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Operation Sunshine
Operation Sunshine [Paperback] Jenny Colgan
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 23, 2007
67 people are currently reading
2188 people want to read
About the author
Jenny Colgan
122 books11.7k followersJenny Colgan is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including 'The Little Shop of Happy Ever After' and 'Summer at the Little Beach Street Bakery', which are also published by Sphere.' Meet Me at the Cupcake Café' won the 2012 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance and was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, as was 'Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweetshop of Dreams', which won the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2013.
For more about Jenny, visit her website and her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter.
Jenny Colgan has also been published under the name Jenny T. Colgan.
For more about Jenny, visit her website and her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter.
Jenny Colgan has also been published under the name Jenny T. Colgan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 208 reviews
October 27, 2023
If you're looking for an easy sun bed read this is the book!
Great for sunny days as the title suggests.
Three stars.
Great for sunny days as the title suggests.
Three stars.
August 24, 2019
Ohhhh do I feel bad rating Jenny Colgan 1* - you bet I do, but I just could not give this book anymore. It seems to have gotten so confused at what it is actually trying to achieve and doesn't really feel like a Jenny Colgan book to me. I think this may in part, be due to the fact that it is on of her earlier books, but I just really really didn't enjoy it.
Evie is an absolute mess and not in a relatable way, more in a look away from the crash way. She is honestly useless at her job, I don't know how she still has it - she is specifically told that it is a work trip not a holiday and she goes along to seminars and writes no notes... OKAY what a way to do a good job. The rest of the characters just seem to be caricatures and stereotypes and had no development whatsoever. Tom was clearly not whoever he said he was and the romance between Evie and Wilf could be spied a mile off.
Honestly my main issue is the plot; it just unravels as the book goes on and gets more and more over the top and unbelievable as it goes on. Secret spies trying to infiltrate a Doctors retreat, more secret spies popping up, kidnappings?! - I just checked out half way through this book but finished it because I generally love Colgan's books. The plot was just utterly ridiculous that I don't even have much to say apart from recommending that you don't read this book and explore some of her more recent works which are much more enjoyable.
Evie is an absolute mess and not in a relatable way, more in a look away from the crash way. She is honestly useless at her job, I don't know how she still has it - she is specifically told that it is a work trip not a holiday and she goes along to seminars and writes no notes... OKAY what a way to do a good job. The rest of the characters just seem to be caricatures and stereotypes and had no development whatsoever. Tom was clearly not whoever he said he was and the romance between Evie and Wilf could be spied a mile off.
Honestly my main issue is the plot; it just unravels as the book goes on and gets more and more over the top and unbelievable as it goes on. Secret spies trying to infiltrate a Doctors retreat, more secret spies popping up, kidnappings?! - I just checked out half way through this book but finished it because I generally love Colgan's books. The plot was just utterly ridiculous that I don't even have much to say apart from recommending that you don't read this book and explore some of her more recent works which are much more enjoyable.
July 12, 2018
I love Jenny Colgan books and she didn't disappoint me at all with this book. Evie works as a receptionist in a Harley street Drs and works all hours but she's desperate for a holiday. She wants a quiet holiday like anyone wise as hers never have been quiet she just wants to sunbath and have peace. Her employers invite her to France for a holiday and she gets the chance to party with the stars and rich holiday of a lifetime but do things work as she planned or not for her and dies she get her holiday.
Full of romance and adventure and a simply brilliant read.
Full of romance and adventure and a simply brilliant read.
August 9, 2018
Amusing, yet so stupid. This book is full of self-revulsion, snobbery, and false causes. It is dverting and entertaining, and a few of Jenny Colgan's one-liners made me snicker. But this plot was just too ridiculous: plastic surgery, yachts, and doctors behaving badly. It is the definition of a holiday read, down to its location in Cannes and the Hollywood-level eye-rolling plot points. This isn't God-awful, but nowhere near Jenny Colgan's later, better books, The Bookshop on the Corner being my absolute favorite.
