Talking to Addison

My Very '90's Romance by Jenny Colgan is a quirky yet somewhat lackluster novel.

Twenty-eight year old Holly Livingstone has terrible luck with roommates. She finally ends up living with college mates Josh and Kate and computer geek and recluse Addison Farthing. Holly is a barely employed florist whereas Kate is a hard-working, successful businesswoman and Josh has a cushy job in the family business. Holly is fascinated by Addison who rarely leaves his room (or the house for that matter) and she basically forces herself on him by intruding on him without invitation. After meeting some of Kate's workmates, Holly hits it off Finn but she cannot give up on trying to coax Addison into a relationship. Kate is dating disaster who always winds show more up dating married men and Josh is trying to figure out his sexuality.

What seems like a recipe for madcap fun quickly descends into ridiculous, over-the-top unrealistic situations and offensive humor. Outside of Finn and Addison, none of the characters are particularly likable. Holly is incredibly immature and her snarky sense of humor becomes tedious. Josh and Kate are mostly innocuous but they lack dimension. Certain scenes are downright ludicrous and would never happen in real life. My Very '90's Romance is absolutely nothing like Jenny Colgan's more serious novels and it was a struggle to finish this latest release (which seems to be a re-named re-release of Talking to Addison). show less

You can always depend on Jenny Colgan to bring a great story with fun characters who will give you a laugh as they tell their stories. This novel is full of a motley crew of characters: main character Holly who is trying to find her place in the world while she finds a boyfriend is working as a florist. She moves in with three other people - Josh - a banker unsure of his sexuality, Kate - a lawyer who is also a bit of a bitch and Addison who never leaves his room and his computers. As this group of acquaintances works to become friends, there is some pain but a lot of laughs along the way. Though I am a bit too old to understand what the characters were going through, I still enjoyed this book.

NOTE: This is a re-issue of a 2010 book show more TALKING TO ADDISON. show less

Although the protagonist is too abrasive to be likeable this is an enjoyable witty novel about an underachieving florist sharing a flat with high-flying friends from her university. She falls for the eponymous reclusive stranger in the fourth bedroom and sets out to woo him. THe humour of the book is all in individual phrases rather than in any plot developments.

Really cute book, but not as good as it could've been. I loved the supporting characters and the plot. The biggest surprise was the ending. It totally through me off.

I gave up halfway through. She worries in the introduction that younger readers may not understand about the 90's. Well I'm an older reader who knows that this sort of thing has gone on in every generation, but I was always able to avoid it.

Somehow got fooled into trying again. No!!!!!

WOW! WOW! WOW! MAN! Darn UK/US publishers changing titles on me! I'd read this! Oh man. I read this in May 2016, and had zero idea until just now when I came to log reading this again in August, 2019. What a world. But that also explains why Addison felt SO familiar and why I was trying to figure out what movie there had been a character just like him in. Man, my memory sucks.

That demonstrates how forgettable this was, I suppose. My thoughts pre-internet were that this was absolutely ridiculous and I adored it, so nothing noteworthy at all I guess.

not often a computer star trek geek is a drop dead hunk of a man but this one is only he's in his own world, very funny book