, exhilarating, and ultimately transformational year of self-discovery, Phoebe finds surprises, friendship, confidence, and even love, through good and bad sex.
My thoughts:
The List focuses on Phoebe, a young woman who has decided that instead of making a typical New Year's Resolution - lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more - she's going to instead write a sex-themed bucket list, to be completed across the course of a single year. She does not hold back at all when it comes to making her list - there are some very adventurous items on the list, including swinging, a menage, and public sex. And the book absolutely goes there, with hilarious, depressing and erotic results - this is not for a conservative reader!
Written in a confessional diary style, The List bears some resemblence to Bridget Jones Diary (and probably many other British chick lit novels, sadly only the obvious one comes to mind right now). While it retains that blunt, raunchy tone, it's also much more sexual - as you'd expect from the focus on a sex 'to do' list.
The book is pretty funny, and doesn't take itself too seriously. I was completely entertained by Phoebe's adventures, and particularly by her mixture of horror and glee as she found that the more sex she had, the more she wanted.
I had only two small problems with the book. The more significant was in the relationship that Phoebe had with Oliver, and it's a very specific and small problem: his lack of tact at times made me cringe. I wanted a bit of wooing, and instead he's commenting on bad odours. Sigh.
The other issue was that I wanted more - not a bad thing at all! A sequel with a second to do list for the year related would make me very happy.
Just saying.
Bottom line:
The List is an entertaining look at one young woman's attempt to jumpstart her life with a very sexy New Year's resolution. I recommend it for anyone who likes comedy with their romance.
4.5 stars
For fans of contemporary romance, friends-with-benefits, comedic romance
But don't just take my word for it! I grabbed a few links to other blog reviews of The List (some for an earlier edition):
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