This book is more than your average rom com. While we do hear about the main characters dating issues, she is also dealing with her fathers dementia, her mother’s refusal to deal with it, a very annoying neighbor and life in general . It’s a combination of upbeat and the reality of life and worth reading if this genre is one you enjoy.
I received an ARC from net galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Little to laugh about & left me hanging😕

I went into this book expecting some sadness and drama, particularly related to Nina the food writer lead's father's Alzheimer's diagnosis, but also growth and a positive result. Yes, the author broached a variety of problems facing the modern, single woman in a paired-up world in a frank and thought-provoking manner but I ended up finding the story more depressing and serious than I'd anticipated.

The book blurb mentions a romance ended by the guy ghosting Nina but she is constantly being beaten back or ignored (even ghosted in a sense) by friends, her odd downstairs neighbor, her own mother, her father's deteriorating hold on the present and, of course, the guy she wants to love. The fizzling out on the romantic front was the most disappointing for me as I adore a good HEA romance and, if you are looking for that, this is not it! The author also occasionally branches out on jags of intense description, like on a visitor to Nina's publisher, or pre-wedding festivities for her ex Joe, or perusing the Linx dating site catalog of offerings, that were frankly boring and added nothing to the story.

By the end I expected some form of resolution or closure and, indeed, I got some degree of satisfaction there, but, on the whole, Alderton's novel left me dangling, wondering what was actually accomplished in the thirty-second year of Nina's life.

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

This is the book about what happens when you're suddenly 30, your friends have moved out to the suburbs, you're horribly single, and the reality of your parent's demise suddenly hits you all at one time, when it seems nothing can go right. But then something does, only for you to loose it....What do you do? Nina is every modern woman who decided career first and the rest will fall in. She's witty, smart and caring, and that is what Max originally sees in her. This chick lit book isn't light on drama, and there are a few angst moments that the reader will really go "I HATE HIM" as a character and want Nina to move on FROM the idea of Max at all. Other characters seem as childish, and no one can seem to TALK. But then that is the modern predicament, isn't it? So well played Dolly for showing us where true dysfunction lies!

I loved this book! No, it is not simply a "rom com," although the main character -- Nina George Dean -- is hilarious on the subject of dating in one's thirties and the men who ghost women because they are "afraid of commitment.," She is particularly funny when she becomes a fierce and painfully honest badass confronting unworthy men who have ghosted her or her friends. But the book is about so much more than a pearl necklace of funny failed relationships. Rather it is about "ghosts" in many forms, whether the loss of female friends who enter a Stepford phase after getting married and having children, the loss of ideals about how one's life and the men within it are supposed to be rather than who they really are, and the ultimate loss of a parent (in this case the slow death of Nina's beloved father from the scourge of Alzheimer's disease). Indeed, Nina ultimately realizes that she stayed in untenable relationships to avoid dealing with the pain of her father's terminal illness. This is no Bridget Jones, but something better. A more mature woman still looking for love in a world where loss becomes more common. Highly recommended.

5/5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nina George Dean is in her thirties, she writes cookbooks and is single. Her ex-boyfriend, Joe, whom she remains very good friends with, along with Katherine and Lola.

Nina lives a hum-drum life and mostly hangs around Lola because they are still single. Katherine and Nina, seem to remain friends because they've known one another for so long. They don't have much in common anymore with Katherine married and a mother. Nina finds herself being asked to be an usher in Joe's wedding, where his fiance, Lucy, and she aren't comfortable with one another.

Another point of contention stems between Nina and her mother, Nancy, who is going through a midlife crisis. Nina's father is suffering from dementia, and she and her mom do not see eye to eye on his care.

Lola talks Nina into signing up on a dating app, where Nina connects with Max. They hit it off and all seems well until after Max utters the L-word and then mysteriously disappears on her. It leaves Nina wondering if he was hurt and a thousand other things. She becomes obsessed with checking her phone and reminiscing about Max, along with ghosts from her life growing up.

I was drawn to this book because of the description of it being a laugh-out-loud Rom-Com. I wanted to like this book more than I did. I found it to be depressing more than funny. There were amusing parts but didn't fit the Rom-Com I imagined it was going to be. The whole issue with the neighbor that lived under her, which lead to a passive-aggressive tactic with a flat-out lie, and the end result of the neighbor confronting her made me cringe. I did like how Nina and her mom opened up to one another so Nina could better understand where her mom was coming from. The quote that stood out to me was: "You can't 'delete' a human you love." In this day and age where ghosting in any relationship has become an epidemic, that quote holds a lot of truth.

I received an ARC from NetGalley via Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and I have voluntarily reviewed this book.