June 2, 2020
Rolig, härlig och solig - definitivt skön att läsa i en solstol. Jag skrattar och kan iofs lite räkna ut vad som ska hända - men definitivt inte hur.
November 24, 2009
Operation Sunshine is about a receptionist in Harley Street who is asked to administer at a conference being held by her practice in Cannes, and her (mis)adventures there. Which include romance. Obviously.
I really, really like Jenny Colgan. As a person, that is. I have read a previous novel of hers called Amanda's Wedding, because I am a Manda, but have very little recollection of the novel apart from the title. I do not even recall if I enjoyed it or not. Jenny herself however, I love. I have seen her interviewed a few times now, and she is warm and giggly. I can even forgive her obvious superwoman powers (she seems to write her novels while simultaneously juggling several babies, and I have actually seen her change a babies nappy without actually looking at what she was doing, which is pretty impressive stuff), because she is so lovely.
It was her sunny quality, plus this books sunny title that made me pick it as my next read. The sun is beginning to shine, and I am beginning to think about putting heavy winter coats away until next year. What a good time to read a frothy sunshiny happy book.
Except, now I have read it, I don't feel that sunshiny happy glow I was expecting.
The first problem was that this book still needs proofreading. There are a few examples of this in the first few chapters, and they irked me. Example:
Evie, our heroine, asks for a vacation recommendation from one of the cosmetic surgeons in her practice. he suggests Necker, the caribbean island paradise, costing merely $45,000 a day. Evie wryly asks for a $315 pay rise. Of course she needs $315,000 to afford a weeks holiday in Necker, and someone should have noticed this, it is such an obvious error.
Then there was so much that I failed to believe about the book. I failed to believe that such a workshy dunce like Evie would keep a job such as she describes for longer than half a day, let alone being given the responsibility of helping at a conference. There is talk of the masses of work needing to be done in Cannes, of the practice phones being diverted - presumably to Cannes. But Evie does no work out there, unless turning up is classed as work, and she certainly never takes a work call. Evie even books party organisers to do a party on a yacht apparently without knowing the name of the yacht.
I was prepared for a silly story, but not plain unbelievable and all these little niggles kept me from settling into the story.
And Jenny doesn't do description very well. Evie is sat on a beach, but relatively little of the sights, sounds, smells and experiences that this implies are described to us, so we are not on that beach with her. And I did want to be.
But there were moments that I forgave Jenny everything. Evie talks about getting married "and it wouldn't be about how small a nose I had or how tight my bottom was. It would be because it was fun, and warm, and happy and we liked spending time together and spending our lives together." I thought "yes!" Even the mixing of tenses that annoyed me on one level was silenced by the pure joy of reading the best ever description of the reasons why two people tie themselves together.
All in all I don't think I will read any more of Jenny's novels, but she is such a lovely person, that I already feel very guilty about that decision.
I really, really like Jenny Colgan. As a person, that is. I have read a previous novel of hers called Amanda's Wedding, because I am a Manda, but have very little recollection of the novel apart from the title. I do not even recall if I enjoyed it or not. Jenny herself however, I love. I have seen her interviewed a few times now, and she is warm and giggly. I can even forgive her obvious superwoman powers (she seems to write her novels while simultaneously juggling several babies, and I have actually seen her change a babies nappy without actually looking at what she was doing, which is pretty impressive stuff), because she is so lovely.
It was her sunny quality, plus this books sunny title that made me pick it as my next read. The sun is beginning to shine, and I am beginning to think about putting heavy winter coats away until next year. What a good time to read a frothy sunshiny happy book.
Except, now I have read it, I don't feel that sunshiny happy glow I was expecting.
The first problem was that this book still needs proofreading. There are a few examples of this in the first few chapters, and they irked me. Example:
Evie, our heroine, asks for a vacation recommendation from one of the cosmetic surgeons in her practice. he suggests Necker, the caribbean island paradise, costing merely $45,000 a day. Evie wryly asks for a $315 pay rise. Of course she needs $315,000 to afford a weeks holiday in Necker, and someone should have noticed this, it is such an obvious error.
