I absolutely loved this book. A year in the life of Nina George Dean, a food writer living in London who is just starting to date again, a few years after her last serious relationship ended. When she meets Max, it feels like everything is changing for the better. This is their story.

This is such a brilliant book, so funny and moving and sharply observed. I highlighted so many sections because they were just too stunningly true and they spoke to me so clearly. This book is filled with the impotent grief of watching a loved one descend into dementia, the giddy highs of new love and the tricky terrain of negotiating friendships when one half of the pair has married and had children. It's also filled with a quiet determined feminist fury, underlying all interactions and discussions. I loved it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed reading about the characters, their family/friendship setups and dating journeys in this book. I also felt Nina’s dads dementia was well written however for me the book didn’t flow particularly well and I felt it stopped and started and plodded along in places. It took me a week to read which is slow for me as I wasn’t excited to pick it up.

This story follows Nina a 30 something year old woman and the realistic look on the online dating world as well as discussing some deeper topics as her father is currently suffering with dementia.

There was parts of this book I did like because I believe it did give a very real look at what dating is actually like online however at times some of the character chooses bothered me. I felt deeply for Nina and what she was dealing with and the emotional struggle that came with dealing with her fathers dementia. I would read more by this author in the future as I did enjoy her writing enough to want me to seek out more of her work.

Ghosts is funny and very relatable. At thirty two years, food writer and author Nina Dean, wonders how many languages she could’ve mastered in the time she spent removing her upper lip hair if she lived to be eighty five years old. She is single; she is looking for inspiration at work. Her mother Nancy is rebranding herself as Mandy and she cannot understand why. Her father has dementia. Her ex-boyfriend is getting married, her friends are marrying, getting babies and flirting with men they meet on online dating platforms.

It is refreshing when our digital addictions find their way to the page. Here Whatsapp conversations (and stalking), kitsch vintage slogan gifts (because of 'her prolonged state of singledom') and socializing at ex’s wedding parties turn hilarious. This is really a book for the millennials. Who would understand why Nina falls head over heels for Max who declares he’s going to marry her on their first date through a dating app? Don’t we know how difficult it is to create alibis—like Nina’s best friend Lola does—by posting Instagram pictures when faking a cold? Why is a date online on Whatsapp all the time?—the women gossip. Nina goes through heartbreaks, ghosting, unexpected sex, dating algorithms (“The most ticked people were offered up as bait for the new user’s month, then they leave you with the rest of the riff-raff…It works because you wade through the bottom dwellers indefinitely, always holding out hope that you’d find the chest of buried treasure again”) and incompatible neighbours. There are so many funny moments and sarcasm scattered in this book and they are all relatable, contemporary worries.

I laughed so much, but then I wondered if I am laughing at myself and other fellow millennials. If you are looking for something that’ll keep you entertained after a busy work day, Ghosts is the one. It is millennial crisis at its best.

Thank you to Netgalley, Dolly Alderton & Fig Tree for my arc of Ghosts in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Nina Dean is celebrating her 32nd birthday, she's a successful food writer, finally has her own flat, loving friends and family. She's got it together. So it seems like the perfect time to get back on the dating game. On her first date she meets Max, tall, handsome and beguiling he seems like the perfect match. But life in your early 30s isn't easy. Nina has to battle changing friends and family members set on their own course that may be in front of behind where she is, some friends are getting married, others having children, even worse some are moving to the suburbs. Her dad is suffering with dementia and her mum is having a mid life crisis.

Oh Em Gee this was amazing. Honestly the first book to make me truly feel seen in so long. I don't even know if I can do it justice in this review. I'm 30 and albeit I'm married rather than single but I could relate to SO MUCH in this book even just from my mid twenties dating. Those guys that do the whole 'I love you' thing and then scarper the next day and imply YOU'RE the crazy one when you're confused and hurt. The troublesome neighbours, the friends all at different stages of their lives and not quite fitting together anymore. But most of all the raw, open look at life and the way we start to see it at this age. The way there's so much pressure to not fall behind, to settle down and have children, to buy a house and the worry about ageing parents or grandparents. This story is passionate, beautiful and honest and I just love it. I've just finished it and immediately preordered the hardback as I think it will be a book I'll constantly revisit time after time.

