Pear Shaped by Stella Newman

f you found yourself glued to David Nicholls's One Day or belting out the lyrics to Amy Winehouse's Back to Black then you'll love this book. Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy. Girl loses mind. Sophie Klein walks into a bar one Friday night and her life changes. She meets James Stephens: charismatic, elusive, and with a hosiery model ex who casts a long, thin shadow over their burgeoning relationship. He's clever, funny and shares her greatest pleasure in life -- to eat and drink slightly too much and then have a little lie down. Sophie's instinct tells her James is too good to be true -- and he is. An exploration of love, heartbreak, self-image, self-deception and lots of food. Pear-Shaped is in turns smart, laugh-out-loud funny and above all, recognisable to women everywhere.

The debut novel by Stella Newman and one which I enjoyed reading. It was a light, easy read but full of humour, love and gorgeous sounding food. It is not one to read if you are on a diet as the main character is a product developer for desserts in a large food supermarket chain.

The main character, Sophie, finds love with sock businessman James Stephens, however it does not run smoothly. James seems to be someone who decides when and where they will meet and not caring for Sophie in the same way she does about him. He believes money talks and throws money at the relationship with wacky gifts and even asks her to design his kitchen, but he even has to put extra money into that for a overpriced and overlarge fridge. Sophie was supposed to be moving in following the new kitchen but this falls through and Sophie is left heartbroken and takes solace in food - but her life and job take a back seat. 

I did enjoy the book, however I took an instant dislike to James - he seemed to be one of those men who knows he makes lots of money and needs to throw it at anything he wants and did not show his true feelings to Sophie, was very cagey over emotions. I did however like Sophie and thought that she was a great lead character and did represent alot of women (and men) in the world who seeks solace in sweet food. Throughout the book I was constantly wanting Sophie to walk away from James and I was very happy with how the book ended, in more ways than one.

I really enjoyed Stella's writing style and it was an easy book to pick up and read a few chapters. I particularly loved the chapters set around Sophie's work - the descriptions were mouthwatering and I found the food tasting sessions in her obvious very funny, although I wouldn't like to sit opposite her nose picking boss! 

The front cover of this book is perfect - it depicts the story very well and the food is a major part of the book. It reflects the issues many people have with food and at times of heartbreak, nothing else will do! 

This book would be a great suggestion for a feel good read, when you want an easy read, that will make you laugh but also has a love story involved, although not the 'and they all live happily ever after'. 

Thank you to the publishers for sending me the book to review.