Then there was so much that I failed to believe about the book. I failed to believe that such a workshy dunce like Evie would keep a job such as she describes for longer than half a day, let alone being given the responsibility of helping at a conference. There is talk of the masses of work needing to be done in Cannes, of the practice phones being diverted - presumably to Cannes. But Evie does no work out there, unless turning up is classed as work, and she certainly never takes a work call. Evie even books party organisers to do a party on a yacht apparently without knowing the name of the yacht.
I was prepared for a silly story, but not plain unbelievable and all these little niggles kept me from settling into the story.
And Jenny doesn't do description very well. Evie is sat on a beach, but relatively little of the sights, sounds, smells and experiences that this implies are described to us, so we are not on that beach with her. And I did want to be.
But there were moments that I forgave Jenny everything. Evie talks about getting married "and it wouldn't be about how small a nose I had or how tight my bottom was. It would be because it was fun, and warm, and happy and we liked spending time together and spending our lives together." I thought "yes!" Even the mixing of tenses that annoyed me on one level was silenced by the pure joy of reading the best ever description of the reasons why two people tie themselves together.
All in all I don't think I will read any more of Jenny's novels, but she is such a lovely person, that I already feel very guilty about that decision.
February 14, 2015
Começo por dizer que apenas li 2 livros desta autora e que este foi o que menos gostei. A sinopse não é brilhante, pelo contrário, é tão banal que não me pareceu que fosse divertir o leitor. A verdade é que acabei por acertar. Evie tem alguns traços na sua personalidade que incitam a comédia, contudo, não é tão engraçada com as personagens de The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris - talvez demasiado impulsiva em termos físicos e não tão inteligente?
Não é um livro maravilhoso em criou qualquer tipo de impacto em mim, contudo, foi um livro divertido de se ler durante o Verão; as personagens que rodeim Evie são caricatas, há uma série de situações que nos convidam a rir... Colgan tentou tornar as coisas um pouco mais apimentadas que acabaram por cair no ridículo. Não foi um mau livro; apenas não foi o melhor chick-lit de sempre.
Não é um livro maravilhoso em criou qualquer tipo de impacto em mim, contudo, foi um livro divertido de se ler durante o Verão; as personagens que rodeim Evie são caricatas, há uma série de situações que nos convidam a rir... Colgan tentou tornar as coisas um pouco mais apimentadas que acabaram por cair no ridículo. Não foi um mau livro; apenas não foi o melhor chick-lit de sempre.
June 30, 2014
Oh :( I love Jenny Colgan, I really, really do, and I love her books. But this one is my least favourite of hers. I just couldn't get to grips with the characters, and the main character Evie just seemed to fancy any man with a pulse. The situation was a little far-fetched and not as funny as normal Colgan humour. It was a nice, simple read, a light-hearted book for a short holiday I suppose, but it's not in the same league as Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe or The Little Beach Street Bakery, or even the early ones like Amanda's Wedding. I was going to give this 2 stars, but my love for other Jenny Colgan books made me bump it up to 3.
June 17, 2021
it was bad
April 28, 2023
Kinda cute and fun book although a bit ridiculous
Evie work as a receptionist for a plastic surgery clinic and there comes a vacation oppourtunity. There is a plastic surgery conference in Paris and later Evie uncover a plot to try out unethical plastic surgery procedure on the ship . Evie and Wilf have to stop the villain before they did the procedure on Evie's sister in law Kelly .
It was quite fun although I wish Evie and Wilf's romance have more of a buildup . It just came out of nowhere with no warning
Evie work as a receptionist for a plastic surgery clinic and there comes a vacation oppourtunity. There is a plastic surgery conference in Paris and later Evie uncover a plot to try out unethical plastic surgery procedure on the ship . Evie and Wilf have to stop the villain before they did the procedure on Evie's sister in law Kelly .
It was quite fun although I wish Evie and Wilf's romance have more of a buildup . It just came out of nowhere with no warning
February 8, 2023
3 stars. I always enjoy Jenny Colgan's books, and this had the exact fun/light mood that I was after, but I thought it was far from her best. Only coming here after finishing did I realise it is one of her earlier books, and her writing / plots have evolved a lot (in a very good way!) since. I thought this one was a bit too ridiculous in terms of the number of things that were thrown into the mix - many unnecessary I felt. More thoughts to follow.
