Conditional Love

by Cathy Bramley

[Leah]

When I spotted Cathy Bramley’s novel on Amazon, I fell in love with the cover – it’s so lovely! So when Cathy emailed and offered me the chance to review Conditional Love I said yes, I like novels about inheritances especially novels about inheritances where terms and conditions apply; they’re the best kind and I wish there were more novels like it. I eagerly dived into the novel, as it’s out soon and I’m trying to clear my back catalogue of ebooks with little success. I thought the novel started really well, but I did find that it tailed off for me toward the end and I did lose interest, which was a shame.

Conditional Love is about Sophie Stone. She feels her life has stalled; she’s stuck working at a dead end newspaper job dealing with ads, she lives in a grotty flat with her two best friends Jess and Em, and she wonders what happened to her dreams of becoming an interior designer. Until one day Sophie hears that her Great aunt has died and she’s set to inherit her Aunt’s cottage, on one condition – that she meet her estranged dad, whom she’s never met. Sophie doesn’t know which way to turn as she doesn’t want to hurt her mum, but eventually she agrees; will her dad be everything she’s ever wanted or will she be disappointed again?

As I said earlier I thought Conditional Love started well – Cathy Bramley even inserts a reference to Suits, one of my favourite shows, which made me gleeful. But there were a few issues; I felt Sophie wasted way more time than she should have with the repulsive Marco. I’m not even sure that’s his name, but he was awful. She fawned over him something chronic and there were no redeeming features, it just made no sense. I also felt she was over worried about her mothers reaction to meeting her dad – after all she’s a 30 something year old woman entitled to make any decision she wishes. I felt her mother was a convenient excuse for her to not face her father. Especially as her mother spent most of the time acting like a child.

Despite my issues it was a cute novel. I really liked the architect Sophie hires for her Great Aunt Jane’s cottage. He was great, as was his dog Norman (add a dog into a novel and I will fall in love!). I quite liked Sophie’s flat mates Jess and Emma, they were sisters with completely opposite reactions to everything. I definitely finished the novel feeling a tad disappointed though, it all sort of added up as a chick lit novel should and with little surprise which was a disappointment. But I’d still recommend it, it’s not perfect no but it had its moments, and it was worth it for those.