Quiet Night In Aphrodite's workshop for reluctant lovers Marika Cobbold Love Happens Soldier of Love Sade Missing You Louise Douglas
R E V I E W S
QUIET� N I G HT IN
Chick lit
with a real
love lesson
Aphrodite’s Workshop For Reluctant
Lovers by Marika Cobbold; out 14 Feb;
£7.99, Bloomsbury A novel about
a romantic-fiction writer with a
nonexistent love life released
in time for Valentine’s Day. So far,
so cliche. But alongside the
typical reality-dodging fluff,
Aphrodite’s Workshop does actually
have some valuable things to
say about the struggle to secure
independence while searching for
a partner, the pitfalls of a toxic relationship
and living with OCD. Avoiding the triteness
of the rest of her genre, Aphrodite’s Workshop
is less about happy endings and more about
what you do when things don’t work out quite
the way you planned.
The book starts with Rebecca Finch losing
her faith in love. She’s left her pig-headed
gallery owner boyfriend, been offered the best
advance of her life but now has writer’s block.
Unbeknownst to her, though, Rebecca’s fate
is being taken care of by a much higher order…
Up on Mount Olympus, Aphrodite is tearing
her hair out. The human race seems incapable
of love and the one person she had high hopes
for, the lovely Rebecca Finch, is losing her faith.
����WWW�STYLIST�CO�UK
Stylist’s
book of the
week
With a little help from her son Eros, Aphrodite
embarks on a bit of divine intervention.
Funny, poignant and above all, relatable,
Cobbold’s affable and easy style is distinctive.
The best bits are those where Rebecca,
searching for inspiration for her next book,
interviews couples about their relationships.
These interludes are affecting and strangely
cathartic. Above all else though, this book has
a sense of humour, which, in the season of love
is not to be sniffed at. It might not improve your
IQ but it will improve your commute.
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DVD
LOVE HAPPENS
Out now, £11.99, hmv.co.uk
A good rom-com should contain
at least one of the following:
Jennifer Aniston, a charming
yet elusive leading man and a
kooky best friend. Luckily Love
Happens has them all, making it
the perfect film to stay in with.
Going out is so 2009.
MISSING YOU BY
LOUISE DOUGLAS
Out 12 Feb; £6.99, Pan Macmillan
A single mother and a newly
heartbroken man are thrown
together – their love bound by
a haunting secret which threatens
to tear them apart. A bewitching
story that will tug your heartstrings
from beginning to end.
MUSIC
SOLDIER OF LOVE BY SADE
Out 8 Feb, £8.98, amazon.co.uk
Sade hasn’t released an album in
10 years, making the buzz around
this album audible worldwide.
Sade, now 51, is fiercely protective
of her privacy and admits she only makes music when she
has something to say. And it’s clear from Soldier Of Love
that she does. With 50 million record sales to her name
already little doubt this will be a huge smash.
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BOOK
WORDS��AMY�GRIER
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