My Single Friend

by Jane Costello

[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!