I love Freya’s novels – usual light, full of quirky heroines and with recurring themes of intense female friendship and lots of lovely rude sex, they are nearly always on my summer reading list.In a departure from tradition, “Love Rules” breaks away from her conventional formula of concentrating on a single heroine and instead studies the more complex relationships of four friends – Alice, Thea, Mark and Saul. Alice and Thea are best friends, and following a string of temporary, miserable relationships with unsuitable men, Alice decides that now is the time to get married – to Mark, her best, most supportive, dependable male friend. Mark has always been in love with her and it seems that together their life will be easy – they are independently wealthy, solid in their trust of one another and together, they makes sense. Once the honeymoon period is over, however, Alice begins to thirst for more than what staid, square Mark and their perfect wedding china can offer, which causes issues in her relationship with Thea, who thinks that she’s foolish for risking everything she has.Thea meets Saul unexpectedly and by chance and they fall in love. However, Saul is hiding something – a dark secret activity which he has partaken in for years – this is really the meat of the story and the skilful way Freya navigates us through the difficult emotive twists and turns is mature and unexpected. Freya utilises her usual storytelling tool of questioning her characters from outside of the story to great effect and although her usual effervescent, chatty style remains in place, this is a more grown up offering, still retaining classic Freya humour, warmth and her natural, realistic writing style but with more power, more oomph. I would recommend this to fans of Freya’s work unequivocally. It’s a change of pace for her, but it is a triumph.
I don't read much chick lit, but I bought this in a bind up for $2.00. This read like your general book in this genre, but towards the end I realized that this story had suprised me in a very specific way.There is a major twist involving the Saul/Thea characters (don't worry, I won't give any spoilers; nothing more than what's said in the synopsis). The twist isn't what surprised me, but the RESULT of the twist did. I was expecting things to get wrapped up in a much neater way, because, well, this is chick lit right?This made me realize that I shouldn't be so judgmental when it comes to books, particularly of this genre. I'm not saying that I'm going to become a major chick lit fan, but I'll probably won't be so reticent to read more of it in the future.
What do You think about Love Rules (2015)?
Initial am fost putin sceptica in ceea ce privea aceasta carte. Face parte din colectia Romance de la Polirom, din care am citit 2 carti care nu mi-au placut in mod special. Una din ele era de aceeasi autoare, deci un alt motiv pentru a incepe cu cateva indoieli. Insa inca de la primele pagini am fost placut surprinsa sa descopar ca defapt este o carte bunicica, deloc siropoasa, si care nu te induce in stari de plictiseala sau mai rau, intr-o stare de apatie, o lipsa de chef si o dorinta de a lasa-o neterminata pentru urmatoarele cateva luni (fapt ce mi se intampla adesea cu anumite carti). Desi sunt inca la inceput, am asteptari de la aceasta carte si sper sa fie la inaltimea lor. Ma astept sa gasesc umor si cateva idei interesante despre viata si dragoste.O recomand celor care nu cauta un roman solicitant dar nici o carte de consum - categoria de lectura potrivita, nici prea grea de inteles dar nici derizorie.
—Andreea
I have just been more and more disappointed with Freya North's books lately. This book actually got me really annoyed and unhappy with life, myself and all the characters in this novel. I thought everyone was frustrating and they should all be miserable forever, except maybe the one person most punished in the end. So, why did I give it 2 stars instead of 1? Maybe I'm a fool but I didn't think it was that awful, given how good a writer North is. She does have a bizarre way with the characters switching to 1st person at odd moments, but she is a smooth writer with a nice tone. This book just didn't hit the mark for me.
—Tricia
It has some nice catch phrases about love and desire that you will remember long after you read the book, but the story itself is boring, cliché and frankly very sexist. It completely undermines feminism, as the female characters may appear strong and modern to a reader who isn't paying much attention. But this a sad depiction of women living in a clearly patriarchal rape culture type of society, where "men are men" becomes and acceptable excuse and guilt is relative according to the gender. Just.... No.
—Filipa Pedroso
