Married At First Swipe By Claire Frost

Claire Frost is back with another hilarious story about relationships and friendships called ‘Married At First Swipe’.

Hannah lives life on the edge. Never one to pass up on a new adventure, she has truly been living her best life. But once the adrenaline wears off, she wishes she had someone to spend the quieter moments with too. Learning that her best friend’s online dating business has taken a hit, she comes up with an idea that just might solve both of their problems. Jess has been with her husband for twenty years. They have a stable marriage, great kids and run their own businesses. But what looks like a perfect life from the outside has its own problems within, and with her business on the brink Jess can’t help but wonder where the spark has gone in her life, and whether settling down is all it’s cracked up to be.
When Hannah embarks upon her latest scheme: finding a man using Jess’s dating app and meeting him for the first time at the altar, both women start to realise the grass isn’t always greener. Can Hannah help her friend save her failing business or will Jess stop her from making what could be the biggest mistake of her life?

The story is seen through the narrative of best friends Jess and Hannah who work together on Jess’s dating app called ‘Save the Date’.

The women have been best friends for years and are polar opposites of each other. Where Jess is settled, married her high school sweetheart with twins, Hannah is a flighty character who’s at her most happiest travelling the world and taking part in adventures whilst bar tending to provide her with spending money. Now settled back in Manchester, Hannah envies Jess’s life with the perfect husband and family, but behind closed doors Jess’s life is far from perfect, her business isn’t doing well, money is short and she’s tired of constantly having to pick up after husband and children. It’s on a night out that the friends come up with the plan of finding a husband for Hannah through ‘Save the Date’. This will provide plenty of exposure and interest in the fledging business as well as get a husband for Hannah, the thing is Hannah will only meet her husband on her wedding day.

As the story progresses and Jess finds a potential husband for Hannah, both women are having to face changes in their lives, the huge media interest in the unorthodox way of finding a husband as well as judgement from family and friends.

I really enjoyed this story, it’s only Claire’s second novel, but she’s already an author that I look forward to reading. Her writing is charming, fresh and flows at lovely pace, engaging, poignant with humour riddled throughout.

The characters are relatable, Jess is at a turning point in her life, she’s unhappy in her marriage, struggling with work and Hannah’s wedding is potentially the lifesaver of ‘Save the Date’. She throws herself into the exposure from the upcoming nuptials and begins to see only the status of the wedding and not the actual wedding itself. I loved her Hannah’s attitude, she’s a daring and trusting person putting all her trust in her best friend to find her husband. She’s an open-minded, but is prone to moments of insecurity especially with her mother, who’s like a Hynacinth Bouquet character with airs and graces.

A frank and honest story about relationships and the pressures of society, ‘Married at First Swipe’ is a deliciously fun and quirky story that explores relationships and sometimes looks can be deceiving and the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

You can pre-order ‘Married At First Swipe’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 4th February 2021.