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Is One Truly the Loneliest Number?

I was given a digital copy of One? by Jennifer L. Cahill.  She reached out to me through Twitter, and she was so sweet.  I couldn't wait to dive into her book.💙

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The Plot (From Goodreads):
It's London in the mid-noughties before Facebook, iPhones and ubiquitous wifi.
Zara has just moved to London for her first real job and struggles to find her feet in a big city with no instruction manual. Penelope works night and day in an investment bank with little or no time for love. At twenty-eight she is positively ancient as far as her mother is concerned and the pressure is on for her to settle down as the big 3-0 is looming. Charlie spends night and day with his band who are constantly teetering on the verge of greatness. Richard has relocated to London from his castle in Scotland in search of the one, and Alyx is barely in one place long enough to hold down a relationship let alone think about the future. One? follows the highs and lows of a group of twenty-somethings living in leafy SW4.


This book took awhile for me to get super interested.  Zara is so anxious about moving to London, her job, and even using the transportation that I couldn't help but feel anxious for her.  Anxiety aside, the book reads like a 90's sitcom.  It was completely relatable.  I have been as anxious as Zara was when she loses her job and her life in London is called into question.  I have been 28 year old Penelope, swamped by my job and unwilling to devote time to finding love.  When she decides to settle for Richard, an old friend from University and almost marries him, I cringed.  I know what it is like to feel like you're about to marry the wrong person.  That panic is unlike any other feeling.

Charlie and Alyx both bothered me.  Charlie was nonexistent through the entire book.  He has a couple of paragraphs at the beginning where he's bringing random girls home, and that's it...but he makes this grand gesture at the end of the book.  How can you be so out of the picture and expect that gesture to work?  Alyx was present in the book, but hardly in London with the girls.  I think he made the wrong career decision, along with his love life decision.  I really thought he would end up with the girl he called his "one," and I was disappointed.  I enjoyed the relationships for the most part.  This was a "fun, girly read."  It's a nice palate cleanser compared to my thriller books.  If you need something light that can take your mind off your own problems, I would definitely recommend looking into this book.

🌟🌟🌟🌟/ 5 stars

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