The Birds and The Bees - Milly Johnson

...to read them! So when the library called to say that they had got this book in for me at last, it sent it straight to the top of my list as obviously I have to read library books straight away! After reading this authors debut novel 'The Yorkshire Pudding Club' and loving it, I was really looking forward to reading this and enjoying it as much as the first one!

The Birds and The Bees , I'll start with saying, is actually a Scottish ...
...title! It tells the tale of Stevie Honeywell, a romance writer who lives with her fiance Matthew and son Danny. However, Stevie's life is shattered when Adam MacLean bursts into her life one afternoon with proof that her beloved Matthew has been having an affair with his lady, Jo. The pair decide they want their partners back, and set up a plan to get them back in their arms again.

The plot sounded quite interesting, although nothing ... more

I have an enormous To-Be-Read pile of books in my bedroom, but I can't seem to stop getting other books from my library when I desperate to read them! So when the library called to say that they had got this book in for me at last, it sent it straight to the top of my list as obviously I have to read library books straight away! After reading this authors debut novel 'The Yorkshire Pudding Club' and loving it, I was really looking forward to reading this and enjoying it as much as the first one!

The Birds and The Bees , I'll start with saying, is actually a Scottish dance, and this appears in the book, hence the books title! It tells the tale of Stevie Honeywell, a romance writer who lives with her fiance Matthew and son Danny. However, Stevie's life is shattered when Adam MacLean bursts into her life one afternoon with proof that her beloved Matthew has been having an affair with his lady, Jo. The pair decide they want their partners back, and set up a plan to get them back in their arms again.

The plot sounded quite interesting, although nothing incredibly new, but I started reading, looking forward to the story that was going to unfold throughout the book. The main character through the story is Stevie, a really likeable person, and she is very well written by Milly Johnson. I did find her obsession with Matthew a tad annoying in places, but you can understand that she loves him and just wants him back again. Although she was overall a nice character, there were parts of the book, especially those involving Adam, where I thought she wasn't so nice and I found myself getting annoyed at her there.

What made me laugh in the book was the character of Adam, he had an incredibly broad Scottish accent (and it was written like that in the book too!) so it was hard to understand him at points. But he did translate his words for Stevie, and the raport between the two at these points made me laugh! I didn't expect to like Adam, but I actually did and thought he was a great character.Other character include the horrid and manipulative Jo, wimpy Matthew, Stevie's bevt friend Catherine and her husband Eddie, and of course Stevie's son Danny aka Dannyman!

The book was written in the third person, so is told like a story. Most of the book follows Stevie and her feelings but it does deviate occasionally to follow Adam, Catherine and the cheating idiots that are Matthew and Jo. The authors narrative is very easy to read and make for very pleasant reading, which I think is what appeals to me about her books. I dislike books that I feel I have to work at, I just want to be able to read and enjoy, and Milly Johnson's two novels have delivered on that for me without a doubt. One thing which did particularly stand out for me was the incredibly well written relationship between Stevie and Danny, the author has picked up on the close mother-son bond so well, and is completely believable and quite touching in parts!

As I said, the main story is nothing really new, a woman being cheated on by a man but it is the plan to get the two couples back together in the end that made this book a bit different for me. The story moved at a good pace, not too quickly, but it didn't drag on either. The author paused to go into more detail for important areas, and was therefore able to skim over things which didn't matter so much, and this balanced out the story quite well. I found myself not wanting to put it down in the evening because I just wanted to find out what was going to happen next, and if it was all going to work out in the end!

The book is most definitely in the chick-lit genre of novels, but for me is definitely at the upper end of the scale! It is a lovely story, with a fantastic narrative that grabs you in and makes you want to keep reading and not want to put it down. The characters were great with Adam and Stevie being likeable, normal people, to the awful Matthew and Jo who although were awful, made for fun reading! I'd say this is definitely anothre triumph for Milly Johnson, and I can't wait for her next one! A superb book I'd recommend to anyone who loves a great read!

ISBN: 978-1416525912. Published in February 2008 by Pocket Books. The book has 448 pages, and is available on Amazon.co.uk for the price of £5.49 or on the Marketplace for £3.00. (RRP is £6.99). For more information on the author and her other novel, see her website www.millyjohnson.co.uk.

Thank you for reading! 

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