Monday, March 16, 2015

"Blokebusters" by Sam Carlton

Matt Brown is the world's nicest husband. He may not be the most polished man, and he may not look the best in a suit, but he adores his wife Georgia and he would do absolutely anything for her. Luckily Georgia adores Matt just as much as he adores her. Even though people describe them together as "the beauty and the geek" they are devoted to making one another happy.

When Matt loses his job in IT he is devastated. Not having had the most stable of childhoods, he doesn't want to lose his beautiful home and garden, and Georgia doesn't want that for him either. She vows to work even harder to make sure that doesn't happen. One night, drunk off of dreadful homemade wine, Matt comes up with the concept of starting up a business that tests men's faithfulness. Thus, Blokebusters is born. The small business explodes seemingly overnight, with women from their area desperate to test the faithfulness of their husbands and boyfriends.

While the initial success is wonderful for all three of them, they quickly find out the downfalls of being successful in a small business while working day jobs. Georgia and Matt find cracks in their marriage that they never imagined could exist. Fi finds herself enjoying her job immensely but unwilling to trust men given her horrible track record. When a sexy American enters onto the scene and makes a play for Georgia will she fall for it, or stay true to her loyal and flawed hubby? Will Fiona be able to open her heart up to journalist Leo, or will her cynical side win again? Is running Blokebusters all it was cracked up to be?

I found myself thoroughly enjoying Blokebusters! It kept me guessing and the story grabbed my attention. It was well-written and thoroughly edited, which is something that I look for in a book. If I receive a book for review I do appreciate when it is carefully edited and free of glaring errors, as that is my pet peeve regardless of where the review copy came from! I loved the dynamic of the relationship between Matt and Georgia. It's clear that they are two very different people and it is brought up several times that Georgia's co-workers think that she is too good for her hubby, but she remains loyal to him and she remains insistent that he is perfect for her! I loved that aspect of the story. It seems like everyone is all too quick to cheat and "upgrade" these days but these two remained loyal to one another. How refreshing! Matt was endearing as well, and he was definitely one of my favourite characters in the story. More than anything I wanted him to have a happy ending!

If I had one complaint it would be minor, and that would be that the fact that Georgia and Matt's differences are emphasized often. While I realize that it was a key plot point I thought that it was mentioned a little too often. We as readers got the point quite early on, and didn't need it drilled into our heads.

Overall Blokebusters was surprisingly funny as well as touching. There were characters that I enjoyed getting to know, and I found myself unable to put the book down while I was waiting to see what would happen next. The ending wasn't predictable, and was thoroughly enjoyable. My thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a review copy of this book!

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