A Very Accidental Love Story

by Claudia Carroll

[Leah]

Claudia Carroll is an author that is rapidly climbing my favourite authors lists. I didn’t get on much with her debut novel, but her last two books (Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?) have been excellent rom-coms. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? particularly blew me away and I loved Annie’s tale. So after hearing Claudia’s new book A Very Accidental Love Story was about a woman who had a child through artificial insemination and then decides she needs to find out who he is just in case her daughter Lily ever decides to track him down, well, I was intrigued. Especially when Claudia revealed in our interview last year that Lily’s father is in prison, no less, and Eloise turns him into her pet project, in a bid to make him a much better prospect for her beautiful daughter.

I found A Very Accidental Love Story to be one that gave me varying opinions. On the one hand, I liked the novel. The idea (the plot is ingenious and it makes a change for a woman to have a baby sans a man), most of the characters (Ryan. Ryan. Ryan.), the writing was great – Claudia is a brilliant writer. But, I had bad bits. Eloise was a bit irritating at times. She’s a bit of a snob. Ryan as he was wasn’t good enough for Eloise (the prison bit, fair enough, but I just felt she tried to change him too much).

Also the writing was a bit repetitive in the early pages. Eloise kept saying how Lily wasn’t yet three years old, about five times in three pages, and I just wasn’t ever going to forget poor Lily wasn’t yet three. There was a couple of bits like that – also when she was first searching for Ryan and how she wanted him to be this and that and the other. It was little things like that. I also thought the third-person Prologue was odd. I’d have written it in first-person personally. However, the third person worked well when we were introduced to Ryan. I liked the switch from Eloise’s perspective to third-person so we could learn more about Ryan.

I liked the novel overall. Carroll knows her audiences and is one of the most accomplished Chick Lit writers. None of her novels are ever the same and with A Very Accidental Love Story, she’s written another novel no author has ever thought of writing and it was really good. I can’t wait to see what Carroll comes up with next. You just never know! I liked how that Eloise was uptight to begin with but as she and Ryan start a friendship, she starts to loosen up more and realise work isn’t all. (I actually felt sorry for poor Lily with no dad and a pretty much absent mum, though I understand that obviosuly Eloise had to work.) I’d very much recommend the novel, Claudia Carroll is such an accomplished Chick Lit author and I can’t wait for her next novel, she’s very much on my pre-order list.