February 16, 2022
I feel terrible giving Jenny Colgan a one star rating but this book is just so below the level I’m used to with her books.
February 3, 2025
Operation Sunshine by Jenny Colgan ☀️
'Evie is desperate for a holiday - a good one. Not only from working all hours as a receptionist, but also because every break she's ever been on has involved sunburn, arguments and projectile vomiting - sometimes all at once. Why can't she have a holiday like everyone else? Peaceful sunbathing and (fingers crossed) some much-needed sex.
And then Evie's employers invite her to a conference in the beautiful south of France. At last, the chance to party with the rich and glamorous. It's the holiday of a lifetime - but things don't work out in quite the way Evie imagines...'
I haven't read a Jenny Colgan book in a while and I'd forgot just how light-hearted and fun they can be!
Evie is a lovable character, who reminds me of Bridget Jones; always getting herself into the most embarrassing and sticky situations, whether at home or abroad 😅
No matter what she does though, her heart is always in the right place 🫶🏼 and as the story follows her on the most memorable holiday (for all the wrong reasons!) I found her happy, loveable nature, and sense of humour very infectious 😃
If you want an easy-going, entertaining read full of fun, and a wacky fast-paced storyline then this one is definitely for you!
'Evie is desperate for a holiday - a good one. Not only from working all hours as a receptionist, but also because every break she's ever been on has involved sunburn, arguments and projectile vomiting - sometimes all at once. Why can't she have a holiday like everyone else? Peaceful sunbathing and (fingers crossed) some much-needed sex.
And then Evie's employers invite her to a conference in the beautiful south of France. At last, the chance to party with the rich and glamorous. It's the holiday of a lifetime - but things don't work out in quite the way Evie imagines...'
I haven't read a Jenny Colgan book in a while and I'd forgot just how light-hearted and fun they can be!
Evie is a lovable character, who reminds me of Bridget Jones; always getting herself into the most embarrassing and sticky situations, whether at home or abroad 😅
No matter what she does though, her heart is always in the right place 🫶🏼 and as the story follows her on the most memorable holiday (for all the wrong reasons!) I found her happy, loveable nature, and sense of humour very infectious 😃
If you want an easy-going, entertaining read full of fun, and a wacky fast-paced storyline then this one is definitely for you!
November 7, 2025
a very light and easy holiday read I ended up finishing at home. weird plot, but quite nostalgic references with it being 18 years old!
November 20, 2025
Easy sunbed read, with some good humour. Fun storyline and romance with a few twists to keep the pages turning.
May 2, 2021
The beginning of this book was great but then I really didn't buy the way the plot went once we got to the sunshine. It was fine but I was expecting something a bit different.
August 22, 2011
I spent most of this book trying to work out what was happening. I just didn't know whether it was supposed to be a romanctic comedy or a thriller, and somehow it ended up being neither. I found the world of surgery hard to care about, and the main character was very self absobed and pretty useless. I found Wilf to be boring and dull, and the complete lack of romantic spark there meant the ending was pretty tacked on and unsatisfactory. A shame really.
February 22, 2012
It started off quite funny and made me laugh a few times, but as the story progressed, so did the ridiculousness. The type of chick-lit that I hate with the main character as the irritating "look at me, I'm so ditzy but adorable" types who gets into countless stupid situations yet, unsurprisingly gets the guy at the end. The only person I feel ever did this successfully was Sophie Kinsella with the first couple of Shopaholic books.
January 1, 2023
A freebie from a magazine. Going to give it a quick read before bookcrossing it
Glad I didn't pay for this! It was alright I guess, but I don't think I'd bother with any more of her books. The central character was trying to be like Becky from the Shopaholic books, but without the charm that that character has.
Will bookcross it and perhaps someone else will enjoy it.
