How to Get a (Love) Life by Rosie Blake

How to Get a (Love) Life by Rosie Blake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Nicola Brown doesn't like to lose control. Her flat is always meticulously tidy and her weekly meals carefully planned; Nicola keeps her life in order. When her carefree colleague Caroline challenges Nicola to find a date for Valentine's Day, it's a surprise to them both when Nicola agrees.

As Nicola's search for a man begins, she is thrown in at the deep end - sometimes quite literally - of the dating scene. From men more likely to sell their mother than open their wallet, to those who are determined to find a girlfriend who shares their passion for extreme sports, Nicola has to run the full gamut of dodgy dates. But as the deadline looms closer, Nicola realises it isn't so bad to lose control. It turns out that trying to get a love life can be rather a lot of fun...

Not one of the best chic lits I have read but also not one of the worst. It did have its humorous moments but I felt that it lacked order.
The story was about Nicola Brown a girl who is orderly, organised and enjoys her work but because of a previous failed relationship she has decided she is not interested in men. Her colleague at work Caroline has become a good friend and she is worried that Nicola is only living half a life which is boring so she dares her to get a date for Valentines day and eventually after much pressure Nicola agrees.

In order to do this they both start looking for suitable men and Nicola even joins a carpentry class in the hope that since it will be predominately male she might find a suitable partner. There follows some disastrous dates and some funny parts to this book but there didn't seem to be any time frame and I was constantly wondering how long she had to go before the deadline date. It was also a bit predictable in places especially who she does end up with so that there was just no surprises for me. No real chemistry between Nicola and the man she gets but I did like her brother Mark and her friend Caroline whose characters were much more realistic. I didn't really connect with Nicola, she lacked warmth and her character was not developed enough to make me care about whether she managed to get a man or not.

Can only give this book a 3 star rating I'm afraid, not up there with the greats but an OK holiday read to pass the time on a plane.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.