Ghosting is a new term referring to ending a relationship suddenly without saying goodbye. I thought Nina would be ghosted only by her boyfriend whom she met on a dating app. Turns out there are other people ghosting Nina .... her father has dementia and doesn't always recognize her. Her childhood best friend is married with children, nothing in common any more. The neighbor downstairs aggravates her.
Interesting reading. I originally thought this book would be a thriller or mystery, but actually is a "chick lit." Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf.

Nina Dean is single, 32, and discovering for the first time the highs and lows of online dating. Along with her friend “good old Lola,” they deal with the ups and downs of relationships at this stage of life. At the same time, Nina is struggling with her father’s illness and his difficulty remembering his life, writing her third cookbook, and staying in touch with her married and coupled up friends. This story is about relationships in their many forms - friends, family, and romance - and how Nina navigates them all.

As a narrator, Nina is very introspective. Take for example the critical breakdown of messages on a dating app. Nina seems to examine the entire world this way - through a slightly critical lens that often focuses on writing as well as actions, and what message a person or action may be sending and the motive for it. There is a lot of reflection happening, both about Nina herself as well as the people and world around her.

Dolly Alderton uses this book as a feminist examination of relationships and double standards, gender roles in marriage and parenting, and the trials of being a woman in a modern world. The writing is romantic and poetic and honest and striking. There is a focus on relationships, memories and dating-slash-digital dating that causes them to be twined together in a way that demands reflection. Described in part as a romance, this is a romance in the sense of self, in the sense of friends, in the sense of feeling the early stages of a romance and of letting one go.

I didn’t love this one. I really didn’t enjoy the main character and found her frustrating in general. It was hard for me to get through this one and I definitely had to push to finish.

Alas, this book was a lot more depressing than I was expecting. I thought it would be more comedic, but it's much more realistic in its take on dating in your thirties. It has some interesting social commentary on what it's like being the single friend amongst your dating/engaged/married/married with children friends. There is good, there is bad, and sometimes, as the single friend, you are lost in the shuffle. If you pick this up jus know that this is not a romcom, it's more of a dramady.

Witty, charming, and sometimes so emotional. The situations were realistic and relatable. The characters well drawn out. Whether you loved or hated them, they made you feel. I think this one is mislabeled as a romance. It's more about life and the journeys we take. I will definitely read this author again.

Ghosts is mischaracterized as a romantic comedy. In spite of some romance and some very insightful, witty writing, it really doesn’t fit into the romantic comedy mold. Nina is a single 30-something and feeling every tick of her biological clock. She’s also figuring out how to deal with her aging parents. Her dad has Alzheimer’s and her mom is working through her own aging and identity crises. The author takes a realistic look at what dating can be like in one’s 30s, society’s expectations, the different lenses through which men and women view their romantic relationships, and the nature of friendships and their place in women’s lives. Those serious topics are handled with wit and humor and some of the best, spot-on descriptions I’ve ever read. Nina observes people with a keen eye, seeing them as they are and then describing them in such a way that you know exactly the kind of person she’s dealing with. This is well-written, funny (sometimes laugh out loud) chick lit. Recommended.

I must admit that I'm torn with this one. The story feels like something I've read before but I still got pulled into it due to the great writing and the way Alderton creates her characters to feel like real people. I could associate almost everyone and/or their situations in the story to someone I know or have heard of. Not many authors can do something like that.
The story feels personal and it's easy to empathize with everything that Nina and her close circle of friends are going through. Nothing ever feels overblown or exaggerated for effect, it's a very human story all around.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the early read!

“Ghosts” by Dolly Alderton
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Genre: romance, contemporary

What would you do if you were Ghosted? Would you give that person a second chance?

I didn’t love this one, but it did have a lot of good parts. I was kind of frustrated with main character.

Nina Dean celebrates her 32nd birthday with her close friends, but she is missing out on love. Everyone around her is changing. Marriage, babies, new homes, etc. While she loves her home and her career writing books about food she can’t help but worry she won’t have a family. When her friend Lola convinces her to try a dating app she is hesitant. Her first date is with a man named Max. He checks all the boxes. They instantly have a connection.
They spend the next six weeks together having fun and enjoying being a couple. Then it takes a turn.
Meanwhile she’s trying to cope with her father diminishing health and her mother’s lack of reality.

If a book has TJR’s stamp of approval, you better believe I’ll be reading it. Thank you Netgalley for this copy and for introducing me to Dolly Alderton.⁣
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In this story, we meet Nina, a thirty-something year old writer who is looking for love and dealing with some pretty heavy stuff at this point in her life. Nina finally meets a guy worthy of her time and even thinks Max may be the one…until he isn’t. When Max “ghosts” Nina, she is left very confused and heartbroken. And on top of losing Max, she is slowly losing her father to dementia. As everything collapses around her, Nina is left to come to terms with her relationships and adjust to all the changes.⁣
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I enjoyed this book, but I went into it expecting a rom-com and that isn’t an accurate description for this one. While this book had a touch of romance and some funny moments, it was full of heartache and sadness. There is a lot at play in these pages- navigating friendships, handling the stress of a dementia diagnosis of a parent and showcasing how stressful the dating world can be. I really liked Nina and the humor she provided through it all. Overall this was a solid four star read for me.

