Carol Cooper (6)

Carol Cooper gives us a diverse group of singles from every walk of London life and facing a variety of personal challenges. There’s the housewife who answers questions of would be suitors with disinterest parroting the answers her children might give to their questions. There’s the man looking for a break in the loneliness and desperation of his inevitable expiration date as a result of cancer. There’s that man’s former girlfriend a looking for love idealist looking to manipulate show more her way into a man’s heart using her body. Cooper wisely formats her book so that we are essentially getting flash dates of our own with the souls of the characters.

There’s a reason for Cooper’s disclaimer at the end of the novel that none of the characters are based on people living or dead – these characters are real and wholly realized. Often novels of their type fall down on dialogue not so in the case of “One Night at the Jacaranda.” Cooper has a background in psychology and puts that knowledge to good use in forming characters that react to and interact with environmental stimuli. Cooper’s story moves forward at rapid fire pace rotating between the characters leaving no story line unresolved and no character flaw left underdeveloped.

“One Night at the Jacaranda” is expertly edited and polished. There is very little fat and filler on this storyline. Most of what we learn about these characters is essential to our understanding of them. Sanjay and Laure’s first meeting in the book is tense and involves Sanjay blurting his condition and banal discussion about how the cat hadn’t grown out of its vomiting problem. In that moment we have a clear picture of the intimacy they once shared with the complication of that interaction yet to be uncovered.

“One Night at the Jacaranda” is enjoyable, well written and sure to satisfy readers who like contemporary fiction. show less

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fun tale of single life in London and what some will try to find someone to spend their lives with…..or for some a distraction from their boring life, or even a little research. Whichever you choose, speed dating is a great way to meet many potential dates in a short period of time! Who wouldn't like their first date (especially the bad ones) to be mere minutes!
This is a fun book with another twist to the hard life of dating, to be show more specific with this one Speed Dating! This is my first story on Speed dating, but it was well written and easy to picture how it all works. The story starts with all the main characters meeting at a speed dating event and go on to tell their stories. Sanjay, Laura, Harriet, Dan, and Karen and Geoff, telling each of their stories and how meeting each other affects their lives- all of them being from different walks of life and having far different stories.
This is a fast pace story that successful gives you a sneak peek into many different lives and how many people feel desperation when stuck in the dating games. The story opens one’s eyes to how lonely and sad many in their 30’s feel when trying to get through all of the dating woe’s, as well as how many skimp on honesty when trying to date.
This was a fun read for me and quite different from most books on reading. The author is well written and her characters are developed well enough to make it easy to relate to them and their stories. I recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively light romance story. show less

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.

A fun tale of single life in London and what some will try to find someone to spend their lives with…..or for some a distraction from their boring life, or even a little research. Whichever you choose, speed dating is a great way to meet many potential dates in a short period of time! Who wouldn't like their first date (especially the bad ones) to be mere minutes!
This is a fun book with another twist to the hard life of dating, to be show more specific with this one Speed Dating! This is my first story on Speed dating, but it was well written and easy to picture how it all works. The story starts with all the main characters meeting at a speed dating event and go on to tell their stories. Sanjay, Laura, Harriet, Dan, and Karen and Geoff, telling each of their stories and how meeting each other affects their lives- all of them being from different walks of life and having far different stories.
This is a fast pace story that successful gives you a sneak peek into many different lives and how many people feel desperation when stuck in the dating games. The story opens one’s eyes to how lonely and sad many in their 30’s feel when trying to get through all of the dating woe’s, as well as how many skimp on honesty when trying to date.
This was a fun read for me and quite different from most books on reading. The author is well written and her characters are developed well enough to make it easy to relate to them and their stories. I recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively light romance story. show less