Book review - love your life

I still remember the exact moment when my aunt introduced me to the wonderful universe of Sophie Kinsella. We were in her dreamy personal library (I too will someday have a room full of books!) and she showed me a row of pink volumes on the bottom shelf of the massive bookcase. They were the first few installments of the Shopaholic series. I took them home… and realized that I might have a slight shopping addiction as well. 

​But that’s not what we’re here for.

​Since then, I’ve been making sure to read every single one of Sophie Kinsella’s books. The stories vary, but they all have certain details in common: they’re all incredibly entertaining, absolutely hilarious, and touching yet lighthearted. Today, I am reviewing Kinsella’s latest novel: Love Your Life.

​To me, there are two parts to this book. In the first part, the main character, Ava – a young, colorful woman – goes to a writing retreat in Italy, where she meets a young man she swiftly falls in love with. In the second part, they both return to their regular londonian lives and face the reality that maybe they’re not as meant to be as they originally tought… Determined to make it work, they try to reconcile both of their busy personal lives and the passionate love they found in Italy.

​I adored the first part of the book. The scenes set in Italy are fun, romantic, and tinged with beautiful italian simplicity. Ava’s surroundings are so well described, you can almost feel the warm sun caressing your skin and see the indigo nightsky. The part where Ava and Matt (Ava’s love interest) go cliff-diving definitely makes it on the list of my top 10 favorite book scenes. However, the bubble abruptly bursts when the two lovebirds get back to London (for both Ava and Matt, and the reader). While I loved Matt’s honest attitude and spontaneity in Italy, he loses his personality as soon as they set foot in England. He becomes closed-up, boring and muted. Even though the young man’s changing attitude is explained later on in the book, it makes his character very hard to love and, by extension, it’s hard to love Matt and Ava as a couple. I was dying to know more about Matt, to dig deeper into his personality, but we never really see why Ava likes him to much. That’s unfortunately something that Sophie Kinsella does quite frequently in her books; the love interest of the main character is often extremely bland, while all the other characters are bright and full of life. 

​One character that I did enjoy was Nihal, one of Matt’s flatmates. There’s something about his tranquil personality that makes me want to know more about him. At some point, I caught myself hoping that Ava and him would end up together. Again, this shows how all the other characters have brighter personalities than the main love interest (in this case, Matt). That being said, the one who shines the brightest is by far Harold, Ava’s beloved beagle. He brings a lot to the story, and he has a critical role in Ava’s life. I got incredibly attached to Harold, and the massive cliffhanger involving him at the end of chapter 26 nearly killed me. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that level of emotional involvement in a book before.

​This novel definitely makes you go through a wide range of emotions, despite the fact that the story remains extremely light. The reason why I love Sophie Kinsella’s books so much is because it’s easy to sit back and let the story carry you. The action is fairly fast-paced, but since most of what is happening is absolutely over the top, it’s very entertaining to read. I’d have no problem hunkering down with this book (or any of Kinsella’s books) and read for a whole afternoon. Love Your Life makes you travel and laugh, but it also forces you to reflect on certain things, like romantic relationships and friendships. Ava draws an interesting parallel between starting a new relationship and visiting a foreign country, which stuck with me. I finished reading days ago, but it’s still on my mind –and that, to me, is the sign of a good book. 

However, as much as I pondered during my reading, I have to admit that I’m not sure what the moral of the story is. Is it that soulmates do exist? Or that filters can be profitable when looking for true love? That no matter what, relationships are full of hardships? Or that when you date someone, you date their entire personal life as well? My theory is that this book illustrates how all types of love exist, and how there isn’t one that’s better than the others. If you look closely, there is an example of almost every type of relationship and romantic beginning in this book; love at first sight, love that’s more akin to companionship, love that has been calculated, love that is convenient, love that’s nearly identical to friendship… It gives a certain type of hope, I find. Hope that no matter the circomstances around how you meet someone, there’s always a chance to make it work. It doesn’t mean that it’s always going to work out, but you always get the chance to work on things. That’s reassuring, isn’t it?

​Over all, I give this book 4 stars out of 5. While I didn’t enjoy the character of Matt as much as I first thought I would, I loved every other aspect of the story. As usual, it was brilliantly writen, in a way that makes it very hard to stop reading. The characters really came alive (most of them, anyway), and it definitely allowed me to escape reality for a while. Isn’t it the best feeling, when you close a book after reading for a while and realize: “oh wow, I was really deep into that story”? I love that.
Then you look around and notice that it’s gone completely dark and you forgot to pick up your kids from school. Oups.

I think it’d be super interesting to re-read this book at different stages of life. I’m sure I’d have completely different reflections if I was to read this book again in my fifties, compared to now, in my twenties. 

​If any of you have already read this book, please share your toughts in the comments section, I’d love to hear your twist on it. Love Your Life is available now! 

​Happy reading!

Much love,