If you followed Dolly’s columns in The Sunday Times, or have read her book Everything I know about love, this story will seem familiar to you, but in a good way. The story has the same timely relevance to young women looking at romantic relationships, family, friendships and navigating the transition into your thirties as Nina’s story unfolds. It’s laser-sharp, wise, thoughtful and an all-round uplifting read. Also, it’s a pleasure to find someone who feels the same way as I do about netball…

I loved this book.It captures all the highs and lows of life for Nina, a single woman in her 30s. It doesn’t shy away from the problems presented by aging parents,relationships with friends and lovers, and difficult neighbours.I found some of it very moving, particularly the parts dealing with Nina’s father’s dementia and the effect it has on Nina and her mother. I felt satisfied with the ending and look forward to Dolly Alderton’s next book.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.

Anyone who knows me well knows how much of a Dolly Alderton fangirl I am. Have I read all of her Sunday Times dating columns? Have I listened to most of the podcasts she's ever been interviewed on? When I was a bookseller, did I recommend Everything I Know About Love to every unsuspecting millennial woman? Do I frequently refer to her as 'Dolly', as if I actually know her? Yes to all of the above.
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All that and you might be surprised to learn that I didn't actually love her new novel, Ghosts. But although I love Dolly Alderton's observations, her wit, her wryness, her humour, her romanticism and nostalgia, her takes on life (particularly life for millennial women), I do sometimes find her writing a bit too cheesy and overblown and I thought that Ghosts suffered from that a bit.

Ghosts is about Nina Dean, a food writer in her early 30s looking for love and navigating friendships and family issues. I loved her interactions with her school best friend Katherine, I loved the discussion of dating apps, I thought the created world felt very real and absorbing and easy to spend time in. I laughed out loud several times, which I rarely do with books. But did I love Ghosts as a whole? No. It's entertaining and I enjoyed it but, personally, I prefer Dolly Alderton's columns and non-fiction, her writing works better for me in those formats. My only proper complaint (and this might sound a bit mad) was that I felt like the whole 'men are trash' thing was a bit too far - I know many millennial women in happy relationships with men and they're not all wildly insecure or childish or averse to commitment or unaware of the world around them?? I guess it just didn't feel realistic. Anyway. I am SO SO happy I got to read and review this early = this bookstagrammer's life was made. Thanks @penguinukbooks!

When I first started reading this book I was uncertain that it was for me . That said I quickly became engrossed in its story.
It tells the story of a thirty something female and the challenges of modern life. It touches on relationships , ageing ,mortality and the true meaning of contentment . It is both funny and serious in equal measure, whilst challenging your thoughts on what is really important in life.
This is a really good book and congratulations to the author in capturing the highs and lows of life in such an easy to read way.

Magnificent. This is what I can say about this novel: it is absolutely magnificent.

I of course enjoyed the way in which Alderton writes, pulling the reader into the story and making them part of Nina’s life. I found myself laughing with Nina and her best friend at some point and really mad at our protagonist on another occasion. I walked the streets of London with her and understood what she was going through.

The chapters went quickly and I found myself looking forward to reading in bed at the end of my day, just to I could see what would happen to Nina and Max. As I mentioned before, I felt close to Nina and I had a hard time when she realised that her dad is slowly leaving her side due to dementia. It was sad, raw and completely real.

The novel explores love relationships, family, memory and the importance of friendship. It was incredibly funny and tender and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I highly recommend this book, honestly. It is like life itself and I liked that it left me with a very rewarding feeling afterwards.