Glad I didn't pay for this! It was alright I guess, but I don't think I'd bother with any more of her books. The central character was trying to be like Becky from the Shopaholic books, but without the charm that that character has.
Will bookcross it and perhaps someone else will enjoy it.
September 2, 2011
It's unfair to say i really didn't like this book, because i read it to the end, and i liked the plot, but the first few chapers were so cheesy! Just a generic character with generic chic-lit feelings written in a really cheesy way, it made me cringe.
I dont think i'd bother reading anything by this author again if this is anything to go by.
I dont think i'd bother reading anything by this author again if this is anything to go by.
June 18, 2017
Very good beach novel. The action flows quite well. Evie, the main character runs into a few problems on her working "holiday" in Cannes. But the story takes a sinister twist when she realises what's actually going on. Cleverly woven tale.
January 16, 2015
I did enjoy it towards the end, Jenny's books always have a good twist in the end
August 8, 2022
If you are a fan of Jenny Colgan’s books, you should enjoy this older story. It’s clever, humorous, and just plain fun.
Evie really needs a vacation. She works a lot at her job but that’s not the only reason why. For Evie, every vacation/holiday she’s ever taken in her entire life has turned out terribly. There’s the inevitable auburn, arguments, and that’s not even getting into the projectile vomit. She just wants a nice normal one just like everyone else wants. Sun, sand, and maybe a little guy on the side.
So you can imagine how happy she is when she’s invited, by her employers, to attend a conference with them in the south of France! She just can’t believe how lucky she is and knows that this is going to be the greatest holiday of her life, however, things have a way of not working out as expected.
This was fun. It’s great to step back and read an author’s earlier works. See how far they have come though they were pretty amazing back then too. Not that this is that old (I still think 1995 wasn’t long ago) but if you have read the recent books you’ll know what I mean.
I definitely recommend this if you just want a fun book that you can lose yourself in. It would make a great vacation book as well.
Evie really needs a vacation. She works a lot at her job but that’s not the only reason why. For Evie, every vacation/holiday she’s ever taken in her entire life has turned out terribly. There’s the inevitable auburn, arguments, and that’s not even getting into the projectile vomit. She just wants a nice normal one just like everyone else wants. Sun, sand, and maybe a little guy on the side.
So you can imagine how happy she is when she’s invited, by her employers, to attend a conference with them in the south of France! She just can’t believe how lucky she is and knows that this is going to be the greatest holiday of her life, however, things have a way of not working out as expected.
This was fun. It’s great to step back and read an author’s earlier works. See how far they have come though they were pretty amazing back then too. Not that this is that old (I still think 1995 wasn’t long ago) but if you have read the recent books you’ll know what I mean.
I definitely recommend this if you just want a fun book that you can lose yourself in. It would make a great vacation book as well.
May 22, 2019
In this book Evie is working for a Harley Street clinic which provides beauty treatments to the rich and unhappy. She also would like to be there as she could hopefully escape Lydia a woman from work she thought was a friend and would like to be there with Bailey a friend of hers.
Feeling unhappy and lacking a holiday she so wants, her boss's at work offer her the chance to join them at a work conference meeting in France. However as Evie meets Tom there she starts to fall for him until she unearths a huge secret about what the doctors have been preparing and planning for all this time.
Furious she wants to help stop things happening and so after the doctors fight she picks her side but also gets more than she bargained for altogether...
I thought this would be like Jenny's other books but for me I found this one a hard slog and I hated the talk of people needing non essential surgery as they were all portrayed as rich, sad people basically. I assumed naively that the holiday would be a break from work but that wasn't the case for me it was lacking a fun edge.
Feeling unhappy and lacking a holiday she so wants, her boss's at work offer her the chance to join them at a work conference meeting in France. However as Evie meets Tom there she starts to fall for him until she unearths a huge secret about what the doctors have been preparing and planning for all this time.
Furious she wants to help stop things happening and so after the doctors fight she picks her side but also gets more than she bargained for altogether...
