Book Review: No One Wants To Be Miss Havisham by Brigid Coady

Read: December  26-28   Verdict: 3 Stars


I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Edie Dickens has it all as far as she's concerned. A great job doing what she loves - being a shark of a divorce lawyer with a reputation as ice cold and a repertoire of successful cases, a beautiful home and a good income. Edie doesn't need love, marriage or any of the mush that comes with it. It's hard enough having to go to all her friend's weddings and play bridesmaid then have one of her own. Edie thinks life is great until she's visited by the ghost of her old friend Jessica Marley who tells Edie that if she doesn't get her act together and be nicer and thaw out her heart, she's facing an afterlife of misery. Edie is about to be visited by three ghosts and she's not sure if she wants to see what they have to show her.

First off, the whole idea of this story is genius. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol meets chick lit. Yes. Plus the names of the characters just made me so happy - Edie Dickens, Jessica Marley, Timmy, Jack Twist. Yes. I laughed out loud at Edie's ghost chain being made out of glitter boas and penis straws as a sign of all the times she was the sourpuss at the hen parties. Edie was very much a Scrooge. She was cold, calculating and downright mean without seeing what she was doing wrong and it certainly took her a lot of convincing to prove it to her. She is definitely quite hard to like as it does take a while for her to really warm up and much like Jack see, she does crack sometimes and show the softness she's constantly holding back but sh just patched up the crack, said something bitchy and then I was back to hating her.

There were times were I felt like the book was written to give some cheap laughs and not all of it was totally realistic, asides from the whole being haunted by ghosts of weddings thing. I've read my fair share of 'chick lit' and I enjoy it for the most part as I did this book but there were definitely times that I groaned a bit at the cliches. I also felt a bit off at the slight accusation that because Edie didn't believe in marriage, she was an ice queen. I agree that her take on love was very much bitchface but that doesn't mean she has to believe in marriage and babies and all that jazz. And just because she was good at her job didn't mean she was a cold stone bitch too. 

I would have liked more emphasis on Edie's abseil, I felt like the actual event just popped up out of nowhere though maybe this was on purpose to show Edie's lack of thought and proper planning that went with it. An epilogue of how Edie's relationship with Rachel and Jack, not to mention her dad, wouldn't have gone amiss for me either,

I really liked Jack and how steady he was in wanting to see the real Edie. I did feel like the pair were running around in circles at times and it was frustrating but eventually it seemed to settle well enough for me. Overall, a great piece of fun reading with a Dickens' twist!