Lindsey Kelk, if you're reading this sorry in advance...
(I still love your writing though!)
I Heart London picks up where I Heart Vegas left of - Angela and Alex are engaged and it's finally time for Angela to come home and pick up the pieces she left two years ago. The story centers around planning their wedding and Angela dealing with all the things that have changed since she left - as well as the things that haven't changed and she'd forgotten about when leaving.
The blurb reads -
I Heart London picks up where I Heart Vegas left of - Angela and Alex are engaged and it's finally time for Angela to come home and pick up the pieces she left two years ago. The story centers around planning their wedding and Angela dealing with all the things that have changed since she left - as well as the things that haven't changed and she'd forgotten about when leaving.
The blurb reads -
Home is where the heart is. Right?
Angela Clark has fallen in love with New York - and it's starting to love her back. But when she's summoned home to England, she's at risk of losing her shiny new life to rain, warm beer and bad memories. Talk about stepping back in time.
There's Mark, the ex-boyfriend - who she ran to New York to get away from.
There's Louisa, her best friend, with her terrifying new baby.
And there's her mum, still talking to her as though she's fifteen.
Now there's a wedding in the offing - and everyone remembers how well Angela behaved at the last one...Can the arrival of boyfriend Alex and new best friend Jenny save her from a re-run of her old self?
I was really looking forward to I Heart London, not only because I love the I Heart series but also because it was the last book in the series so I was really eager (and sad!) to find out how the story would end.
I thought this book was good - as always, Lindsey Kelk proved that she's still a brilliant writer - but personally I felt this book didn't really have that extra something special that the other books did. The other books always left me feeling inspired and more so passionate about my own life and making something out of myself, but this one did not. This book WASN'T bad. I still thought it was good, just definitely not as good as the other I Heart books.
I felt disappointed with quite a few things in the story. I thought the ending was a bit standard - I expected it to end on more of an inspiring or romantic note and it didn't end as special as it could have done. Although I thought the ending was sweet, as I've read all of the books and come to love the characters of Angela and Alex, I definitely expected a bit more.
I also felt a lot of the story lines were left unfinished. Without wanting to spoil this book for anyone who hasn't yet read it - there is a prominent side storyline throughout the book and I definitely felt this was left at a loose end - in fact when I put the book down when I was finished reading the story, I'm not even quite sure what the final verdict/end was regarding that story line and definitely felt there should have been a more defining end to that. Other story lines I thought were left unfinished included that of Jenny's - although she ended up happy, I would have loved to find out more in regards to the issues surrounding her and Jeff as I thought that particular storyline ended quite abruptly without much explanation. Finally, I felt the return of some characters such as Cici and Taylor were a bit pointless and put in for the sake of the book. Although the brief return of Taylor made sense, the small return of Cici was definitely pointless and I think it was easy to see it was just put in for the sake of it. Although we've come to love the story lines such as Angela finding herself in trouble and having to fix things, I didn't think this particular situation was necessary.
However, over all I did really love the book, just perhaps not as the last book in the series. Understandably there was a lot of pressure being that this is the 5th and final book, but I think Lindsey tried just that little bit too hard. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it wasn't the final one or if it was revealed that a following one would be written, simply because I felt there were too many loose ends and that the characters of Angela and Alex didn't get the impressive ending that they deserved.
I also felt a lot of the story lines were left unfinished. Without wanting to spoil this book for anyone who hasn't yet read it - there is a prominent side storyline throughout the book and I definitely felt this was left at a loose end - in fact when I put the book down when I was finished reading the story, I'm not even quite sure what the final verdict/end was regarding that story line and definitely felt there should have been a more defining end to that. Other story lines I thought were left unfinished included that of Jenny's - although she ended up happy, I would have loved to find out more in regards to the issues surrounding her and Jeff as I thought that particular storyline ended quite abruptly without much explanation. Finally, I felt the return of some characters such as Cici and Taylor were a bit pointless and put in for the sake of the book. Although the brief return of Taylor made sense, the small return of Cici was definitely pointless and I think it was easy to see it was just put in for the sake of it. Although we've come to love the story lines such as Angela finding herself in trouble and having to fix things, I didn't think this particular situation was necessary.
However, over all I did really love the book, just perhaps not as the last book in the series. Understandably there was a lot of pressure being that this is the 5th and final book, but I think Lindsey tried just that little bit too hard. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it wasn't the final one or if it was revealed that a following one would be written, simply because I felt there were too many loose ends and that the characters of Angela and Alex didn't get the impressive ending that they deserved.