I thought this would be like Jenny's other books but for me I found this one a hard slog and I hated the talk of people needing non essential surgery as they were all portrayed as rich, sad people basically. I assumed naively that the holiday would be a break from work but that wasn't the case for me it was lacking a fun edge.
December 9, 2019
This book came up a few years ago for me as a 'Goodreads recommended' book. I've never read any of Jenny Colgan's work before but it must have been similar to something else I was reading at the time. I'm slowly working my way through my 'To read' list so I thought I'd go for this one next.
More recently I have found it harder to get into chick-lit books; they have to be extremely well written with fleshed out main characters to really get my attention. I had a brief glimmer of hope at the start of this book that this was going to be a good one. I really liked the main character Evie and thought the plot was really going somewhere. There were some funny moments and the additional characters built out the story well.
However as it picked up pace the plot became very over the top, there were so many twists and turns thrown in that I started to lose interest. There were a lot of pop culture references scattered throughout which are now very dated. By the end I wasn't really interested in whether they would be successful which is a shame as it had such potential to start with.
More recently I have found it harder to get into chick-lit books; they have to be extremely well written with fleshed out main characters to really get my attention. I had a brief glimmer of hope at the start of this book that this was going to be a good one. I really liked the main character Evie and thought the plot was really going somewhere. There were some funny moments and the additional characters built out the story well.
However as it picked up pace the plot became very over the top, there were so many twists and turns thrown in that I started to lose interest. There were a lot of pop culture references scattered throughout which are now very dated. By the end I wasn't really interested in whether they would be successful which is a shame as it had such potential to start with.
January 8, 2022
Operation Sunshine by Jenny Colgan
Evie needs a good holiday. Not just because she’s been working all hours in her job, but also because every holiday she has ever been on in her life has involved sunburn, arguments and projectile vomiting – sometimes all three at once. Why can’t she have a normal holiday, like other people seem to have – some sun, sand, sea and (hopefully) sex?
So when her employers invite her to attend a conference with them in the south of France, she can’t believe her luck. It’s certainly going to be the holiday of a lifetime – but not quite in the way Evie imagines!
Having just read a book by Jenny that I didn't enjoy, I picked up this book in the hope that she would redeem her place on the list of authors that I enjoy reading. Unfortunately, whilst I read this book in less than 12 hours, it did not grab me. For me, the whole plot of the book was just too far-fetched, but it was a nice, simple read.
Rating 3/5
Evie needs a good holiday. Not just because she’s been working all hours in her job, but also because every holiday she has ever been on in her life has involved sunburn, arguments and projectile vomiting – sometimes all three at once. Why can’t she have a normal holiday, like other people seem to have – some sun, sand, sea and (hopefully) sex?
So when her employers invite her to attend a conference with them in the south of France, she can’t believe her luck. It’s certainly going to be the holiday of a lifetime – but not quite in the way Evie imagines!
Having just read a book by Jenny that I didn't enjoy, I picked up this book in the hope that she would redeem her place on the list of authors that I enjoy reading. Unfortunately, whilst I read this book in less than 12 hours, it did not grab me. For me, the whole plot of the book was just too far-fetched, but it was a nice, simple read.
Rating 3/5
May 8, 2025
I feel like I’m going to keep this one brief by starting with- I really didn’t enjoy it. I will say that I found the plot picked up halfway and did make it easier to get sucked into the story but overall it just didn’t read very well!
I found the plot to be all over the place, it didn’t make a massive amount of sense and it felt like we had a genre change halfway through. The writing style wasn’t my favourite as it felt “very 90’s” and if you’ve read and not enjoyed Bridget Jones like myself, you might get what I mean! The vocabulary used at times was questionable - why on earth did the word “muff” need to be used 😭😩 The characters were one dimensional and lacked the depth needed to fully understand their motivations, including our main character Evie. She was all over the place and quite unlikeable- I didn’t really want to vouch for her to have a happy ending mostly due to how she treated her “lifelong friend” Bailey.
