We love light-hearted romcoms with a side of drama and Spencer’s
books mostly fit this groove nicely. This one is no exception. It has an
entertaining premise – racing against time (35th birthday being
round the corner) to find The One, in a month via thirty dates and thirty days.
Veronica Welch, a habitual achiever, is a hardworking
lawyer. She’s been so intent on her career that by the time she’s reaching 35,
she has no love life. Her mother and assistant, Bea, take matters in their
hands and put her on a dating site. Bea convinces Veronica to go through a
month of dating and takes the onus of setting up the dates and shortlisting the
women. Veronica agrees and the venue is a quaint, rustic bar close to their
office. The bar is owned by Charlotte Monaghan whose mother is seriously
unwell, so her cousin Rachel, a much sought after wedding and celebrity
photographer, pitches in to bartend as much as possible. Rakish Rachel has
sworn off love and has a maximum-three-dates rule that she lives by.
We started off thinking that with the profile of the character,
Veronica would be a closed, arrogant ice queen but she is quite delightful. She’s
warm, vulnerable, funny and fearless about taking risks. Rachel, on the other
hand – we couldn’t quite feel for her despite the dramatic reason for her
closedness. Honestly, we cannot fathom how Veronica continues to interact with,
feel attracted to and have feeling for Rachel despite the way Rachel rejects
her more than once. But the book is engaging enough to suspend disbelief and go
with the flow.
The return of Madison and Ana from The Road to Madison
was nice in their first appearance but forced later. It was not quite needed
and didn’t add in any way.
This is a great choice for a light-hearted weekend romance
read.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
