With or Without You - Carole Matthews

Many years ago I read my first Carole Matthews book. It was called Let's Meet On Platform 8, and frankly, I didn't really enjoy it. I was bored by the characters and the storyline didn't grip me. Mind you, I was still in high school at the time so I think I might have been too young to understand the characters and their love affair. Over the years as I have been on my quest to read all the chick-lit there is out there (or so it seems!), I avoided Carole Matthews like the plague because I didn't want to waste my time again.

Then last year, I picked up The Sweetest Taboo from the cheap rack at Chapters, and decided to give her a go again because I thought the story sounded cute. AND I LOVED IT.

So, Carole Matthews has been added to my "want to read" book list, and I started with With or Without You.

Without any real spoilers, let me give a brief synopsis:

This story is about Lyssa, who wants nothing more than to have a baby with long-term boyfriend, Jake. But Jake has other plans for himself, which he quickly realises are the wrong plans. As Lyssa tries to cope in a life without Jake at her side, while he figures a few things out for himself, she heads off on an out-of-character adventure trek in Nepal. By the end of the story Jake and Lyssa have learned a lot about themselves and each other, and they see that in just a month people can really change.

This book was pretty good. I like the characters, they were pretty witty. Jake's best friend Pip and Lyssa's sister Edie provide good comic relief as well. It was a fast read for me, and was pretty enjoyable.

My next Carole Matthew's adventures will be reading The Chocolate Lover's Club and its sequel, The Chocolate Lover's Diet; I bought these books a little while back but I'm saving them for my big trip to Poland this July.

I'm quite glad I've given Carole Matthews another shot, and look forward to reading more.