Book Review: Love from Both Sides by Nick Spalding

Sometimes, the hardest part of finding love is keeping a straight face…

For Jamie Newman, being a single guy isn’t proving to be much fun, especially when confronted with a sexually belligerent divorcee and a goddess so far out of his league she might as well be a different species.

Mind you, being a girl in search of love isn’t a bowl of cherries either. Just ask Laura McIntyre, who’s recently contended with a horny estate agent on a quest for light relief, and a rabid mountain bike enthusiast with a penchant for genital display.

When Jamie and Laura bump into one another (quite literally) it looks like their luck may have changed – but sometimes finding the right person is only the start of your problems…

Based on real-life tales of dating disaster and relationship blunders, Love... From Both Sides is a warts-and-all romantic comedy for everyone who knows how tricky (and occasionally ridiculous) the quest for love can be.

Published:  31st January 2013
Publisher:  Hodder & Stoughton
Source:  Review Copy From Publisher

My Review         7 out of 10

Now this was a very surprsing read...  When I picked this up I had thought that this would be a nice chicklit, easy to read romantic story.  Yes it does have romance and is a great chick lit but what surprised me was the amount of sex and sexual references it has in it, particularly at the beginning where you are following the stories of Jamie and Laura and their many dating stories.  I have to admit that I do not normally go for stories that have a lot of sexyiness in it but I stuck with it and it was well worth sticking with.

Sometimes when you come across a chick lit book that has been written by a man, when you start reading it you can't tell that it was actually written by a man and sometimes you come across a chick lit book written by a man and you can tell it was written by a man.  This book is definately the second of the two.  The language and comments in the book are definately from a male perspective and for me I found that very refresing, especially when a lot of chick lit books I read are written from the female perspective. 

Jamie Newman is a character who at first I thought was very predjuce about certain types of women until I followed his story further.  I really warmed to his character as the story went on.  Laura McIntyre is a character that I really did enjoy reading about right from the start, particuarly liking the strength in her personality.  

There are two things that I really loved about this book.  The first is the comedy in the dating from both Jamie and Laura's perspectives.  One in particular, I just found so funny was when Laura meets a mountain bike enthusiast.  So funny!

Debs