Review: The One Who's Not the One

The One Who's Not the One by Keris Stainton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Five years ago Cat had it all, the boyfriend, the promising career in stand-up comedy. Then Sam, her boyfriend went to Australia and didn't invite her. Since then she's given up on the stand-up comedy. she flat shares with 'The One Who Eats All My Food' and 'The One Who Has Really Loud Sex', she has a job she despises (and that pays a pittance) and she hasn't had sex in two years.

Then one day, travelling home on the tube (train), she sees an article about Sam in the London Metro (newspaper), he's back from Australia, still doing stand-up comedy, and getting good reviews. Obsessed by the one that got away (just one in a long list of people that have left Cat), Cat stalks Sam on Facebook and google and is determined to see his show, especially once she finds out it is entitled 'Cat Amongst the Pigeons' - is that a reference to her? Is his show all about her?

At Sam's show Cat runs into his younger brother Harvey, and then again when she takes her best friend Kelly's little boy to see Father Christmas at John Lewis.

Then sexy Nick at work announces he is moving to the new office in New York and asks Cat to join him - suddenly Cat has three potential beaus - which one will she choose?

I liked this, it was very down-to-earth, very realistic, this is the way that women talk to each other about men and relationships and sex (and willys). However, I did think that this was both very British and very 'of the moment' with references to current events which may make the book less accessible to readers from outside the UK and readers in a few years' time.

The book started a bit slowly for me, so much so that I stopped reading after a few chapters and reread the blurb, worried that I was reading a different book (easy to do when you have a TBR pile as big as mine) but it soon picked up again. reminiscent of Bridget Jones (without the dear diary entries) it was amusing and a fun read. My only criticism was that the ending was a bit too sudden (even with an epilogue) I would have liked there to have been more of a build up to the end.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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