Forty Dates and Forty Nights

by O.M. Faure

At the ripe old age of 39, Lily didn’t expect to still be single. Determined to
change her luck and find love before the big four-oh deadline, she starts a
dating campaign: she will go on forty dates before her fortieth birthday and
find The One, so help her God.
She had a plan and it should have worked...except she started to kill them
all.
You’ll find dark humour, romance and murder in Forty Dates and Forty
Nights as well as a timely feminist voice for the #MeToo era.

406 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 12, 2023

About the author

O. M. Faure studied political science at Sciences Po in Paris, before obtaining a Master’s degree in International Affairs at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston. 


She has worked at the United Nations in Geneva and has extensive experience as a change and transformation manager in several banks over the last twenty years.

Today, she is a Principal at a Scenario Planning consulting firm, and she lectures and coaches at the Hult International Business School. 


Based in London, O. M. Faure is a feminist, a Londoner, a Third Culture Kid, an enthusiastic singer, and a budding activist.


Reviews

[Lily Squire · Rating 3 out of 5]

a chore, only gets 3⭐️cuz it was good from 80% onwards. i don’t think this book needs to be as long as it is.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drags so much. I’m 70 odd % through and have been skimming a lot, struggling to want to go on although I kinda want to know how it ends. Somebody just tell me please lol?

[Sophiefireflyx · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off strong but just got 💩 if you ask me

[Charlotte Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some dark topics. Felt like it dragged a lot. Storyline was a bit boring

[Emma Tomko · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end got a little insane but I fear this did speak to my secret desire to murder every terrible man 😌

[Tanya Brewster · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had so much potential but it was too long and the end was just rushed and a bit of a mess. Also considering the author is clearly a feminist the book talks a lot about how fat the main character is and how this is undesirable to men. Constant talk about the characters body was just annoying.

[Amanda Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun read and I recommend it.

Lily is a woman looking for love, while worrying it might all be too late. Online dating serves her dates from hell. Meanwhile, her misguided attempts at vigilante justice keep going fatally wrong. But we root for Lily as the bodies pile up. She is, after all, on our side.

Lily is a channel for our collective female anger. And her anger gets invested into delightful revenge. Or do we call it justice? Either way, it’s never outright murder, never mind the suspicious police officer on her case.

Speaking of him, he was my favourite character. There’s plenty of misogyny and toxic masculinity in these pages – but our lovely copper rises above it all, unlike some of his colleagues.

O M Faure’s writing is lively and perfectly paced. The narrative is light and breezy though underpinned by dark humour and feminist themes, chiming with contemporary issues of the hour.

O. M. Faure’s previous work ‘The Beautiful Ones’, was an action-packed futuristic sci-fi dystopia. Forty Dates and Forty Nights is a lighter, shorter read but there are some notable similarities: both books deal with a world (present and future) where patriarchy continues its stranglehold on law and order; and Lily in Forty Dates bears some resemblance to Olivia in The Beautiful Ones.

Lily, like Olivia, is at an age where being single might mean being childless. Both worry about their weight, and both - while seeking the man of their dreams - end up tasked with terrible responsibilities beyond their skill set, with troubles they never imagined.

It's dark comedy but wholly relevant to the contemporary as a book that asks serious questions about misogyny and violence against women. Literally, what are we women really supposed to do about systemic misogyny?

Reading Lily's answer to that question might well be cathartic. Do you have a better idea?

My thanks to the author for a free advanced copy of Forty Dates and Forty Nights. I’m delighted to provide here my honest review.

[Roger Weetch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beware the disillusioned woman!

What starts out as an amusing story, with the heroine determined to find the man of her dreams by having 40 dates before her 40th birthday, becomes darker as she becomes more and more conscious of the misogynistic organisation of society. What start out as accidents become deliberate until it becomes increasing difficult to see how the story can be brought to a conclusion. However, Ms Faure manages to create what, for me, was an entirely satisfactory ending; although I can imagine that some might disagree. At times it made uncomfortable reading for this male reader but I would recommend it as well worthwhile.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally gripping!

Trigger warning - this book focuses on rape, domestic abuse and crimes against women.

The story focuses on Lily who has had disastrous luck with men so she decides to go on 40 dates before she hits 40 to try and find a decent man.

What ensues is her realising exactly what risks women face every day at the hands of men and she attempts to rectify this in her own ways. Amongst the story, the real facts about the things that happen around the world and the way that women are treated compared to men is eye opening.

A very well written book touching on a sensitive topic. I couldn't put it down.

[Seonaid McKay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the "feminism" I expected, or wanted. This book was disjointed as fuck. Lily was so incredibly contradictory that I had no idea what she was trying to get at half the time. One chapter, she's preaching the kind of intersectional feminism I was hoping for and the next she's calling one of her best friends fat. I get that characters should be multi-faceted, but Lily's entire personality is an absolute mess. Very lazy character development and pretty shoddy writing. Especially off the back of just finishing the Sweetpea series, where the characterisation was spot-on. Not for me, sorry.

[samantha nappin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was a definitely a dark book than I’m used to reading. The story had quite a few characters and was a book to invest in to keep track of who was who. It was interesting to read the killings of the first 3 men and how I thought the storyline would go from my past readings with similar books but the story took a real turn for the last 100 pages and the group of girls all coming together and the detective falling in love with her wasn’t surprising. Was weirdly enjoyable towards the end.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok so this was slow. the focus on her weight was extremely annoying. she said that she hates men but looks for assurance in them a lot. i feel that she never really owned it or knew what she was doing (despite planning it). this got interesting about 80%. side note: the lily and tom subplot was kinda cute.

[Jacqui Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t really enjoy this - found it very slow to start & struggled to want to pick it up. When it did take off, it was very graphic with themes around rape. I’ve been reading a lot of books in the ‘female killer’ genre and this was by far the most disturbing. It felt quite men-bashing in places, beyond necessary.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5✨
Forgot to review this when I first finished it a few days ago. Overall I enjoyed the book but I wouldn't jump at recommending it. They tied the ending up nicely but the running love interest story line did my head in - personally not a fan of that particular trope.

[Alice Lucie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a good book. I really had to force myself to finish it so that I didn’t DNF so close to the end of the year. The first half was okay, but the second half was ridiculous. It dragged so badly and was ludicrous in places.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it. I'm sorry, but it drained me. I enjoyed some of the mini rants, and some of it I agreed with 100%. Others I just couldn't be bothered with.

[Chloe Mahon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed the last 50% of this book. There’s so much feminism it’s draining. Neither liked nor disliked it.

[Sasha Heath · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who killed all those Jackals, and I won't ask why??? Maybe a Law Firm would work??? I enjoyed this story and recommended the book.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read with feminist themes and dark humour. Also enjoyed Faure's Chosen Ones trilogy, although quite different.

[Stacey Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit all over the place and the characters weren't very consistent.

[Immi Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh this book was a bit all over the place. Not what I was expecting and quite frankly was a bit mid. I enjoyed the interludes with factual information

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really dragged and some parts felt unnecessarily long. I skimmed a lot of the book in all honesty, by the time I got to about 70% I just wanted it over with.

[Evie Butler-Donaldson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off well and then just turned into a hot mess.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got bored and skimmed through most of this book, and for a book that's meant to be feminist it talks a lot about how fat the main character is, really put me off.