Esther is out with her two friends, bemoaning her lack of relationship, when she finds a magazine from the noughties. Seeking comfort – and a laugh – she turns to the dating advice only to find an article that feels a little too close to home. According to the journalist, there are seven people a woman will date before finding the one:
The First Love, The Work Mistake, The Friend with Benefits, The Overlap, The Missed Chance, The Bastard and The Serious One.
Her friends laugh but Esther realises each of her exes fits these roles perfectly. Deciding that she’s mistaken her true love in the reject pile she decides to contact each of her exes to find out which is the one that got away...
Title: Seven Exes
Author: Lucy Vine
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 25th May 2023
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Our Review
As soon as I heard the concept of Seven Exes told by the author herself in the Books and the City 2023 showcase, I was hooked. So much so that I started reading my copy on the train journey home and it immediately pulled me in with its sheer joy and hilarity.
Esther decides that she needs a man in her life to be fulfilled, she’s worked hard all of her life and feels it’s time to settle down. One night in her seedy local pub she reads a magazine article which described the seven kinds of relationships you normally have in life and that your true love is amongst them, you just have to revisit them to see if there’s something you missed. So Esther embarks on a plan to root out her seven exes and find her one true love.
I absolutely loved Esther she is the funniest, most self deprecating and flawed heroine. She gets herself into a few scrapes as she goes back to the previous men in her life and it doesn’t take long to figure out why some of them became her exes but some of them are lovely.
My favourite part of the book is that while Esther discovers things about the exes she also discovers a lot about herself and I really felt for her whilst she went through a period of self hate when she realised that she hadn’t been all that nice a person sometimes. But I think it’s something we all go through especially as we grow up and look back at our younger selves, I’m sure we’ve all got those cringe moments if we dissect everything we’ve done in the past.
The seven exes mission eventually takes its toll on Esther’s life as she becomes obsessed with it and other parts of her life suffer from neglect.
I’m happy to say I got the ending I’d hoped for and I think the lesson I take away from this book is to forgive my younger self for any stupid decisions I made too as they all lead us to where we are now and make us into the person we are today.
Esther learnt so much about herself which was such an uplifting part of the book.
I can totally see this as a film like Bridget Jones crossed with a grown up version of Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
Seven Exes is a breath of fresh air, hilarious, poignant and a total joy.
Sincerely
Book Angel x
Lucy Vine is a writer, editor and columnist. She's also the best selling author of Hot Mess (2017), What Fresh Hell (2018), Are We Nearly There Yet? (2019) and Bad Choices (2021)
@lecv
www.lucyvine.co.uk
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