The Love Square: The funny, feel-good romantic comedy to escape with this year from the bestselling author of Our Stop

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don't get me wrong. i fully respect women's (and men's) right to sleep with however many different people they want, and all at the same time, for all i care. but i do not respect women (or men) who do so with complete disregard for the feelings of others. if you are enough of an adult to sleep with people, you have to be just as much of an adult about how you do it. that means being respectful and honest (like thomas, a character i didn't particularly enjoy, but the only one who made any sort of sense in this book, in his own way). it is not to say that, even if you are being respectful and honest, that you will not hurt people. you might. but, at least, you will have done all in your power not to. unlike penny bridges, who has "such good intentions" and "doesn't mean to hurt anyone" but has no accountability, no responsibility and never considers anyone's interests or feelings but her own.

There should be clear distinctions between couples. Each couple should be unique in a particularly elaborate way. Some stories focus more on actions and events than character relationships. Think of some thrillers, horror movies, and mystery fiction. Other stories, such as romances and comedies, commonly include love triangles, rectangles, and other romantic geometry. So, consider genre conventions when making your choice.Undoubtedly, Williams’s cast of characters is diverse. Penny’s friends and family are fun and supportive. I liked Sharon and I think Thomas had potential to be the more interesting of boyfriends – it’s a shame neither featured more in the story. Charlie, a colleague working with Penny in Derbyshire, is Williams’s most diverse character and as a gender non-binary, I found myself most surprised to see this representation. My brain struggled to process this (I’m sorry!) and I could not move beyond this. I had the same issues with this book I had with Our Stop. While it’s well-written, it still feels like a giant BuzzFeed article. The jokes didn’t make me laugh, the celebrity name dropping was irritating and it made a book with heavy topics feel surface level. Another entertaining, fast pacing, feel-good, swoony, cute reading makes you smile, gives you positive energy. Even though I decided to give three stars, (mostly I gave those stars to Switzerland-let’s meet in the middle books) I have to admit, it was fun and it relaxed my mood, cleared my mind. These days we need softer, lighter, comfort zone reads for brightening our darker moods! I liked Penny for most of the book, but particularly towards the end, I felt her confidence and independence came across really well, and it showed how her character had developed. I actually didn't really care for any of the three guys, I didn't really find any of their relationships particularly believable, they felt a bit too cliché. I felt like the book was more about Penny and her journey and the "love square" was just a part of that - I think I'd have enjoyed the book more if it had focused on her and made the love interests a bit of a sub-plot.

Generally, a love square is a complicated romantic situation, with all four people involved suffering from indecisiveness and at least one making decisions influenced by infatuation. There isn’t much laugh-out-loud humour in the story but the banter is refreshing and helps break the damp atmosphere. Many issues are running through Penny’s story and this adds depth to something I anticipated being a funny example of women’s fiction. I hope Williams’s other novel is more light-hearted and warming because this one, sadly, to not live up to my expectations. Penny's life has changed drastically in very little time. After all those years of feeling unliked by men, now she needs more free time to spend it with the ones who find her quite interesting and try to know her better. So now Penny is not in a "love triangle", but a "love square", as her friend and workmate says to her. Love squares are nothing new, but they are not like a love triangle (which is sort of an overused and abused trope in both movies and books), so there’s always a higher possibility of a writer coming up with fresh angles.This book started with a prologue, where Penny and Francesco split up against each other's will because Penny is moving to the country and long distance just doesn't work. Then the story began, following Penny, 30, a cook and an owner of a cafe, told in the third person point of view. Survivor of breast cancer at 25, she's feeling low that she hadn't had a real relationship in 5 years. Her last serious boyfriend left when she was diagnosed with cancer just like her father bailed out on her mother. Finding love and trusting someone could love her was a big issue. She also has plans for herself, something she really wanted but she had to put it aside when her uncle took ill. Life was full of challenges and choices. Readers will get the alternative view from Francesco, but not every other chapter. The story concluded with an epilogue. No, I did not finish the book. I began to skim more and more and it seemed pointless. I didn’t care about the outcome. (I’ve now found some spoilers and I can’t quite believe I wasted my time on reading as much as I did.) The pacing. Slow parts that are irrelevant, fast parts that you'd rather read about. I grew bored with this by about 30% and stopped caring who she was going to end up with. It is the same thing when it comes to writing a great love square or love rectangle. After all, every writer wants to pour their imagination, not just follow a set of rules or guidelines written but someone else.