I have said before that I don’t particularly like romance novels, but my friend gave me this one as a present, and I thought the summary on the back sounded quite intriguing. Set between Ireland, England and Australia, this book is about an unsatisfied shop assistant in Dublin and an unhappy, but successful business man in London, who meet while on holiday in Melbourne, and surprise, surprise, fall in love.

I am not really giving anything away, as the book does not pretend to be anything other than a romantic story about two strangers. The ‘twist’ is that both characters have secrets. Eva, the shop assistant, spends the whole holiday pretending to be a famous singer and sculpture called Niamh, while Joseph, who runs his own business, has her believing that he is a backpacker with no money. But will they accept each other for who they really are when the truth is finally revealed?

It’s the classic template for a romantic book; a plain girl who is stuck in a rut, meets the man of her dreams and is swept off her feet. Having said all that, the book is well written and fun. There are a few laugh out loud moments (and I’m afraid, many cringing moments). It is true that the storyline was obvious and not particularly original, but I quite enjoyed it anyway. I would probably not seek out any other books by this particular author, but would recommend the book to romance fans.

If you do like a bit of romance, how about clicking on the picture below to buy the book?