Review: The Single Dad's Handbook

The Single Dad's Handbook by Lynsey James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Evan harper's wife Claire died of cancer two years ago. Since then he's been trying to run his business (escorting haunted tours of Edinburgh) and look after his five year old daughter Violet. Except he's not doing well, in fact he's on the brink of breakdown, but all his friends and family seem to want him to do is move on and start dating again.

Violet's first day at school does not go well and in desperation Evan unearths the handwritten book of letters that Claire prepared in advance of her death. Carefully annotated with post-it notes to cover eventualities such as Violet's first day at school, right through to puberty and moving on, the letters are in turns touching and funny.

Then Evan's best friend Hannah returns to Scotland after travelling the world since shortly after Claire's death, she too encourages him to move on and to create a Tinder account, which creates some of the most humorous parts of the book.

Like other reviews I have read, I felt that Claire's letters were touching (very much in the style of P.S. I Love You although she appeared to be obnoxiously knowledgeable and serene, how would she know exactly what to do on Violet's first day when this was their only child? However, I personally found the attitude of Evan's friends and family to be a bit odd. If someone is drowning in sorrow then what is needed is support and friendship, not forcing them onto blind dates FFS.

Also, although there were lots of laugh-out-loud moments, overall I would classify this as a sad book, it's mainly about how Evan isn't coping and how dreadful he feels with only a little glimpse of hope right near the end. I was expecting the book to be more focused on the moving on part. Finally, I'm a snob, I just can't wrap my head around the idea of the male lead telling ghost stories for a living.

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

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