Reviewed by Cesca Martin
Flora Fielding is heading to San Francisco for a two-week dream vacation with her boyfriend Barney. What she hadn’t banked on was that Barney was staying put in their flat in London and they were breaking up. So 5,000 miles away Flora is stranded wondering whether to fly home and fix things or crawl into a hole and stay there. Bella, Flora’s cousin, is living in San Francisco and makes up one quarter of an Abba tribute band – Abbadabbatastic – and spending her nights out on the town trying to win the Battle of the Tribute bands. The thing is she sings and writes music, really good music, and is too scared to do anything about it. When Flora appears on her doorstep they both get caught up in each other’s lives and when a beautiful stranger wants to SuperConnect (hilarious in-joke – buy the book) with Flora things get even more exciting...
The cover of this read promises sunshine, laughter and people in love. From the first to the last page this book is so easy to read. The characters are likeable, amusing and frustrating all at the same time. The plot is simple, yet effective, and I thoroughly enjoyed living Flora’s holiday with her. I adored some of the minor characters – Lisa the terrifying, yet well-meaning friend – with her catty put downs and well-timed one liners, Toby – the hopelessly shy romantic who doesn’t need much persuading to don a silver jumpsuit and strut his stuff and lastly the delectable Josh – just ‘oooooh’. It was heart-warming (without needing to fetch a bucket) and the dialogue was fluid and funny. I loved the portrayal of ‘Hope Street’ in San Francisco – a fun, vibrant place where you just want to spend time with the residents – a place where you might be able to find your tribe. For fans of the ‘chick-lit’ genre bag this book. It might be wet outside, but in San Fran there’s sunshine!
7/10
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