I read this for review at All About Romance and gave it a B+, so 4 1/2 stars. I wrote:I generally read each new book by Jill Mansell within a few days of release, so I was very excited when this appeared on the review list. I was less excited when I discovered it’s a reissue, but ended up quickly captivated, enjoying both the story and the characters. However, if you’re looking for a straightforward romance this isn’t going to suit. Ms. Mansell slowly adds a large number of characters into the s...

There are few authors of so called 'chic-lit' that I will read, but Mansell is one of them. Her characters are quirky, her plotlines fun and, even though you know there'll be a happy ending for all those that deserve it, she keeps you on tenterhooks right to the end.This one was no exception - I liked that these weren't hard-done-by people, struggling in life as well as love. Ok, they might have the most conventional of lives and jobs, but hell, who wants to read about what we live every day? Th...

Review will be shared when book is released April 2016! (Hint: I really liked it)

I want to kick something. This book didn't work at all, and the ending just cobbles together happy endings, that make zero sense when you read what has come before. I am all for happy endings in my romance books, but not with partners who come out of nowhere and or partners that have zero chemistry with the objects of their affection. I kept hoping Mansell would switch things up a bit and have Carmen and Nancy not do what is typical for these types of books, it just doesn't work. "The One You Re...

This was not my favorite Jill Mansell book, but I don't think it will be my last.I didn't really connect to either Nancy or Carmen, I found Nancy especially annoying. There are several characters in this one, and for me, was just one big soap opera...who's sleeping with who etc.While I liked Mia, I did feel that she did and said some things that were not really appropriate.I almost think this would have worked better if she had split Nancy and Carmen up and gave them each their own story with so...

The story begins with Nancy opening a Christmas card from an expensive jewelers addressed to her husband. Assuming he has shopped at the store for her present, she looks forward to Christmas Day, only to be confronted with her gift of...a lawnmower! Enter Nancy's best friend Carmen and her brother in law Rennie, a member of a rock band, who invite her to stay with them and provide her with moral support when she discovers her husband is in fact having an affair. What I loved the best about Nancy...

Reading a Jill Mansell book is like returning to an old friend. She writes chick lit so well and I know, for the most part, that I'm going to enjoy reading her novels. This one I enjoyed very much. I liked all the characters--Nancy, Carmen, Mia, Conner, Rennie, and especially Rose. I enjoyed their romantic disastrous lives:) I felt that their stories were very real and done with hope and humor. That's what I like about Mansell's books, you feel as though her characters are real and these situati...

**Thank you so much to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for providing me a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley for the purposes of review***3.5/5Jill Mansell has a way of writing books that I enjoy: the ones with which I can just curl up on a chair and know that I'm going to smile.And that is just what I got with The One You Really Want, which brings me older, more sensible heroines than the ones targeted at my usual age demographic (i.e. New Adult). I love these older heroines, the ones who have some l...

Another good read by Jill Mansell. I love the way her stories meander. Just like in real life, sh*t happens, lol. My particular favorites are Rose and Rennie. They play off each other perfectly. Too bad Rennie does not go for older women*wink,wink. Fortunately, Rennie does end up with the woman he loves,and naturally Nancy, Carmen and Connor all find their true loves also. It is reading about their pairings up with Mr/Ms Wrong along the way that is so much fun.

The One You Really Want by Jill Mansell was a book I completely enjoyed and felt part of! I laughed (a lot!), cared about the characters, felt heart ache, heart break along side them...but I also felt love and the determination these woman have.The One You Really Want starts off following Nancy and Carmen as their lives have taken an unexpected turns and it's time for them to take charge and move on. Most times that's easier said than done, though! Soon they find themselves living in Caremn's lu...

I've just spent three weeks with family in a house by the beach. It was probably a "holiday" more than a holiday, as anyone with children and aged parents will appreciate. But I managed to read a few books, including this one by Jill Mansell.I spotted this battered paperback in a roadside sale, and thought it would make a good beach read. As much as I adore my kindle, it is not beach friendly. Beaches in this part of the world (Cornwall) are mostly about the activities - surfing or bodyboarding,...

Jill Mansell writes English like you only hear in the uk which might be fun for some, but honestly annoys me after a while. One of the characters says "Pet" to everyone and by the end I was pretty darn sick of it. The characters are fun, but that's really all they are. They're not really deep, fleshed out characters. They're just there, the most description you get is hair colour which could be fun in a book that has your imagination running but here only made it harder to envision the story.On

Originally posted at http://smexybooks.com/2016/04/review-...Favorite Quote:“Don’t you like parties?”“The last party I went to, I came face-to-face with my husband’s mistress.”“Then this one will be much better.”Carmen lost her husband three years ago. Since then she has merely been going through the motions of life. Her brother in law, Rennie, decides to pop in at Christmas on the excuse he is taking a break, but in reality, he thinks it’s time for Carman to start living again. When Carmen’s be...

This is an okay romance, but not particularly memorable. The best character in it was the rock-star widow Carmen, so I would have preferred the whole of the novel focus to be with her. I wasn't impressed by the other two major characters. Nancy started off well enough, fleeing from her faithless husband and starting her new life with some gusto - but she soon faded away into a series of unlikely romance and life scenarios. The other main character is teenager, Mia - who is supposed to be funny a...

Nancy opens a Christmas card from an expensive jewelers addressed to her husband. Assuming he has shopped at the store for her present, she looks forward to Christmas Day, only to be confronted with her gift of...a lawnmower! Enter Nancy's best friend Carmen and her brother in law Rennie, a member of a rock band, who invite her to stay with them and provide her with moral support when she discovers her husband is in fact having an affair. Having lost her husband, Rennie's brother, to a drugs ove...

4.5 stars.This is one of those books that I am sure is enhanced by being narrated. And I really enjoyed the narrator's interpretation, she and of course Jill Mansell had me chuckling often as I listened. Full of varied characters with various but similar challenges, there was nothing to dislike and all to enjoy. With of course the perfect satisfying ending. Some might say predictable, but then that's what I like in a book! A happy ending.

I got this as a freebie for my Kindle, and I'm afraid I skimmed about the last third, so I can't rate it. This book was written a while ago (ten years), so I assume that Ms Mansell has changed a lot in the intervening years. This story was a bit too predictably cosy for me, and the characters way too twee. I could see while I was reading it what people liked about it. I liked the multi-stranded story-line, the changing points of view, the fact that the characters had lots of downs as well as ups...

I enjoyed this book because it was a story about a group of friends putting their lives back together and starting over after some tragic circumstances. I liked how the characters were there for their friends in the good times and the bad times.

Good story. Enjoyable. Loved the first 2/3. The last part was a bit over complicated but OK.