Ex-Appeal

by Zoë Barnes

Gina had fallen for Matt Hooley when they were both teenage rebels. Together, they were going to save the world - until their mothers put a stop to it, and made sure they never saw each other again. Now, fourteen years later, Gina still regards Matt as 'The One'. No one else has ever come close to measuring up. All of her other boyfriends have eventually stumbled at some hurdle or other, cursing 'Saint Matt' as they fell. Gina's always had a daydream that one day Matt would come back and carry her off on his obligatory white charger. But never once in her fantasies did he ever arrive complete with an ex-wife and three kids! Worse, her teenage rebel has become thoroughly respectable. Well groomed, wealthy, middle class - he could even pass for an accountant! How can her Mr Right have gone so wrong...?

Genres: Chick Lit

452 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Did you know ...?
Zoë was born near Liverpool, but is a real mixed bag! Her mum is Manx and her dad is from Yorkshire. She now lives in Cheltenham, where her novels are set.
She is also a French translator, and translates novels by Christian Jacq (author of the Ramses series) under the pen-name of Sue Dyson.
She was named 'Secretary of the Year' in 1987, although she wasn't actually working as a secretary at the time!
When not writing or translating, she works as a singer.
At the moment she has three cats: Domino, Pizza and Jupiter. Unfortunately, Jupiter's favourite foods are Sellotape and glue, and he enjoys chewing the corners off library books.
The only animals she really doesn't like are cockroaches. And it's not their fault they're creepy.
She loves chocolate, but it makes her ill. Sadly, green vegetables are perfectly safe. There is no justice.
There is no such thing as a Javanese Yellow Skunk. But there ought to be.

Zoë died on October 30th 2009 after taking an overdose.

Reviews

[Butterfly2507 · Rating 1 out of 5]

An sich war die Idee gut aber Gina ging mir so dermaßen auf die Nerven. Ja, es war die große Liebe aber du kannst dir doch wenigstens andere Typen ansehen und ausgehen. Man man man.

[Alycia Bouëdron · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai longtemps attendu avant de lire ce roman, mais je pense que c'était mieux ainsi, parce que j'ai pu l'apprécier davantage que lorsque je l'avais acheté il y a quelques années. En effet, certaines allusions sont adressées à un public plus adulte et je ne les aurais sûrement pas autant appréciées lorsque j'étais adolescente. C'est un roman très drôle, pas prise de tête, à dévorer quand on veut se faire une lecture plaisir et légère. Il est très agréable et rapide à lire !

[Loucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bof, l'histoire était prometteuse mais j'ai eu du mal à le finir... ce qui m'arrive rarement. J'ai trouvé l'histoire trop longue et l'héroïne m'a agacée plus d'une fois. Deuxième livre de cet auteur que je lis et décidément je n'accroche pas.

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but it's possibly one of the worst I've ever read. Nothing in this book is appealing, nothing.

[MsAnsP]

DNF. Boring.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik vond dit boek ik een minibieb. Ik las de achterkant. Ik dacht leuk. Het was NIET leuk. Ik ben bedrogen.

[Naelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Olalala j’en avais marrrrre c’était ennuyeux.
Je ne comprenais rien du tout 🤣🤣. Parfois il y avait l’intervention d’un personnage et je ne savais même plus qui c’était 😅.

[˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚ chiara •ᴗ• · Rating 3 out of 5]

i found it fun & light, even if it wasn’t the typical book i would usually pick up. nevertheless, some parts were weird and their “forbidden love” wasn’t that much present. for a synopsis that is entirely about the love story, it definitely felt like a background part more than the important one. i wasn’t bother by it anyway and i even think that the book was better like this.

[Natasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm.
When I opened this book, it had me from the get-go. I loved the preface and I was expecting more of it through the rest of the story. Unfortunately, I didn't get it. Ex-Appeal lost its appeal to me about a third of the way in, and from there on, I simply found it ... negative. Once I reached the end I was still waiting for the story to begin. I didn't feel that anything actually happened, and it didn't get anywhere.
Yes, there were a few bits that saved it, giving me hope that it would perk up - the Walker kids, the animal antics - but they turned out to be just rays with no sunshine. I liked the whole 'save the world' angle, but being a vegan and having an animal rights and fair-trade outlook myself, I couldn't stop muttering "what on earth". I don't feel that the revelant information was very well researched and the characters were the farthest thing from what they were trying to be passed off as. It all just came accross as a gimmick to me, something to stick in there in an attempt to give the characters some depth.

[Karschtl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read this book during my summer holidays, and it's a good read for that. Usual chick-lit, nothing spectacular but readable.

[Tracy Green · Rating 1 out of 5]

I agree with Audrey. I love Zoe Barnes but this one us plain awful.