Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nina is a 32 year old newly established food writer who quick teaching to write full time. She decides to start dating after some prodding by her friend. She meets Max, who is handsome and mysterious on a dating app and falls for him.

I really wanted to like this book. However when I got to the end I just didn't. I tried to like Nina, but for a 32 year old single women she is awfully judgmental. She's dismissive of other people who have made life choices different from her and aren't dealing with things the way that she thinks they should. For me the story line was just too predictable and the main character just wasn't likeable.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ebook ARC in exchange for my review.

I'm sorry, but this was not the book for me. I didn't enjoy the tone of the book, the writing, the character development. IT was a chore to finish, and very easy to put down and walk away from.

1 star - i'm sorry, but I really didn't like this one at all.

At a crossroads with her friendship group, coming to terms with the mortality of her parents, and hoping to keep her career momentum going, Nina decides to give dating apps a try. Her first app-date is with Max, who instantly becomes a fixture in her life; Nina thinks things might be looking up in the romance department. But when Max suddenly stops communicating with her, Nina has to reevaluate her perspective on the world.

I'll be honest - a few chapters into this one I really thought It wasn't for me. I wasn't a fan of the tone or Nina's attitude, and if you feel the same while reading I urge you to keep reading. I think my issue was that I agreed with Nina on a lot of things and saw her as bitter - which would mean I probably had some bitterness as well. By the end, I came away thinking of this book as poignant and very funny.

Dolly Alderton wrote about the millennial social circle with scary accuracy. Especially when it came to the spectacle around wedding culture - I really felt her on that. The tiny details are what really sold me on the story - like scoffing at the thought of someone having a dark side because they have a mug with an overused cliche written on it. Those moments were so real and hilarious.

Some of the themes in this reminded me a lot of Olive by Emma Gannon, so if you liked that one I'd recommend picking this one up! This one had a much more sad and cynical vibe than I thought Olive did, but it did leave me feeling hopeful and comforted about growing up and being present and happy with your life while still dreaming of something more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

I feel like this one will hit really close to home for a lot of people because ghosting is very common these days. I think it's every girls worst fear about a relationship that is just beginning. This felt so relatable and while emotional, also funny. I just don't think I love the cover as much.

The best thing about this book is Nina's name. Her middle name is George, named after George Michael. I wanted to like this book but I don't live in a world where woman are crushed by unreliable men. I'm not sure what the author's point of this story was. I liked her voice and storytelling but didn't enjoy the actual story.

This is the story about relationships and lack of commitment. Nina uses a dating app to find Max after breaking up with Joe. Nina and Max seem to be getting along but then he disappears. Nina is frantic. Then Max comes back. Can they make it work this time?

This is my first book by this author. It sounded fun and I really wanted to like it but unfortunately I didn't. Pros: I liked that the main character, Nina is strong and tries hard to cope with all the problems life is throwing her way. Cons: I didn't like her as a character. I felt that she didn't grow or change significantly over the course of the novel-- which to me is the most basic requirement of any good story. I didn't particularly like the way many of the other women in the novel were portrayed--they were all behaving ridiculously, too down on themselves, desperate, helpless. Overall, the comedy felt strained. I'm glad that others liked this book and wish the author all the best. Thank you Penguin and to Netgalley for the read.

Thank you to Netgalley & Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for this ARC. This was so lovely to read and experience! The character, Nina, honestly stressed me out a little bit but I still really liked her. I loved her raw feelings and thoughts about every day life and men. I felt for her with the way she was handling her dad's health issues. I laughed a lot during this and for that I will be recommending this to every one. The only thing that could've made this better is if I was either from London, or at least well acquainted with it because none of the neighborhoods or towns mentioned I could picture in my head/relate to.

A very interesting debut for Dolly Alderton. Nina is a character I absolutely loved. She's level-headed, sweet and smart. The journey we share with her through dating and ghosting is not an easy one, infuriating even. All characters are interesting, sweet and human (Lola deserves the best). In summary: Men Are Trash - the book.

