Kissing Toads by Jemma Harvey

Synopsis: Delphi, garden programme presenter extraordinaire, and Roo, TV producer and queen of the messy relationship, have been best friends since childhood. As different as night and day, they’ve been there for each other’s every merciless heart-break, every evil critic, and any and all knotty wardrobe choices.

But now, Delphi’s career as a C-list celeb seems slightly stuck and the spectre of the has-been garden presenter looms large on the horizon, while Roo’s long-time boyfriend has secretly gone and married his long-time Romanian girlfriend. These are dire straits indeed and they decide to ditch their life of urban glamour (Delphi) and overworked late nights (Roo) and sign on for a garden make-over programme in the darkest end of Scotland. Draughty castle, craggy rockstar with ambition to be the laird and a cast of very strange characters included — the two are in for a big surprise …

Review: What is surprising while starting the book is the number of pages. It is indeed quite rare (or at least for me) to find chick lit novels counting more than 400 pages. I think it is also one of the reasons it took me a few years before reading it. I was a little concerned to begin it considering the different reviews I saw about the book, some nice but many mixed.

Unfortunately I felt from the beginning of the story that I would have some trouble hanging on it. No, I couldn’t hold on the characters either Delphi or Ruth and I admit that I had a sense of déjà vu (though I do not think I have ever read the novel). Through them and more precisely a TV show, we also follow an old mystery: the disappearance in a labyrinth of a young woman supposed to get married there 700 years ago. Is she dead? Why? How? What has really happened? It’s true that this is an issue that really intrigued me and I was curious to find out the truth about this young woman. We follow at the same time the change of career regarding Ruth, the Delphi’s love stories and I confess that I did not understand very well why she insisted to continue with Alex when it is perfectly clear that it does not work.

In short, it was a nice story to read, a mystery mixed with humor and romance was fun but I did not really managed to get into the story or to hang on the characters. To conclude, it is not necessarily a read that will leave me an inexhaustible memory.

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mellianefini

22 thoughts on “Kissing Toads by Jemma Harvey

  1. I honestly don’t read much chick-lit, unless I’m in the mood for something lighter, and although this may have sounded like a nice read, after reading your thoughts I’m not sure it would work for me either . . . Hope your next read (or current one) will leave you quite satisfied and excited for more! 🙂

  2. Sorry this one didn’t quite work as we’ll as you’d hoped Melliane and that the characters aren’t really ones that will stand out in your memory. I’ve read a few like that lately and it’s always disappointing. Still, here’s hoping your next read blows you away!

  3. I don’t know… It seems to me that lately chicklites I’m reading are all 400 pages in lnigth, and all like, weren’t chick lits shorter before??
    Anyway, I suppose it wouldn’t be a problem if the book was better, right? 😉

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