Christina Jones

Finally got around to reading this one and it wasnt too bad! I dont know if you would class this as "chick-lit" (a genre I usually avoid with a barge pole), but enjoyable brain-fluff none the less.[return][return]Jemima Carlisle leaves Oxford in a rush due to losing both her jobs in one day. She settles in Milton St John, where she had been planning to set up a bookshop anyway, and in the middle of the horsey set. She has an aversion to the whole horse racing people, due to her father being a terrible gambler, and so she has some preconceptions (many drawn with a great big brush to be honest), which are slowly turned around, mainly due to some very sexy (and some rather kinky!) people… (altro)

Well, before reading Only One Woman I thought almost 500 pages for chicklit was FAR too long, but in this case it was definitely not long enough! Oh, how I wanted to continue the story of Renza, Stella and Scott, even though I had already read 500 pages of their story; I was left begging and thirsty for more!

I admit to feeling a little bit daunted that this book was so huge on my kindle, but once I started it I really didn't want it to end. The story of Renza falling in love with guitarist, Scott, was so sweet and heartrending that I fell in love with the couple myself. So when Renza moved to Germany and Stella came on the scene to threaten the perfect life we had built for Renza and Scott, I felt my heckles rise and I SO wanted to hate her, but I didn't. I felt like Scott; how could I love two women when only one can ever win?

This was SO very cleverly written in the form of diary entries. We are introduced to teenager, Renza, falling in love for the first time with band-member Scott. She is so sweet and innocent, but when she moves to Germany it isn't long before Scott's roving eye finds another target. Don't get me wrong, Scott isn't looking to replace Renza but there's something so very special about Stella, which is why I couldn't hate her! I really defy anyone to pin their colours to any one mast - Renza and Stella are both so very special and, through the marvellous writing of Christina Jones and Jane Risdon, we get to know them as if they are part of ourselves.

I absolutely adore the sixties vibe that was so cleverly woven throughout this book. I found myself humming the tunes that were mentioned and felt as if I had been transported to the colourful sixties era. The insecurities of new love were laid out in full view via diary entries from Renza and Stella, and I felt as if I was there reading the pages over their shoulder. Oh, how I longed for one or the other to conquer Scott's heart but, at the same time, I didn't want the other to lose. I don't think I can ever successfully describe the conflict going on in my head as I raced through this epic swinging sixties novel. When there are two people you love and one of them has to lose, how on earth can you choose?

What a glorious technicolour ride this was: Only One Woman manages to make the reader fall in love with two women and I really felt as if I should be able to choose between them, but I simply couldn't! I honestly believe that every reader will want both women to get their man, so to which mast will you pin your colours? Renza or Stella? YOU DECIDE!

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (altro)