Review: You Only Live Once

You Only Live Once by Maxine Morrey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After Lily's husband of just three years dies in a freak accident she becomes practically a recluse. She leaves London with its memories and moves to a large house on the edge of a small village where she continues to write her very successful novels. She avoids meeting neighbours, shopping very early in the morning, and declines invitations to visit friends and family. Her only real contact is with her brother Felix, his wife, and their two children who visit regularly.

Her brother's best friend, and her secret childhood crush, Jack has been living in New Zealand building up his own landscape gardening business. Jack is the son of landed gentry but always seemed to spend most of his time at Felix and Lily's house as a child. Jack is now returning to the UK and Felix has volunteered a room in Lily's house for him to stay in until he gets his new business up and running.

Although Lily initially objects to having a lodger thrust upon her, especially one who was a witness to her greatest humiliation as a teenager, she does eventually come to appreciate his friendship, but can she let go of the past and learn to love again?

Oh dear, I see that I have read a couple of Ms Morrey's previous novels and I have to say I have the same grumbles about this book as I did with those books. Taking that into account, obviously I need to stop requesting ARCs by Maxine Morrey because her style doesn't suit me - if you have enjoyed other books by her then I'm sure you will also enjoy this. Which is not to say that I didn't like the book, just that there were some niggles.

First, I get that Lily was wallowing in her grief (I believe her husband died nearly ten years ago) and was becoming a recluse. However, both Jack and Felix steamrollered her into doing things she didn't want to do, "for her own good". Lily is a woman who earns a very good living, lives life on her own terms and is happy the way she is. It is not for her brother and lodger to force her to change. Also, it makes Lily look stupid, just once I would like the male character to persuade the female to step outside her comfort zone and it's a disaster, something they both agree will never be attempted again!

Second, in any journey of the nature which Lily is on, there are three steps forward and two steps back, that's just life. But when Lily starts to retreat backwards Jack storms off. It is a pet peeve of mine that (generally) men in romance seem to see the need to force the woman to do what they want or it's all over.

Third, it was all so predictable, practically from the first page, I think this needed to be less formulaic. Also, what was the point of making Jack the son of a Lord? It smacked a bit of a kitchen-sink approach to plot by throwing every genre at it and hoping something might stick, it didn't go anywhere and also left me with some legal questions about future children.

Overall, an enjoyable, if rather formulaic and predictable, friends-to-lovers romance let down by the hero's behaviour for me. (I even copied that conclusion from my review of one of Ms Morrey's previous books).

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

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