A little disappointed with this one! 😞
I found the plot to be all over the place, it didn’t make a massive amount of sense and it felt like we had a genre change halfway through. The writing style wasn’t my favourite as it felt “very 90’s” and if you’ve read and not enjoyed Bridget Jones like myself, you might get what I mean! The vocabulary used at times was questionable - why on earth did the word “muff” need to be used 😭😩 The characters were one dimensional and lacked the depth needed to fully understand their motivations, including our main character Evie. She was all over the place and quite unlikeable- I didn’t really want to vouch for her to have a happy ending mostly due to how she treated her “lifelong friend” Bailey.
A little disappointed with this one! 😞
July 27, 2018
I liked her style of writing.
But unfortunately, that's basically the only positive thing I can say.
I got myself through this book fast, it did not get boring.... but more and more ridiculous and I got more annoyed by turning every page.
Always hoping for this going somewhere real, but it ended up as a very strange fantasy...
However her style of writing is enjoyable and funny, which is why it did not put me off of reading more books from her - I have read Summer Seaside Kitchen next, which I would recommend, although it also needs some reality checks...
Shame, as Jenny Colgan IS a good writer! But her stories sometimes lack some reality and profundness. I will read more books she's written because I do really think that she has it in her!
But unfortunately, that's basically the only positive thing I can say.
I got myself through this book fast, it did not get boring.... but more and more ridiculous and I got more annoyed by turning every page.
Always hoping for this going somewhere real, but it ended up as a very strange fantasy...
However her style of writing is enjoyable and funny, which is why it did not put me off of reading more books from her - I have read Summer Seaside Kitchen next, which I would recommend, although it also needs some reality checks...
Shame, as Jenny Colgan IS a good writer! But her stories sometimes lack some reality and profundness. I will read more books she's written because I do really think that she has it in her!
September 16, 2023
Picking up an early Colgan novel is always a risk, but Where Have All The Boys Gone was enjoyable, so I gave it a try. Well. Erm...
The plot, honestly, is absolutely nonsensical, and maybe early twentysomething readers looking for a goofy vacation comedy, or just the general audience for this type of book, won’t mind it. But it’s very over the top, especially near the end. The characters are shallow, the French are stereotypes, and the dialogue is dripping with slang and inside jokes so I'm sometimes scratching my head. Some stuff doesn’t make sense (why are her brothers even there?).
And everyone is so horrible to Evie! She’s already down on herself and it’s just so hard to watch all these characters backstab, tease, and treat her life she’s incapable of anything. That isn’t funny!
Jenny, I promise I still love you. Just…not the stuff published before the school by the sea series. If you’re new to this author, try her baking/starting over in a pretty location novels. They are most excellent.
The plot, honestly, is absolutely nonsensical, and maybe early twentysomething readers looking for a goofy vacation comedy, or just the general audience for this type of book, won’t mind it. But it’s very over the top, especially near the end. The characters are shallow, the French are stereotypes, and the dialogue is dripping with slang and inside jokes so I'm sometimes scratching my head. Some stuff doesn’t make sense (why are her brothers even there?).
And everyone is so horrible to Evie! She’s already down on herself and it’s just so hard to watch all these characters backstab, tease, and treat her life she’s incapable of anything. That isn’t funny!
Jenny, I promise I still love you. Just…not the stuff published before the school by the sea series. If you’re new to this author, try her baking/starting over in a pretty location novels. They are most excellent.
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August 7, 2022This too felt like an early Colgan and reminded me of some books by Kinsella. Unlike other novels by Colgan with clever and creative heroines, here we have a bumbling, clumsy, self deprecating hero who only seems to come out well by sheer chance, not really through any skill of her own.
Stuck in bed with COVID, it was still an entertaining read, but a bit disappointing for a Jenny Colgan who I usually appreciate far more. This was part of a book set I bought for my daughter (and the cover is different from the one depicted here). - so although I got sick while visiting, at least I could read some of the books I gave her!
Stuck in bed with COVID, it was still an entertaining read, but a bit disappointing for a Jenny Colgan who I usually appreciate far more. This was part of a book set I bought for my daughter (and the cover is different from the one depicted here). - so although I got sick while visiting, at least I could read some of the books I gave her!
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