Looking for love? Call in the expert. Alice Brown is a matchmaker, and as far as she's concerned, she has the best job in the world. What could be better than helping others find love? Even if she herself remains single... Her latest client is Kate. She's already five years behind in her life plan and she knows exactly what she wants, but that might be the problem. Will anyone measure up to her standards? Then there's Audrey, Alice's misguided boss from hell, who has somehow managed to bag herself the perfect husband. But all is not as it seems. And when her love life and work life collide, will she be able to take her own advice?
Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating is Eleanor Prescott's Debut novel. I discovered Eleanor through http://www.chicklitclub.com/ and looked her up on Facebook. Graciously she excepted my friend request, we got chatting and she offered to send me a copy of Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating and i'm pleased she did.
Alice Brown, is interestingly set out; each chapter is set out under the characters name. The story is told in the third person but it concentrates on a character at a time. I found it hard to get into this book to start with, if I'm honest, it took about 100 pages or so. I wasn't really sure where the story was going, there seemed to be more than one protagonist with Alice, Audrey and Kate.
I liked Alice as a character with her positive romantic outlook on life. Sometimes though she seemed a bit of a wet lettuce which I'm not fond of in a female character; but she was a good character none the less. I also liked Audrey she's a bit of a harsh character but you come to sympathise with her throughout the book. Especially having to deal with Sheryl her business arch enemy. John the love interest was a nice character i liked how his job linked him Alice and Audrey together. I didn't think much of kate to start with but she grew on me as she discovered that you never find your perfect man or what you think is perfect. Kate was supposed to be nearly 35 but she always seemed a lot older than that as she was written. Kate's friend Lou seemed like an unnecessary character; there didn't seem to be a reason for her in the storyline. If anything my favourite character was Johns daughter Emily who didn't really have much of a part.
I thought the flower sending from John to Alice was a lovely touch a lot nicer than red roses and very romantic. The funniest part was Audrey getting her own back on Alice's bike that really made me laugh.
Overall this is a good read and I'm sure a lot of chick lit/Women's fiction readers will enjoy it.
I give Alice Brown's Lessons in the Curious Art of Dating 3.5/5
