Blog Tour Book Review - The List by Joanna Bolouri

Welcome to the second to last stop of the blog tour for The List by Joanna Bolouri, organised by Emma Louise in conjunction with Quercus. If you want to find out more out Emma Louise, check out her blog here.

 

The List by Joanna Bolouri

Published: 10th April 2014 (first published 5th December 2013)

Publisher: Quercus

Pages: 400

Available in paperback and on kindle

Order now from Amazon

 

Blurb

Phoebe Henderson may be single but she sure doesn't feel fabulous. It's been a year since she found her boyfriend Alex in bed with another woman, and multiple cases of wine and extensive relationship analysis with best friend Lucy have done nothing to help. Faced with a new year but no new love, Phoebe concocts a different kind of resolution.

The List: ten things she's always wanted to do in bed but has never had the chance (or the courage!) to try. A bucket list for between the sheets. One year of pleasure, no strings attached. Simple, right?

Factor in meddlesome colleagues, friends with benefits, getting frisky al fresco and maybe, possibly, true love and Phoebe's got her work cut out for her.

 

Review

The List has been a book which has been on my radar to pick up since it first came out, so when Emma Louise organised this tour I took the opportunity to join in and finally read it and I’m so glad I did. The List is a hilarious book which talks honestly about sex and relationships in a way which is not too vulgar or sugary sweet.

It’s New Year’s Eve and Phoebe Henderson is nursing a broken heart after finding boyfriend Alex in bed with another woman. After numerous bottles of wine and relationship dissection with friend Lucy, Phoebe decides its time to find out what she really wants. So she sets herself a new resolution with a difference. Ten things she’s always wanted to experience in bed but hasn’t yet had the chance.  In order to complete her challenges Phoebe enlists the help of best friend Oliver for some no strings, sexual fun.  So begins Phoebe’s quest for sexual enlightenment, along the way she encounters a few obstacles and gets herself into a couple of compromising positions.  So does Phoebe complete her challenge? Well you’ll have to read the book and find out!

I was instantly drawn to Phoebe, she says exactly what comes into her head, even though at times she realises afterwards she could have worded things better and been a little less abrupt.  I loved her chats with Lucy, the way they were so honest about everything, including the sex and how good or bad it was. They talked like you would expect two friends to, nothing held back, anything goes, which made for some very funny conversations.  The thing I really liked about Phoebe was despite coming across as confident and sure of herself on the outside, on the inside she still had a vulnerability about her, with real insecurities about ending up all alone, which for me made her really endearing. She is a real heroine for women today, a woman who isn’t afraid to go out there and get what she wants, a woman who doesn’t care what she weighs, how much she drinks, or how much she swears…which is a LOT!

This book is written in a diary format from Phoebe’s point of view and I thought this worked extremely well.  The book is spread across the year and at 400 pages you would expect it to take a while to read, but you’ll get hooked on Joanna’s easy flowing writing style and be finished before you know it. I kept reading just a bit more as I wanted to find out how Phoebe’s next challenge would work out. Some challenges went fairly smoothly and some were more disastrous but they were all really FUNNY. Throughout her year Phoebe’s encounters a number of sexual partners and some of them are definitely more frog than prince.

Now I cannot write a review of this book without talking about the sex. The best word I have come up with to describe it is HONEST, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad and sometimes it’s just downright funny. It is described in such a way that makes it believable. Yes there is a lot of it and yes it is fairly detailed in some parts, but not in a way that makes you throw the book across the room in disgust. It is written in a way that makes you curious, because let’s face it we’re all curious about having better sex whether we admit it or not. So whether you embark on your own LIST or just live through Phoebe just enjoy it!

As a debut novel I think Joanna Bolouri has done excellent job in providing us with an honest and hilarious look at sex and relationships and I cannot wait to read what she writes next. I’d love a follow on to find out what happens to Phoebe. I rate this book 5/5 as there is nothing I can think of which I didn’t really enjoy, if you are looking for a book to make you laugh then this is it.

I’d like to thank Emma Louise for organising this blog tour and also Quercus books for sending me a copy to review and lastly to thank Joanna for writing such a brilliant book. If you would like to find out more about the author then you can visit www.joannabolouri.wordpress.com or follow her on twitter @scribbles78 where you can see just how funny this lady really is.