3.5-Stars

The first book I’ve read from Alderton had me cracking up with its sharp-witted one-liners! But seriously, there’s much more to Ghosts than just a good laugh. Focusing on the title, we’ve probably all been on the receiving end of being ghosted for no apparent reason. This disconcerting act made the protagonist reflect on her life, especially when she thought she’d found the one.

The author also deals with challenging everyday issues, some of which affect Nina George Dean directly. The reason for her middle name was one of the things I liked. I also enjoyed reading about her before, her unmarried millennial status, her thirtyish friends who are and aren’t moving on, and I smiled more than once at her irritating neighbour’s comebacks.

Nina’s narrative of her father’s deteriorating health hit home. Having experienced this degenerative disease in my family, I understood her mother’s refusal to accept it. Worse was Nina irritancy that makes sense when you find out the ins and outs of her parent’s relationship. That said, she’s not a capricious woman and quite happy with her lot.

Until Max. Single, strapping, a gorgeous six-footer, and just the right age and well-established to boot, he fits the dating bill to a tee. The big but comes with a few words and then...oops, cold feet! Nina is forced to face facts, but this is by no means the end of her story.

I appreciated the author’s descriptive writing; the London feel and family and friend elements entwined into this story make for a good read. However, I felt something was missing at the end.

ARC kindly received by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group via NetGalley for an honest review.

Personally this book was really hard to get into, and even harder to finish. It just wasn't for me. Nothing necessarily negative to say.

A wonderful, poignant, funny story about friendship, family, dating and life in general. Nina has just turned thirty two and is facing the morsa bizarre year of her life. She will find love, she will lost it, her father’s illness will progress and her relationship with her mother will strain. Her best and older friend is absorbed with her husband and children. Her other friends is in search of the love of her life. Everything will change but she will get stronger. A good reflexión about life, be single and looking for love as the goal of life.

I feel like I really needed this book right now. It was not at all what I expected, but that didn't make me enjoy it any less. Both heartbreaking and funny. Definitely not the rom-com I expected, but more of a meditation on her life as a 32-year-old dealing with life and relationships both familial, platonic, and romantic.

Definitely worth the read! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this early.

First off, this is not a romcom. Not even close. It is one year, beginning with Nina's 32nd birthday party, that is full of more ups and downs than usual. It is a year of ghosts and shades. Her father is fading away mentally. Her oldest friend has been fading away with nothing in common anymore. Her only single friend Lola is teaching her the ins and outs of dating apps and men who ghost you. Her love of her new flat is tainted by the obnoxious new neighbor below her. As Rosanna famously said, if it's not one thing, it's another. There is a lot of introspection, analysis, excuse-making, criticism, and plans of action. And some wicked humor re a hen party and a wedding. Ghosts is not what I expected but I still found it interesting even if I could relate to very little of it.

The blurb for Ghosts promises a story about a food writer who goes on a date with a man who declares on that very date that they’ll be married someday. Based on this, I was expecting two things: 1) lots of excellent food descriptions and 2) an insane, overly attached love interest who would provide great humor. Alas, neither of these were to be found. No food descriptions at all really, which I have to say I was very disappointed by both as a personal preference and as an artistic choice. First person prose narrated by a food writer should obviously focus on food whenever it is present! Also I love food descriptions.

Meanwhile, the tone of the romance and the book in general was way more somber and serious than I was expecting. I guess the main theme could be best described as “toxic relationships”, romantic and otherwise. It was a bit depressing to be honest. I would maybe recommend it for fans of the show Girls.

Another cute story! Huge fan of this book and loved the characters. Very enjoyable! Definitely recommend picking up!

This was a great book from the get go. I really liked Nina's character and felt like I really got to know her and could relate to her throughout the book. Online dating is such a crazy world and it was so interesting to read her trials and tribulations. Loved the double meaning of the title! This book stresses the importance of having a support network around you whether it is family or friends. One can learn a lot from this book and what is important in life.

