Ready or Not?

Caddy has emotional and physical scars from a past relationship – so it is scary when actor and devoted cat owner, Dan, shows an interest.

‘is one of the best #Irish #novels this year’ (when first published) a review from THE HERALD ‘a great book, the best I have read in a long time” 5* ‘Thought-provoking, original and hugely enjoyable’ KATIE FFORDE ‘ideal #light #reading’ 5* ‘all seasoned with zest…’ RTE Guide ‘trip to Greece is steeped in olives and jasmine, cicadas and sunshine’ #romance #families #healing #reading

READY OR NOT? SYNOPSIS

Sometimes you’ve got to forgive the person you were to be the person you can be….
click on image to view at amazon.co.uk
Ready or Not How do you find the faith to love again? Take Caddy. She’s blonde and beautiful, and has a wonderful man who loves her….what could be more perfect? And yet she’s running away from him, and from a secret and painful past.

Then there’s feisty, tender Roz who has to make corn cream commercials sound romantic and who yearns to be a writer. That’s after she finds a man and has a baby, of course… She can’t help feeling it was all meant to be easier.

And Tom who dreams of being a famous photographer but who ends up selling mobile phones and thinking about the son he never sees.

Not to mention gorgeous Dan, a famous actor…He only wants Caddy…. Why doesn’t she want him?

Four star-crossed people in a Dublin summer, with a match-making mother to spice up the sometimes poignant and sometimes hilarious tale even further. Should they all settle for less, taking life’s little disappointments on the chin, or chase their dreams of love and happiness? The question is, are they ready for it, or not?

REVIEW EXTRACTS

‘…this is one of the best Irish novels this year…The trip to Greece is steeped in olives and jasmine, cicadas and sunshine…readers will love the local gigolo, Dimitri. Grace writes with great humour…On a more serious note, her portrayal of friendship, commitment and the complexity of relationships is very real and most enjoyable.’ Evening Herald

‘I am a forty eight year old woman who loves books and I have read zillions in my life. My husband has never heard me laugh out loud as much or cried as I read “Ready or not”. It was a fabulous read and I am now an avid fan of yours. So sad when the book ended but ready for the next one. Wonderful and beautifully written.’ Website Comment

Love, remarks Grace Wynne-Jones in her latest tilt at romance….is like the Tour de France; heightened expectations and then the riders sweep by in seconds. The romantic progress in and out of bed…is chartered with wit and style by Grace Wynne-Jones through the age of MacDonalds, nightclub encounters, Continental train propositions, angst-ridden parental relationships, turbulence on land and in the air and the restorative powers of bridge.’ Mayo News

‘At times poignant and hilarious…’ Mourne Observer & County Down News

‘One summer; four people on the cusp of change in a Dublin that’s throwing them up choices they never knew they had. Gorgeous Caddy and her secret, smart but lonely Roz, Tom who’s always settled for less, movie-star Dan who’s sizing up Caddy’s restlessness like a barometer. Paths cross, dreams stretch and pop: all seasoned with zest…’ RTE Guide

‘A lively story woven round the lives of four creative Dubliners and the tangled mess they have made of their love lives…the humour leaps off the page and ping-pongs like rapid fire between the characters. When they’re not jibbing with each other, they’re tearing each other’s clothes off!’ U Magazine

‘The story,.at times poignant, at times embarrassingly funny, keeps you interested right to the end…This is the perfect summer read.’ Woman’s Way

‘Another bitter-sweet comedy of manners by popular Irish novelist and broadcaster, Grace Wynne-Jones, set mainly in today’s smart, rapidly changing Dublin, this amiable novel charts the follies, struggles and dreams of five people who, during one crazy summer, mature to a better understanding of themselves and what they really need.

It has a witty sense of the absurd, media-fed images which haunt the young professionals, yet its trigger is a photograph capturing a deep and devastating truth. A major motif is that gap between an older generation, whose conventional roots restrain them from communicating even with one another, and their ‘freer’ young – a gap which Caddy’s mother tries to bridge with injudicious matchmaking and gifts of Irish linen. This is probably rightly seen as a woman’s novel (not an adolescent’s, despite the gooey, pastel cover!). The friendship between warm, wary Caddy and apparently cynical Roz is at its heart, but the character and feelings of Tom are perceptively explored, although the idealised Dan is only really seen through the eyes of others. The new choices and patterns of relationships available to the metropolitan young, which seem to separate the generations, are revealed as superficial. Love was not straightforward in any age, and, perhaps loving is not so different either – not a matter of sexual skills but of ‘small civilities’ and the capacity to imagine what it is like to be the other. Grace Wynne-Jones has a good ear for plausible dialogue, but her rarer gift is the ability to be very funny without her characters losing sympathy or credibility. Caroline Clark (Full review)
A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

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