Unexpected Lessons in Love by Lucy Dillon #NetGalley #UnexpectedLessonsInLove @lucy_dillon @randomhouse

Unexpected Lessons in Love by Lucy Dillon

Publication Date: 9th January 2020

Published by Black Swan
Romance/Womens Fiction

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this title via NetGalley

Book Description:

What happens when 'I do' turns into 'I don't know'?

Jeannie always wanted to fall in love, and now she’s finally got the whirlwind romance she dreamed of. Dan’s gorgeous, he’s a successful young vet, and he flew her to New York and proposed on Brooklyn Bridge. Jeannie has to remind herself this is actually her life. It seems too perfect, too magical, to be real. Yet it is.

But now she’s on her way to the wedding she can’t shake off the tight sensation crushing her chest. Is it just nerves . . . or is this all happening a bit too fast?

Jeannie has one last chance to shout, ‘Stop!’ But just as she grabs it, a twist of fate throws everything she knows into the air like confetti. What Jeannie learns about Dan, about her own heart, and about the power of love itself, will change her world for ever . .

My Thoughts:

I am a huge fan of Lucy' Dillon's writing, but as a cynical divorcee I am not a great believer in romance. I have to say what grabbed my attention to read this book about a wedding was the tag line 'what happens when "I do" turns into "I don't know". That's far more interesting to me.
Dan and Jeannie met on an online dating app, the majority of their courtship has been spent on weekends away doing all the fun stuff. They haven't really gone into the deep conversations or had humdrum daily discussions on whose turn it is to put the bins out. Which is what suddenly strikes Jeannie as she sits in the back of her beautiful wedding car on her way to marry Dan: she doesn't really know him at all. In a panic, she tells her dad she can't go through with the ceremony and stops the car to try to make a phone call to Dan - but the call goes to voicemail. That sets in motion a whole new course for the day, as just moments later she receives a phone call telling her that Dan has been hit by a bus on his way to the ceremony. Was Dan listening to her message when he stepped out in the road? Does anyone else know? With Dan unconscious in hospital who can she ask?
My favourite character of the book is best man Owen; reliable, organised and thoughtful he is a godsend to Jeannie as he handles all the practicalities of calling off a wedding under tragic circumstances - but does he know about Jeannie's phone call? And where is Dan's phone? Dan's mum Andrea is understandably broken by what has happened to her son and leans heavily on Jeannie for emotional support - so it's obvious she doesn't know - but how can Jeannie tell her when her son is teetering between life and death? The story continues with Jeannie's dilemma, and she feels a complete fraud as she fits in to village life at the vet's house where she and Dan were moving in to after the wedding. Her feelings are explored and her torment continues as the community happily accept her into their fold.

Even with all the emotion involved in this story it didn't feel all gloom and doom, it came across as a very realistic dilemma for someone to find themselves in. All the characters were believable and with back stories of their own there is plenty going on to detract from Jeannie's story. As she unpacks their belongings into their new home it soon becomes clear that Dan too has been withholding information and Jeannie has to try to quiz Owen on what Dan might be hiding, whilst still keeping her own secret. Not as easy as it first might appear - especially once Owen starts getting shifty in his responses.

As is always the case with Lucy's books there is a canine component to the tale which I think reflects life perfectly: you need a dog in your life to keep things in perspective. Keep your tissues handy though as Jeannie's experiences at the vet's house will tug at your heartstrings, whatever the outcome between her and Dan.

About the Author:

Lucy Dillon grew up in Cumbria and read English at Cambridge, then read a lot of magazines as a press assistant in London, then read other people's manuscripts as a junior fiction editor. She now lives in a village outside Hereford with a Border terrier, an Otterhound and her husband.

Lucy won the Romantic Novelists' Association Contemporary Romantic Novel prize in 2015 for A HUNDRED PIECES OF ME, and the Romantic Novel of the Year Award in 2010 for LOST DOGS AND LONELY HEARTS.

You can follow her at her website www.lucydillon.com, on Twitter @lucy_dillon