Book Review: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

I read this book because a member of my book club said that I had to. I’ve heard great things about the author but hadn’t gotten around to reading anything by her.

Here’s the Goodreads Summary:

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages... maybe ever.

What can I add to that:

This book is typical ChickLit fare: There’s a hard working- high integrity woman who is being treated like crap by a pervious romantic partner. In this case, her ex- husband and father of her young math- prodigy daughter, but also of the teen age boy she is committed to raising. They live in a crap neighborhood, she has a crap job, and she’s a little too forgiving of  the crap treatment she gets from those around her.

Enter rich dude who’s in some trouble. The rude first meeting happens, the misunderstanding occurs, the forced interaction ensues, the misunderstanding is revealed but by then everyone loves everyone and we all have to decide if we can trust each other again.

Whew.

If you’re into this genre of book, there’s nothing really new to the plot. However, I really liked the characters. There’s an endearing little girl, an sweet emo kid, and a big smelly dog. The reader knows the rich dude isn’t so bad, even if the main character has to learn it the hard way.

The consensus of the book club was many thumbs up. It was not too heavy on the content and everyone actually read the whole thing! If that doesn’t ring the bell of its praises, nothing will. The discussion questions offered through Penguin.com were kind of lame but we talked about the book for quite some time despite that.

Jess was likable and relatable. The kids were cute, the ex-husband was a cur. And the ending was satisfying, if not a wee predictable and convenient. Suspended sentence? Ok, sure. That’s rich people justice, I guess? Plus, there was plenty of opportunities to wax philosophical about why women sometimes let men do them wrong. What else could you want?!

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