I love Dolly Alderton and Everything I Know About Love is one of my favourite books, so I really wanted to love this. Honestly, I'm not sure where all the rave reviews have come from. I found the main character so unlikeable and whiny, she expected her friends to revolve their lives around her and to drop everything on her whims. I did enjoy the strand of poignancy related to her family and her father's dwindling mental status, it felt real and I was really drawn into her struggle. Other than that, the relationship at the end came out of nowhere, and I felt like half the book was preamble, leading up to a very specific point, to which it only arrived at the very end. I didn't feel satisfied at the end, I found it self-indulgent and at several points I wondered if it is truly fictional. As an avid listener to the High Low, I have heard several of these individuals as anecdotes already.

I received a copy of this book to review From Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book is a well written and interesting story of Nina and her navigation through modern life. The writing is sharp and very witty. I enjoyed the quips on modern life and found myself nodding in agreement at points with the sheer relatableness of it all. It raised questions on modern life that leave the reader thinking about this book long after they finish it.
The prologue was very fast paced and I found myself flicking back repeatedly to try and remember who certain characters were. I also felt that Nina was at times harsh and rude about her family and friends which made her not very likable at times.
On the whole, a great book.

Dolly Alderton's writing is addictive, compelling and insightful, and she really stands apart from the host of millennial authors writing these sorts of stories.

As in her first book, a work of non-fiction, Alderton has the ability to shrewdly observe her generation and its preoccupations. "Ghosting" is one of them! But it's not just the frustrating (and incredibly rude) process of someone you've been dating disappearing on you, it's the other ghosts of life that she considers as well - parents growing older (in our heroine Nina's case, her brilliant father descending into Alzheimer's); friendships changing, altering or ending as paths diverge; even your past self/ves, who you thought you would be and how you thought your life would be compared to how it has actually turned out.

While it's hard-hitting and poignant in many ways, it's also very witty. Some of my favourite lines:

"I have yet to encounter a more widely acceptable exercise of extreme narcissism than that of being the protagonist of a hen do."

"The contents of supermarket baskets are surely evidence that none of us are coping with adulthood well."

"Fizz. That word is only ever used in a room of women who all secretly hate each other."

"It had been impossible to miss the press-release photo and statement Lucy had issued of the pair of them, like it was news from Clarence House."

"I could never get on board with this sort of girl-gang feminism, the groups of female friends who called themselves things like 'the coven' on social media and exhibited moral superiority from simply having a weekly brunch with each other."

It was a compulsive read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I took off one star only because Nina, our heroine, is meant to be a food blogger turned cookbook writer, and the book is sadly lacking in the kind of sumptuous foodie details I would expect with a character like that . For a food writer, she barely talks about it! I was expecting mouthwatering descriptions along the lines of Stella Newman :)

Nevertheless, it's a very readable and highly relatable novel. If you've enjoyed Emma Gannon's Olive this is of the same calibre.

With thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

I did enjoy Ghosts. I appreciated the very relatable main character, she is the same age as me, and I completely recognised the trials and tribulations of dating in your 30s. I think a lot of readers will sympathise and recognise themselves!
The portrayal of her dad was very well done- it was very poignant but also realistic - this was probably my favourite part of the story.
My only criticism would be that, as someone who has chosen to be sober, I found the constant drinking/ drinking to excess/ and much of the storyline taking place because she was drunk, a little tedious. This is a personal gripe though, so I'm sure most readers won't care!

Going into this one I was expecting something firmly focused on dating apps but thankfully there’s so much more to this book!

Nina is in her early thirties and single so decides to try a dating app, given the blurb and title ‘Ghosts’ it doesn’t come as a surprise when Nina is ghosted by the first man she meets and makes a connection with. But that’s just a small part of Nina’s story and character and it turns out there are plenty of other ghosts in her life.

The biggest one being childhood nostalgia, which she is forced to confront in a different way as her beloved father deals with dementia. I was impressed with how well this was represented, in particular the relationship between Nina and her mother as they both struggle to come to terms with the diagnosis and what it means.

Being in her early thirties, Nina is also at that stage of life when many of her friends are settling down to marriage and children, including her ex-boyfriend. While Nina certainly experiences some moments of feeling left behind, it was refreshing that being in a relationship wasn’t her main motivator. Instead, it was interesting to consider the changing dynamics between long term friends as they move in different directions.