I got an e-ARC of this book from @netgalley and I am so glad I did! It was a really beautiful, quick read that I found super enjoyable the whole way through.

👻Ghosts👻 by Dolly Alderton is about thirty-two-year-old long time single girl Nina, who tries online dating in all its glory for the first time. She meets a great guy on her first ever date, Max, and they quickly begin a relationship - until he ghosts her, completely ignoring all her texts, calls, and attempts to see him.

This book felt like all the juicy romantic comedy movies I love. There’s a mysterious Italian neighbor, a tragic family plot, and a gaggle of semi-supportive friends whose lives intersect with Nina’s. It was a fun plot, and Alderton’s writing is also wonderful. She’s descriptive, funny, and oh so clever.

Check it out when it comes out on August 3rd!

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is a deep dive into the life of a successful woman in her early thirties watching her world change around her and trying to keep up. Nina Dean is a food writer who has published one book and has another coming out soon. She lives a busy life balancing her job as well as her friends and family. She decides to start dating a year after her long term relationship with Joe ended. Dating isn’t what she expected at all as Max comes barreling into her life and goes rushing out just as quickly. The relationship whiplash she feels is only topped by her father’s decreasing health and her mother’s struggle to cope. Add in friends whose lives are going as expected; get married, move out of the city and have kids and Nina is ready to just hole up in her flat. But the world hasn’t stopped just because Nina hasn’t been checking all the stereotypical boxes in a timely manner so she learns to pick herself back up and move forward how she wants to.


I don’t feel romcom is the best description of this book. It is a contemporary story of a 30-something woman dealing with the societal expectations of women and trying to keep one foot in front of the other. Nina’s friends are people you know in your own life: the friend you’ve had forever so you still view them through your past experiences, the friend you’ve made in adulthood who just gets who you are now and those who keep exes as friends and your friends’ partners who you learn to love or at least tolerate. Friendships are hard even on the simplest days so watching Nina fight to maintain them as life continued changing felt very relatable.


Nina’s on again off again relationship with Max bothered me. I never got attached to Max and for good reason as he was a flake who made dramatic statements and never backed them up with actions. I don’t even want to give more thoughts to him because he just didn’t deserve them.


The situation with Nina’s family broke my heart. She has been so close with her father following his footsteps as an English teacher. Nina’s struggles with watching him lose touch with the present and how much her mum tries to care for him but has a hard time losing her partner. I wasn’t ready for how much this part hurt to read but it also felt relatable.


3 stars for a book that wasn’t what I expected but kept it real and honest.

This novel far exceeded my expectations. I was prepared for a light, cutesy rom-com and while many of the elements are present (the flighty sidekick, the seriously settled best friend with a superiority complex, the loveable ex-BF-turned-BFF), there was so much more to this story. Told from the perspective of single, 30-something Nina, this novel is chock full of spot-on observations about life, love, friendship and family. It was all so clever and relatable, like the notion that some friendships devolve into the type of relationship where you only ever want to go to the movies so you don’t actually have to interact with your friend after the obligatory catch-up chat during the previews. There is nothing I love more than good, witty banter and this book did not disappoint. There’s also an important subplot, where we see Nina come to terms with her father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. It’s a realistic and heartbreaking portrayal that took this book outside the realm of typical romantic comedies.

I only have a few minor complaints – the one liner about pronouns on social media and scoffing at a woman who specified she/her when there was no danger of her ever being misgendered (Alderton’s words, not mine); the overabundance of references to George Michael; the fact that Nina was a food writer and the only thing she “cooked” in the entire course of a year was a plate of bananas smothered in condensed milk.

On the whole, I loved this book. I loved that Nina was fully capable of standing on her own, and that she found fulfillment outside of the dating world. Without giving anything away, I will say that parts of the story absolutely infuriated me, and I wanted to fling my Kindle across the room. But it just goes to show you, sometimes you’ll find that Happily Ever After was right in front of you all along.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for the ARC of this delightful novel.