Three Little Words

by Jessica Thompson

[Leah]

When Jessica Thompson’s debut novel This Is A Love Story was released last year, it was immensely popular, likened to One Day by David Nicholls. I haven’t read it, though, but with most Chick Lit books it is sitting waiting to be read. Her second novel was meant to be released earlier this year – and is available on Kindle now – but was delayed until August, so I didn’t get to it right away knowing I had a further half a year to read it before it was released, but with its release date approaching, I decided it was time to read Three Little Words.

Three Little Words will surprise you, let me tell you that for nothing. It’s wrapped up in a beautiful red cover, showing the London skyline, although I will admit to preferring my proof cover which is just a plain red background with the words Three Little Words. It’s beautiful, the proof cover. But it is misleading – both covers are misleading. I thought I’d be getting a romantic love story, focusing on the three little words of ‘I love you’, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I felt for most of the novel that it was a crime novel slash Chick Lit novel, though that’s just me being a touch dramatic. But what it isn’t, is it isn’t your run-of-the-mill Chick Lit novel either. It’s a dark novel. Centered around a shooting. A shooting that affects the lives of way more people than you’d expect it to affect.

I admit, it took me quite a while to get into Three Little Words. We’re introduced to so many different characters right off that bat that it sort of loses its main focus, as you try to decipher who everybody is and what exactly is going on. But once the novel had settled down, and the amount of characters had sorted themselves out in my head, I found myself engrossed in the novel. At first glance it seems as if all the different characters we’re introduced to are just random, unconnected, but it comes together nicely as the book progresses more and more and it’s definitely worth persevering with those first few, confusing chapters. Each chapter is prefaced with a date, location and time stamp as well as a chapter name, and I’ll be honest, although I usually like details like that, I felt we already had so much to cope with that trying to see where everyone was at a given point in time was just a bit too much, and I generally ignored them, and it didn’t make the book any better or any worse to ignore them.

I actually really enjoyed Three Little Words. I did fear at the start I wouldn’t get on with it, what with there being so much going on and it being a darker breed of Chick Lit, but it was actually a wonderful novel. I found myself so caught up with all of the characters, particularly Bryony and Adam, although Keon’s tale spoke to me so much as well, mostly due to overwhelming sadness. I admit to judging the novel before I’d even started it and I still can’t believe what was beneath that beautiful red cover, it certainly gave me pause, it certainly made me think, but overall it was an amazingly well-written and enjoyable novel, although given the events of the novel it seems wrong to call it enjoyable. But I did. I found although it was a novel that focused a lot on things lost, it also gave out hope. This was an amazing novel, that in the end I just couldn’t put it down. It surprised me massively in the best way possible, and you should read Three Little Words because lurking behind that beautiful book cover is an amazing story.