Lucy Dillon

I was delighted to win an advance copy of Unexpected Lessons in Love on Twitter as I have wanted to read a Lucy Dillon book for some time. What an amazing introduction to this fabulous author. I have to say that I half expected an overdose of romantic hearts and flowers but I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of sloppy slushiness.

Jeannie and Dan appear to have the perfect relationship; they're a couple in love hurtling towards married life after Dan surprised Jeannie with a romantic show more proposal. The only problem is they haven't known each other long enough to find out everything about each other. Once they are engaged, their time is taken up with wedding preparations rather than learning everything they need to know about each other. Jeannie learns her lesson the hard way as this fact finally hits her: how can she marry Dan when she doesn't even know him? Good on her for being brave enough to trust her gut and voice her concern, although her timing could have been better.

The aftermath of the non-wedding is where I completely fell in love with the storyline, thanks to a handful of rescued dogs and puppies. The dogs really stole the show (and my heart) as Lucy Dillon touches on the plight of dogs in puppy farms. The effect on the dogs is horrific, especially when they are naturally social animals. It is Jeannie's new friend, Rachel, who runs a charity to look after rescued dogs but Rachel is seriously lacking funds to take care of this new intake and she can't possibly turn them away. Jeannie and Rachel, together with Natalie from the animal shelter, come up with an amazing fundraising idea and as donations come pouring in, the stories that accompany them really put a smile on my face.

Not that it ever disappeared completely (there's just too many books and not enough time), but Lucy Dillon has reawakened my love of romantic/women's fiction. Unexpected Lessons in Love is a fabulously heartwarming book with a riveting storyline that takes the reader in a completely unexpected direction. I absolutely loved it and, having been immersed in the crime and thriller genre for so long, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. show less

This book had one of the great love stories I have ever read...between a dog and its owner. Seriously, the relationship that builds between Gina and the timid greyhound she reluctantly adopts is filled with small and genuine moments and a final triumph that made me reach for my tissues. And I'm a cat person!

The rest of the book is strong as well, if a bit slow at times. As Gina struggles to define the most meaningful items in her life, she gradually realizes that it's the moments that count show more more than the things. Through flashbacks that show her relationships with her first love, ex-husband, best friend and mother, Gina learns to be more self-accepting and more forgiving of others as well.

The only sour note in the book is Gina's relationship with Nick, her married client. Although Gina and Nick do not technically behave inappropriately, the wife is portrayed as a one-dimensional self-obsessed shrew who doesn't seem to deserve the compassion that Gina displays towards everyone else.

Readers who are familiar with Jojo Moyes' Me Before You might be alarmed by the author's endorsement of A Hundred Pieces of Me. While the ending is nowhere near as devastating, it is bittersweet at best. I chose to cast it in a hopeful light but others may be less optimistic. show less

When my grandmother started moving into progressively smaller places, she had to decide what was most important for her to keep. She chose the things that mattered the most to her, that said something about who she was and the life she'd lived. As I look around my own house, I wonder what I'd let go first, what second, and what I would hold onto as forever meaningful to me, even if it looked insignificant to someone else. This letting go and moving on with only that which is meaningful is show more the premise of Lucy Dillon's newest novel, A Hundred Pieces of Me.

Gina finished treatment for her breast cancer with her stalwart husband beside her. Then the two of them renovated a beautiful historic home and Gina started her own preservation business helping others to jump through all of the many and confusing hoops that the conservation folks require. Somewhere in there though, something in their marriage went sadly awry and Gina discovers that her heretofore steady husband Stuart has been having an affair. In divorcing, Stuart leaves almost all of their possessions with Gina, who is moving into a small, modern flat that is her clean slate. Taking a page out of a book her best friend Naomi gave her, Gina determines to weed things out of her life, keeping only the one hundred most important things, starting over unburdened.

Initially Gina is overwhelmed by all of her possessions and as she unpacks certain pieces conjure up memories for her. But she must purge and she even starts to take great joy in lightening herself up. The things she chooses to keep are varied and interesting in their very pedestrian nature. It is in the midst of letting go of so many of her things that she comes to acquire Buzz, an abandoned greyhound who is as fragile and in need of a new life as Gina herself is. While Gina is building that new life, she also takes on a large, time-consuming project, shepherding a dilapidated but once gracious listed home through renovations for a gorgeous and kind photographer and his high powered wife to use as a weekend getaway from London.

The novel's narrative moves back and forth in time, slowly revealing Gina's past and the tragedy in it for which she still blames herself and then unspooling her present and the ways in which she is growing and coming to embrace life and goodness. Chapters are headed with the description of an object from Gina's boxes. Each thing she uncovers adds to her past story, that of a young Gina newly in love with first boyfriend Kit, of the Gina who wanted to know more about her father, of the Gina who lived with her difficult mother and her low-key but loving step-father, and of the Gina who married Stuart, before returning to the present and moving forward in the new life she's slowly building for herself.

The story is a charming one, thought-provoking, and full of emotion. As Gina lets go of the past, the reader too must think about how you determine what to hold onto and what to let go. The overarching theme of focusing on what is important in life, in possessions, people, and moments, is well-illustrated and threads throughout Gina's story. Gina learns, with help, to live in the moment rather than collecting it through things and to search out and find those moments that bring her joy. The characters are generally appealing, especially Gina, Nick, and Naomi, the major characters. Even Stuart is not a complete villain although Gina does come to forgive him rather easily. Some of the plot twists are a bit predictable and the ending is fairly unresolved. The conceit of Gina keeping only one hundred things is dropped fairly early on. And although Gina acknowledges that she has stopped keeping this up, it is still a shame that it wasn't carried through. The idea of a wall of Polaroid photos of the things that bring her joy, which replaces the one hundred things she's keeping, is a nice one but, on the whole, not quite as intriguing. Over all though, this is a lovely women's fiction novel, one that reminds us of the way life can change on a dime and that we are not defined by our things but by the way we live our lives and our memories and moments instead. show less

'Betty Dunlop non temeva la morte ma in fondo non aveva temuto la Luftwaffe, la guerra fredda, la minaccia di un inverno nucleare, la salmonella, il colesterolo o uno qualsiasi dei suoi tre orrendi mariti'. Betty ha novantatrè anni e solo un breve spazio all'inizio del libro, ma Betty rappresenta il coraggio e resta nel cuore.
In questo libro Lucy Dillon ci insegna ad amare la vita e a superare la morte, che della vita fa parte, dando il meglio di noi stessi. Ciò che ne emerge è l'amore in show more moltissime forme: per gli amici, la famiglia inclusi i cani, la comunità, l'arte e il lavoro a maglia. L'amore romantico pervade il libro, ma solo alla fine ne conosceremo i risvolti. Un piccolo capolavoro che si legge volentieri e ci fa amare un po' di più ciò che stiamo facendo. show less