Finally, I was relieved to find Nina wasn’t a thirty-something single woman who constantly finds herself getting into scrapes or hugely embarrassing situations. While I’m not averse to those sort of characters it was nice to read about someone who is just a bit more relatable. Nina has worked hard to become a new homeowner and published author, in many ways she has her life in order but of course, like everyone, she has their own internal struggles and drama!

Really surprised by this one, a lot more to it than you’d first expect and for quite an easy read it has a lot of heart!

I had high expectations for this book and it completely lived up to them. I fell in love with the character of Nina, and became completely emerged in her world. There was a lot to relate to, and the writing was beautiful.

When a character Is described as beguiling I always think flowery! Beguiling makes me think a bit too romantic a bit too much away from my type. I get what the author was saying but you need to love or loathe characters and if you are neither way it doesn’t work for me. Saying that it’s a nicely written book with. Emotional moments.

Never this year have I read a book where so often I’ve been nodding along to what Dolly has written. It’s wise, it’s funny and it’s engaging (and a lot of time, what she’s written rings true). Nina Dean has a good life: true, she’s not in a relationship with The One, but she has her own flat, a good career, friends and family. She tries online dating and meets Max, who suggests he’s all into their relationship on their first date and suddenly, Nina feels life is treating her a little more kindly. And about time too. But with family dramas – so many readers will feel their heartstrings ping when reading – friendship woes (the battle between the singletons and the settled down) and a flatmate who isn’t exactly quiet, Nina has a lot on her plate. This is Dolly’s fiction debut and I can’t wait to see what else she produces. Her non fiction is on point, but it’s clear her fiction is every bit as good.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It is set to be published in October 2020.

"Ghosts" by Dolly Alderton is the story of Nina, a 32-year-old single woman who starts using a dating app for the first time in her life and complains about being ghosted by men. I guess the book probably tries to be funny, but it fails.
It's a first-person 350-pages whining, interspersed with painstakingly detailed accounts of Nina's everyday life and word by word transcripts of banal, pointless dialogues among flat, stereotypical characters who all seem to despise one another.
The protagonist herself is nothing but the caricature of a millennial in the worst possible way, pretty much dislikable all throughout the story.
The writing is inflated, with too many adverbs and adjectives, a way too liberal use of capital letters, cursive and even underlined text, which would be appropriate for a comic book, certainly not for a novel.
To top it all off, there are the silly and downright insulting questions ("is all heterosexual sex rape?"), some embarrassing grammar mistakes (such as "Lola had been given me") and the numbers that don't add up (Nina celebrates her thirty-second birthday... and soon after she declares she is in her thirty-second year, except that she actually is in her thirty-third... if only the author could count!).
As for the style, the descriptions make no sense at all and the dialogues are totally unrealistic ("He's a bit... twilighty. You know?" "No." "There's something dark and magic about him, while being wholesome. Wholesome in an essence-of-man way. He's sort of biblical." "Essence of man?" "Yes, like it's all stripped back so he's just... instinct and hair. I can't explain it." "Is he funny?" "Kind of").
Then there are the interminable, insufferable exchanges of texts: there's A WHOLE CHAPTER that consists only of texts, repetitive, banal and in no way useful to plot progression or character development
And do I even mention the appallingly racist representation of Italian immigrants to the UK? Since when is ridiculing an ethnic minority funny?

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC of this book.
This book was highly entertaining and felt deeply honest. I laughed a lot but there were also moments that pulled on my heartstrings. I'm still cautiously making my entrance into the world of contemporary fiction but the books I've read so far have been a promising start.
I enjoyed following our main character through the turbulent world of dating but I also loved watching her navigate her familial relationships (the main character's mum was truly gob-smacking in more ways than one!) and friendships. Her often biting and totally relatable social commentary had me constantly eager for more. I adore this author's writing style - it frequently felt like I was gossiping with a close friend and we were rolling our eyes in tandem.
I often didn't know whether to laugh, gasp or cringe but I loved every second of it.
So excited to read more like this!