Hi everyone,
Today I am going to be reviewing ‘One?‘ by Jennifer L. Cahill.
Thank you so much to Jennifer for providing me with a copy of this book!
Synopsis:
One? is the first book in a contemporary fiction trilogy, looking at finding ‘the one’ in the modern world and how relationship models are shifting in the most innovative period in living history. The story starts in 2005, and spans ten years following the characters from the challenges of their twenties into their thirties.
It’s London in the mid-noughties before Facebook, iPhones and ubiquitous wifi.
Zara has just moved to London for her first real job and struggles to find her feet in a big city with no instruction manual. Penelope works night and day in an investment bank with little or no time for love. At twenty-eight she is positively ancient as far as her mother is concerned and the pressure is on for her to settle down as the big 3-0 is looming. Charlie spends night and day with his band who are constantly teetering on the verge of greatness. Richard has relocated to London from his castle in Scotland in search of the one, and Alyx is barely in one place long enough to hold down a relationship let alone think about the future. One? follows the highs and lows of a group of twenty-somethings living in leafy SW4.
My thoughts:
I had never heard of this book before and when I was offered a chance to read it, I had to say yes!
I really enjoyed the way that Cahill writes about London and the use of phrases that are so familiar to me and made me laugh for no reason hehe. I also loved that this was set pre iPhone, Facebook and WiFi because although, I was born before them I was to little to remember it and reading about it was kind of refreshing in a way.
I was a little worried that the characters would not be fleshed out because there were quite a few POVs in this book and even though some of them I liked more than others, they were all really well developed characters.
The last 30 pages (also the ending) were very different from anything I am used to but I was surprised by the fact that I liked it because it was different.
This is not your typical love story and it is definitely unique, it was fun, the friendships were enjoyable to read about and for a debut novel I thought it was really good!
3.5 stars 🌟
Purchase links:
Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know in the comments and let’s chat.
Thank you so much for reading!
Holly reads a lot 