33 Valentines (Entangled Edge)

by Stephanie Monahan

[Leah]

When I was received an email asking me if I would like to read Stephanie Monahan’s novel 33 Valentines it didn’t take me long to say yes. It’s not often that I’ll read a book based solely on its synopsis – usually it’s the cover or the author – but the synopsis for 33 Valentines really convinced me that I wanted to read the book. I loved the sound of it – I too despise valentines day although Sophie’s reasons are a lot more sound than mine. I just feel it’s become such a commercial holiday and I just plain old don’t like it! Obviously I don’t read a lot of anti-valentines books, Chick Lit seems to be for valentines day rather than against it so I relished the opportunity to read a novel that was a bit different than most, and I found I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sophie doesn’t like valentines day – doesn’t like February at all in fact and in all if her 33 years February and valentines day have brought her nothing but heartache and pain. This year though Sophie plans to change all that. She’s finally going to tell her best friend Sam she has feelings for him – at least she was until she got an email off I’m stating he had met his dream girl, which knocks Sophie off balance – literally – and she ends up with a broken arm. She sees another February passing her by in a miserable haze, but what is it about February that Sophie hates so much and will she ever break the curse of bad February’s?

I really enjoyed reading 33 Valentines. I thought Sophie was an engaging and really likeable character and I felt so sad that she had spent so many February’s being so miserable. I wanted to bang her and Sam’s heads together because I just thought they were perfect for each other! I loved their easy friendship, loved their banter and I very much felt that when Sam met his dream girl that their friendship fell apart and I was so sad about that. I found the flashbacks nicely filled us in on Sophie’s previous valentine encounters and I liked seeing Sophie rekindle with her family after her arm break. I liked reading about Sophie’s job at the florist as for some reason I love the art of flowers!

I’d definitely recommend 33 Valentines. I really enjoyed it and there wasn’t anything wrong with the novel at all. Stephanie Monahan is a very engaging writer and I loved how she wrote Sophie so perfectly that I just wanted to be her friend! I really really enjoyed the novel. I sincerely hope Stephanie is working on a new novel as I’ll definitely be first in the queue to read it! As soon as I reached the end of the novel I has a massive smile on my face and you can always tell I’ve enjoyed a novel when the ending makes me feel all soppy and happy. Do read it, it’s excellent.