I absolutely loved this book. I shouldn't, because I'm a bloke and the story's told from the girl's point of view, but I fell in love - or maybe it was lust - with Tansy immediately. I think it was her description of herself as `Rubenesque' that endeared her to me; "Rubenesque is overweight but shaggable because of it. That's my definition anyway .... Lying down naked on a chaise longue, a hand discreetly placed across the crotch, partially draped in a black silk sheet with plump red lips, come-hither green eyes, sumptuous, grabbable boobs and long red hair."
Nicola Yeager has it right. Blokes don't really fancy birds who like Gandhi. We want something to grab hold of!
So why do I like this book so much when it's written from the female point of view? I think it's because for some reason I'm the bloke women come to when they're having problems with their own men. There's a danger I'll get the blame when other couples split up, but women seem to trust me. My wife thinks I attract certain types of women as friends, and that may be true, but I do enjoy their company. I would love having a few drinks with Tansy every now and again. We'd get drunk and she'd share her secrets with me while I'd try and catch a sneaky peek at her cleavage. She'd catch me looking, of course, but she's the type of girl who'd be flattered, and we'd part with a hug, knowing her confidences are safe with me. And I think that's why I like the main character here. Yeager has cleverly characterised her so you feel she's your mate.
Tansy is clearly a little nuts, demonstrated by her stalking of Dr. Jason Campbell - "All of this sounds like I'm stalking ..... what I'm doing is definitely not stalking. Not yet, anyway. I'm not mad" - although when the doctor's taking her shoe off to inspect her injured ankle I'd have expected Tansy, after several Aperol Spritzers, to raise her knee a little higher than necessary to allow the good doctor, who is behaving in an impeccably professional manner, to catch a glimpse of that little white (or black or sky-blue satin) triangle.
Tansy is incorrigible, you see, and that's part of her appeal.
I was surprised at her choice of spag-bol in the Italian restaurant for her first date with Francis. Tansy, for all her kooky ways, is a thinking girl's flirt and she'd be unlikely to choose something with the potential to get messy. I think she'd pick a boring item off the menu, even if she didn't enjoy it, just to ensure she doesn't get anything stuck between her teeth or, worse, end up spitting food across the table at an inappropriate moment. Not that there's ever an appropriate moment to spit food across a table, but you know what I mean.
When all's said and done and you wake up one morning to discover Tansy lying naked under the covers besides you, and you're both a little bit embarrassed because you'd agreed your relationship was purely platonic, you both realise that's no reason not to have one more shag before climbing out of bed and facing the day.
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