The Split by Laura Kay
Lesbian rom-com, mostly set in Yorkshire and includes a cat. What's not to love? I mentioned in September that I'd bought The Split after seeing Laura Kay at a Stay-at-Home litfest session on romantic comedy novels but hadn't read it yet. Well, now I have and it was great.
Unemployed teacher Ally's been ditched by the love of her life in London, so she packs a change of clothes and the cat and crawls home to her dad in Sheffield. Much as she'd love to wallow while she waits for Emily to realise how much she misses the cat (and hopefully Ally), her dad's not about to let that happen. It seems her childhood friend Jeremy's crawled back home after heartbreak too and their respective parents figure they might cheer each other up as well as get each other out of the house. Reluctant at first, they soon fall back into their old groove and of course Ally's going to sign up for the half-marathon in solidarity when Jeremy decides that's the way to get his boyfriend back. Happily, though the training might well kill her, Ally's at least found an attractive young running coach but she's probably straight. Isn't she?
The tagline was, 'The laugh-out-loud read we all need right now'. I don't normally trust 'laugh out loud…' quotes, in fact it's often enough to put me off, but I genuinely did laugh out loud a fair few times. This was the easy-to-read rom com I was looking for all those weeks ago. It was much more me than The Cornish Cream Tea Bus and not only because I'm bisexual and not very feminine. It was full of normal people who work in shops, schools, a call centre, and go to old man pubs and chip shops. They regularly travel by bus, and when Ally leaves London she does so by train not car, in fact it's mentioned later that she can't drive. Training for a half-marathon doesn't magically make them fit, slim, healthy and happy. And of course it's set in Yorkshire.
The one downside is that Ally turns out to be an irresponsible cat-owner, which has put my other half off reading it. On the whole though I zipped through and really enjoyed it. More than anything, it was a real affirmation of friendship.
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