How much the dating world has changed with the changes in technology! This book did a great job of highlighting the challenges that come with dating today - the apps and the unfortunate practice of ghosting - which I know was simply known as disappearing in the past, but technology brings ghosting to an entirely new level. Throughout the book I tried to imagine what Nina was going through and I admired her. She may have never been thrilled by the fact that she was in her early thirties and single but it didn't seem to stop her from living a wonderful life - writing, a job she loves, her own place, freedom. I sympathized with her family situation and her dad's situation - knowing the pain of watching a loved one start to forget you. Max, the guy she meets, falls quickly for (based on his intense feelings, might I add) and then gets ghosted by - every turn of the page I wondered if he'd be coming back. There were so many characters that were woven into Nina's story in such a charming way - I wanted to hang out with Lola, .I wanted to have a heart to heart with Katherine, I wanted to meet Joe to understand their past, and of course, above all I wanted to chat with Max to know what was going on in his head. Dolly Alderton did a fantastic job with character development in Ghosts. They were all so personable and I found it easy to relate to them (of course, that could be because of my age as well!).

I did not find this to be a laugh out loud romantic comedy. It was a struggle for me to get into this book and to stay reading, but I kept hoping it would turn a corner and be more like the description. Nina is 32, and she goes on a dating app. She has a date with Max, and it seems like he's a bit odd from the very start, but she excuses things, they start a relationship, it turns serious, and then he ghosts her. A huge portion of the book is then Nina trying to move on with her life, helping her mother (who she doesn't have the best relationship with) care for her father with Alzheimer's, and keeping up the connection with friends who are now married and having kids or in committed relationships. The book to me, rather than being funny, was more of an accurate portrayal of some of the interpersonal issues this generation is dealing with. There were a lot of British-isms that I didn't understand. And basically all the young male.characters were shown as having lots of flaws. I finished it.

Ghosts by Dolly Atherton

Ghosts is at its heart, romantic comedy, and romantic tragedy. It is a commentary on how we find connections in this millennium, and how easily those connections can disappear.

It is the story of Nina George Dean, born in 1986. Coming into adulthood in the Time of the Internet, it is natural for her friends to encourage her to try dating apps to meet interesting men. But like all things on the internet, it is easy to believe the things she is told, and when she meets Max, she can’t help but believe in him, too.

Ghosting isn’t a phenomenon we had to deal with when our partners were people we interacted with outside of dating, but it’s all too easy when an app is your connection. I thought that was what the book was about, and was feeling rather ho hum about it, until this wonderful author carried the metaphor through to relationships other than those founded on an app…friends, family, and even our past. Nina is a deep and caring character, and I wanted her to have everything she wanted. You’ll have to read the book to find out if she does, and I promise it will not disappoint. Though it will break your heart in all the best ways.

Alfred Knopf and NetGalley have provided me with an advanced reader copy for this review. The book will be released on August 3, 2021.

Ghosts is a debut novel. I finished this book and thought about it...and thought about it some more. I'm still not real decided about how I felt about it. The author did keep me reading, but at times I was really baffled (and not only by the British phrases or words I didn't understand).

The author attempted to deal with what I suppose are probably current female Millenial's problems. You've got the subplots of woman meeting man, same man ghosting woman, woman's father's illness and woman being put off by married friends with children. But then there's also the weird Italian guy who lives downstairs, plays bad music too loudly, doesn't dispose of his trash properly and is exceedingly rude. What was the point of the weird Italian guy? I just don't know. He's just another piggish male???

This chick just really needed to have a little more self-respect...and maybe write off men permanently. Her friend wasn't any better.

3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4.

I was gifted a copy of this book via Knopf Doubleday Publishing and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

A delightful and heartwarming read that will probably resonate with anyone who has tried dating sites.

Nina Dean is a food writer who meets Max on a dating site. They have chemistry, they share common interests, and they laugh together. All seems to be going great until a few months later, Max ghosts her!

ghost·ing | ˈɡōstiNG/

The practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.

Having been on a few dating sites, I found myself relating to Nina and her feelings and experiences. The author was definitely spot-on with the highs and lows of dating sites.

I liked side storylines, and the one involving her parents was moving as Alzheimer’s is such a cruel disease.

Ghosts was Dolly Alderton debut novel; the characters (most of them) were likeable. Overall I felt it was well written, enjoyable read with some funny and touching moments about modern-day love, dating and relationships.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for my review copy.

I tried to like this one! I really did. I struggled to even finish it though. Maybe it was me, I'm not sure. I will always tell you to give a book a try even if I didn't like it and that goes for this one too. I wish I had more to say about this one but I've got nothing.