Bella Summer Takes a Chance by Michele Gorman
Notting Hill Press
February 2013
Format: ARC e-copy, 283 pages
First line: “Are you in love with me?” I ask again as the appetising comfort of our usual Friday night takeaway turned sour in my mouth.
Book description: Bella’s career and
relationship are her life’s foundationwear: not glamorous and perhaps a
bit binding, but supportive enough… until she realizes that they are
not enough. Her life is sagging badly. She’s never been in love with her
boyfriend, despite a decade together. And somehow she stopped being a
musician-with-a-day-job and became a consultant-who-was-musical. So she
takes a terrifying leap of faith, leaving her relationship and resolving
to follow her musical dreams no matter what.
Unfortunately, the life you walk away from doesn’t always let you walk away.
With
a wonderfully warm and witty cast of friends, all navigating between
their ideals and the realities they face, together they’ll find out what
love and compromise really mean in this empowering tale about grasping
life with both hands.
My thoughts: This was a fun, quick read – definitely a ‘chick lit’ kind of read. In a nutshell, it’s a story about a young woman who starts questioning her life, ends up breaking up with her boyfriend of 10 years and after getting laid off from work, decides to seriously pursue her singing career. Of course, it’s not without some heartache and grunt work along the way.
B, short for Bella, is at a cross-road in her life. Not willing to settle for anything less than being in-love with someone, she breaks off with Mattias, who she’s been dating and living with for 10 years. She then proceeds to date different men, trying to find the love of her life. In the meantime, she has her friends around and it seems they are all dealing with something themselves. Then there’s the relationship that B has developed with Marjorie, the woman she befriends at the nursing home. I loved hearing about Marjorie’s past and her three marriages. It seemed that B needed to hear these stories. Marjorie definitely lived life to the fullest, as can be seen by her getting married again! It seems that each and every one of B’s friends has at some point taught her a lesson about what it means to be truly happy.
I found it quite interesting that many of the male characters in the book were given nicknames as opposed to real names. For instance, B goes on a date with The Actor, and then with The Dad. I’m curious as to why Michele Gorman did this – not that it detracted from the story at all.
This is the first book I’ve read by Michele Gorman and I definitely plan on checking out what else she has written.
I received a complimentary copy of Bella Summer Takes a Chance by Michele Gorman from the author.
Hi Kristin, thanks so much for reading Bella! And I'm glad you asked about the men's names. I gave them all nicknames for two reasons. First, because sometimes when you're dating, it can seem like a parade of indistinguishable men. I wanted to reflect that in the story. And second, with 5 main women characters (plus Frederick and Mattias), I didn't want to muddy up the storyline by making readers try to remember the other, less important characters, until they became important. Naming those characters when I finally did represented the turning point, when the women realised they were important in their lives.
xoxo
Michele