Normal Dating by Jan Caston

A fun read that is poignant, relatable and told with a fresh voice.

Love is in the air at Olivia’s dinner party … until the booze takes over and Vera passes out. 
Who is this Ambrose everyone’s talking about? Vera can’t even remember him being there…
… she can remember all her fellow diners moaning about how difficult it is to meet someone nice nowadays…
… and she knows only too well how hard her own daughter is finding it to get onto the dating ladder…
… even Olivia, the Town Gossip, is suspiciously silent about her own love life. What’s she keeping so secret?
Is it that the dress shop she runs with her sister, Angelina, is in deep financial trouble?
Or is it something far more serious?
When Olivia comes up with a crazy plan to open The Normal Dating Agency to save the dress shop going under – and she convinces Vera that she is the ideal person to run it – none of the three friends anticipate where love will strike next…
… but that’s what happens with NORMAL DATING.

This is a fun, often poignant book about love, loss and new beginnings. We meet Vera after the death of her husband, out at a friend’s house during a riotous dinner party that sets the tone for the rest of the book. Being widowed is hard and this book manages to show the pain and confusion that bereavement brings, while at the same time being funny and uplifting.

It’s a fun story with the age old theme of the search for love at its heart. The characters are well rounded and easily relatable. I can think of a fair few like Vera, Olivia and Angelina that I know in my life.

The author, Jan Caston, has an original voice, and it’s refreshing to read something for this romance genre that shows an ‘older’ woman as a real, full-blooded creature and not some demure shadow of herself. Good writing and a cracking storyline.

Star Rating: 9