Learn Love In A Week By Andrew Clover

[amazon_link id=”1780891180″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’Learn Love in a Week’ is Andrew Clover’s first adult book. Andrew is best known for his ‘Dad Rules’ column in the Sunday Times which became the hit book,’Dad Rules Book’.

Polly has been married to Arthur for ten years when she meets James Hammond. He’s her Road Not Taken, The One That Got Away. He’s also rich and within a week he has invited Polly to his converted monastery in the country to give her the job she always wanted. He also wants her. Her best friend Em says “Go” Em’s spent two years with a man who resists commitment like a dog resists a bath. She understands how it feels to to stuck. But she has her own interest in Polly’s husband. Meanwhile Arthur says “Stay, I can change.” But can he? After ten years, can you learn to love again? And if you can, how do you know would choose the same person?

What can I say about this book? Whilst reading it I had so many adjectives flying about my head, absurd, ridiculous, funny, touching and at the end of the day highly entertaining.

This story is seen through the eyes of the three main characters, married couple Arthur and Polly and their best friend Em. The main characters are all nuts in their own way. Arthur and Polly are stuck in a rut, taking each other for granted they are constantly thinking that the grass is greener on the other side and both regularly reminisce on previous partners and what might have been. Arthur is the aspiring romantic stay at home writer who is trying to write a novel about the reincarnation of King Arthur who ends up looking after the children, doing the school run whilst juggling love advice columns and making children’s stories. Polly is bitter that she is the main breadwinner and her life has turned out far from her dreams, lusting after the rich James Hammond, she remembers a time when she was happy and carefree. And finally Em is man and marriage hungry, determined to settle down, she seeks love and relationship advice from Arthur to help her find her happy ever after.

This book was immensely enjoyable but was completely bonkers all the same. I found myself reading the characters in disbelief as they all seemed so eccentric at times, floating from “I love you, let’s divorce” being said in the same breath, they all seemed to drift from one notion to the next. I found Arthur insanely sweet and caring, but his thoughts for what could have been with old flame quite disconcerting at times, whereas Polly’s anger and frustration towards Arthur would regularly leap off the page and slap you in the face, as she belittled him, sometimes I would she was a bit unnecessary at times and just needed to step back and reflect what she had and maybe occasionally take a deep breath and smile and suddenly life would be a bit better. I disliked Em thoroughly, as a friend to Polly, I found her incredibly disloyal, self obsessed and vain, scenes with her made for selfish reading that I seemed to race through and got to the point that I didn’t care if she got a partner or not.

A cleverly written insightful and occasionally shocking story. Filled with one-liners ‘Learn Love In A Week’ is an engaging and hilarious book that will definitely have the reader hooked and looking at love in a different light.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”1780891180″ target=”_blank” ]Learn Love in a Week on Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.