Today I’m pleased to be taking part in the blog tour for Instructions For Falling In Love Again. My review is written with thanks to Sarah Hardy at Book On The Bright Side for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

What would you do if your late husband left you a list of instructions on how to fall in love with someone else?

Pippa Browning is faced with this exact dilemma, three years after the death of her husband, Dan. Buried at the bottom of a drawer are a collection of notebooks full of Dan’s advice on how to live without him.

Pippa’s notebook is red and contains his instructions on how to fall in love again.

But Dan doesn’t just want Pippa to fall in love with anyone – Dan’s crazy suggestion is that Pippa should date his handsome friend, Mikey Stenton, a known thrill-seeking ladies’ man.

Reluctant to follow Dan’s advice, Pippa enters the world of dating. She embarks on a humorous journey of self-discovery, with the help of her children and two best friends.

It isn’t long before Pippa is finding it hard to ignore Dan’s instructions and Mikey Stenton.

Is Mikey really the man that everyone thinks him to be? Or was Dan right, and Mikey’s simply been misunderstood?

An uplifting and heart-warming story about friendship and finding love, the second time around.

Review:

I really enjoyed Instructions For Falling In Love Again. Although it can be categorised as chick lit or romance, it has a few interesting twists that make it stand out from others in the genre. It is written from the perspective of both Pippa and Mikey and this helped me to understand their doubts, hopes and fears as their unexpected meetings brought them together.

Whilst Pippa and Mikey are clearly the central characters, there are also plenty of others with whom I felt able to empathise. Pippa’s best friends, Emma and Mel provide some hilarious moments, but are always there for Pippa when she needs them, and Pippa’s children demonstrate rebellion and vulnerability in equal measure in a way I recognise from many children I have known over the years. Although Dan has now died, I enjoyed getting a flavour of his personality through the writing in the notebooks and the way his family and friends shared their memories.

Instructions For Falling In Love Again is clearly a comedy but there are some more serious themes to be found within it. Mitchell explores the theme of grief in some depth with great sensitivity and there were parts of the novel I found highly poignant.

Instructions For Falling In Love Again is available from Amazon.

You can follow the blog tour here: