My Single Friend

by Jane Costello

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLING AUTHOR

For twenty years Lucy and Henry have been inseparable: beauty and the geek. But now something has changed ...

At 28, Lucy is doing well for herself. She's got a great job in PR, her boss loves her, and her best girlfriends Dominique and Erin think she's great. More important than anyone's opinion is that of her flatmate, and oldest friend in the world, Henry. Henry thinks the world of Lucy. So why does she feel the need to lie outrageously on dates? From rock-climbing to Chekov: when it comes to prospective boyfriends, Lucy is compelled to embellish her C.V. with unlikely porkies that alwaysbackfire - with hilarious results. Henry can't understand it. Lucy is so loveable: why can't she just be herself?

But when Lucy turns the spotlight on Henry, he wishes he'd never brought it up. With a penchant for jumpers and NHS-style specs, Lucy decides that Henry is in need of a makeover - big time. Enlisting the help of Dom and Erin, it's not long before the girls have Henry out of the flat and into the Topman changing rooms. A new haircut, contact lenses, a flirting master-class from Dom . . . poor Henry doesn't know what's hit him. But nothing can prepare them for the surprise results! Before long, Lucy realises that their lives will never be the same again.

Full of warmth, fun, friendship and laughter, My Single Friend is a novel to devour!

• ISBN10: 0753187736
• ISBN13: 9780753187739
• Publish Date: 1 December 2011 (first published 15 April 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 2 August 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: ISIS Publishing
• Imprint: ISIS Large Print Books
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

At 28, Lucy Tyler has a good job in a PR firm, a fantastic and caring best friend in Henry and has two equally great friends in Erin and Dominique. However the only part of her life that doesn’t seem to be working for Lucy is her love life. Particularly since she feels she needs to embellish everything she tells the men she dates, leading to a lot of disasters.

Best friend Henry is equally as bad when it comes to dating and when he asks Lucy, Erin and Dominique to help him with an image makeover, something the girls begin with gusto. Henry emerges a completely new (and gorgeous) man and soon has girls practically falling at his feet. It’s fantastic news for Henry, but Lucy wonders just what she has unleashed by making over her best friend. What’s happened to the Henry she knew? And just what are these feelings she’s suddenly feeling for him?…


I’ve read and enjoyed Jane Costello’s first two novels, Bridesmaids & The Nearly-Weds, so it was obvious that when I heard about her third book My Single Friend I would be eager to read that too. I think her easy writing style is fantastic and it enables me to just whizz through her books with relative ease. So when My Single Friend appeared on my bed (courtesy of my mailbox) in the middle of March I couldn’t wait to begin reading it. After finishing my latest book, I knew My Single Friend was going to be my next read.

The focus of Jane Costello’s first two books were, in essence, weddings what with Bridesmaids about a girl who is constantly a bridesmaid and The Nearly-Weds being about a girl dumped at the altar so I was surprised that when I read the synopsis for My Single Friend that there appeared to be no weddings in sight! Now I’m not a huge fan of books where image is the main focus (Jemima J by Jane Green, for example), as is the case with My Single Friend, so I was interested and slightly wary of the fact that it only appeared that Lucy was attracted to Henry after his make-over. Of course that’s how it may first appear but that really isn’t the case at all. Jane Costello manages to balance the friendship between Lucy and Henry perfectly so, in all honesty, romance seems like the likely next step rather than it being all about Henry’s new image being the only reason Lucy suddenly sees him in a new light.

Another main focus of the book appears to be Lucy and her work life (as well as Lucy and her love life). There is a lot of time spent at the PR company where Lucy works and I quite enjoyed all of the witty banter shared by those who work at Peaman-Brown. Lucy’s job seems hectic at times and there were a few twists regarding her job as the book progressed. It’s fair to say that Lucy’s love life, the other main focus of the book, is fairly erratic. Because she embellishes details to all of her dates, she never really manages to hold down a relationship. I can’t say I compltely understand why Lucy felt the need to lie about things in a bid to look better because, as Henry said, she seemed perfectly fine the way she was. I suppose the only let down of the book wass Lucy’s “relationship” with optician Paul. I can’t say I particularly warmed to him at all and I found his lack of contact and ability to go AWOL very irritating.

Jane Costello has again managed to create some fantastic characters. I actually really loved Lucy (despite her name – chick lit authors, take note, I hate the name Lucy). She was fun and she would definitely be someone I would like to be friends with. Sure, she lied a little during dates but the results were actually pretty hilarious. I actually also loved Henry, even pre-make-over. He was just incredibly sweet and the relationship between himself and Lucy was immensely believeable and it was great to go back to their early days of knowing each other and to see just how long they had been friends. Lucy’s friends Erin and Dominique were also fairly nice and I loved how all three girls came together to help Henry when he asked for his make-over. Costello is definitely one of the best authors when it comes to creating a well-rounded set of characters.

The book, like Jane’s other two, is written entirely from the point of view of the main character. In this case it was Lucy and I really loved her narration – she was funny and cringe-worthy but ultimately she was immensely lovely. What Costello does best, though, is being able to inject her books with so much warmth and humour. As the book hurtled towards it’s conclusion I knew exactly how it would end and yet I still found myself smiling like a loon as I turned the last page. I absolutely loved the ending of My Single Friend and it reminded me of one of the endings of one of my favourite ever TV shows.

My Single Friend was just as enjoyable as Jane Costello’s previous novels and it goes without saying that I fully recommend this book. Jane Costello is a huge new talent in chick lit and long may she continue writing such fantastic books. Her books are so enjoyable and definitely have the re-read factor that lots of books lack. I look forward to Jane’s next book!