I really enjoyed this book because it is so relatable to the present day! It was such a funny read and I found myself laughing out loud at certain parts. My husband probably thinks I'm crazy. But anyway, this book was cute and fun and a great read!

The story follows Nina who is a teacher, cookbook writer and owns a supper club in London. This is a funny look at life in your 30's through the eyes of Nina and her experiences in online dating. We also get to see her girlfriend Lola's experiences.
The book is a humorous look at life in your 30's while you are still single and looking for love.

Another memorable character is Nina's downstair neighbor Angelo.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is the story of Nina Dean who is doing a fine job of handling her life, thank you very much. She has a great job, her own apartment, an ex who she has a wonderful relationship with and she doesn't mind being single and in her early 30s. But her friend convinces her to try a dating app, so she does and meets Max, who is absolutely perfect for her...until he ghosts her. Then she has to face the not so perfect parts of her life...her father's slide into Alzheimer's, her mother's refusal to accept it, her crazy neighbor who makes noise at all hours and is generally a miserable human and her friend who is encouraging her to get back on the dating app and try again. But Nina was happy before she met Max...can she be happy again?

A charming novel with delightful characters that will steal your heart. Thank you to the author, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I struggled to connect to the main character and found that her narrative of her romantic life to be, quite honestly, boring and hard to want to stick with. Nina felt like a compilation of stereotypes without much substance, so it was difficult to care much about what was happening to her. I tried to like this book, and found it to be be disappointing.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for an early copy in honor of the paperback release in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved Dolly Alderton's essays -- they felt a bit narrow in scope of life experience, yes, but they resonated with me in the ways that women deal with life and love in early adulthood. The way that people around us seem to be moving on to something bigger (marriage, kids, moving) while if we are not doing that we get left behind.. What I liked most about Ghosts is how it felt like it could become this depressing narrative that I read so often about women in their early thirties. I feel like every book I read about that takes a turn for the worst and I am left feeling quite dreadful myself, but Aldteron did not do that and for that I am thankful.

Instead, we see Nina experience things that we all go through: breakups, makeups, noisy neighbors, distancing friendships, aging parents, and trouble with her creative work. But none of these are catastrophic -- she just gets through them like we all do. Which might seem boring but it's not at all because it feels realistic. Obviously, I think she should have sworn off men right away and avoided the whole mess but what can you do. I think some of these -- particularly parents aging -- is something I want more of in narratives about women at that age. It's something many of us will have to get through and it is very isolating. Perhaps that -- the farewell of our childhoods -- is the most isolating thing about being an adult.

Anyway, this was four stars for me (because I was a bit peeved about Nina's choices).

This book is probably very relatable for some women. Dating apps, being ghosted, finding and sometimes losing love. I enjoyed the strong female presence in it. I did find the first half of this book fairly slow and sort of choppy. There were a decent amount of characters and I felt sometimes I wasn't sure who was who anymore. The second half of the book picked up steam and I found myself really enjoying the pace, the stories of the different characters, and the little turn of events. Then it ended, I was a little disappointed because right when I started to enjoy the book I didnt get any sort of closure on our main character, her family, her downstairs or upstairs neighbors. There seemed to be a hard build up, then a lack of follow through. With that being said, I did enjoy the premise and the main story line I just felt there were too many side stories and the book was ended before it was all wrapped up. Still a cute book and a quick read.
#Ghosts
#Netgalley

Not sure how I feel about this book. Some parts were good and quick moving, and some were slow for me.
The story is about Nina, who is single and a food writer. It's about her friends and their relationships, and the new people Nina meets.
Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the advanced copy of this book.

I had a hard time getting through this book, it wasn't until about 60% through the book that it finally got decent and picked up pace. Ghosts is described as a romantic comedy, but I would disagree with this description. There is romance, but this book is also a drama dealing with friendships as we grow in age and within ourselves, family dynamics, and seeing a loved one's health fail.

I wasn't sure if I was supposed to not like the character, Nina, or if I just didn't understand the character. Or maybe my experiences don't allow me to understand Nina's perspective and how she reacts to certain situations. Half the book she complains about her friends that have kids, she's upset that they're changing as people because they have kids and has the audacity to be angry about it like kids aren't a huge responsibility. Nina complaines about a guy doing something nice as a patriarchal mysognistic faux pas. In addition, the conversations that Nina has with Max, the way he talks seems so unnatural and is more of what some women wish to hear from a man, in my opinion.

I really had a hard time getting through this book, but I can understand women relating to Nina and her experiences. The book slightly choppy in some parts of the book from one to chapter to the another and then would flow very nicely, like the author is trying to find her rythm. I wanted to like this book but I never could get into it.

Nina George Dean is a 32-year-old single food writer living in London and slowly watching her pool of friends marry off and grow their families. Having a more feminist mindset, she doesn’t need a man to complete her, but nonetheless, has the same desire as many for her own family and person to love, if life chooses to bring it her way. Enter the Linx dating app and her match made in heaven, Max.

Max is handsome, kind, supportive, stable … everything Nina could hope for. Their sexual chemistry is off the charts and they spend every moment they can together for three months, even reaching the epic moment when Max says “I love you” and she returns the sentiment.

Then … it’s over. He stops responding to her texts and calls. The weeks drag by. She’s been ghosted by the man of her dreams. The “will they, won’t they” end up together question? I’ll leave that to the reader.

This book has been marketed as a romantic comedy, but as much as I liked it, and I really did for the most part, it feels like a mislabel. It does have plenty of humor and charm, and Alderton’s writing is fantastic, but there’s an awful lot of sadness and tension in this for me to go along with that categorization. Nina’s beloved father, Bill, recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, has a fair chunk of the story highlighting the disintegration of his thinking and personality, as well as Nina’s mother, Nancy’s, dysfunctional response to it. Alderton did an amazing job of portraying it - and the stress it puts on the family - in a realistic light, but it was way too serious for a book marketed as comedy. It felt like two competing stories happening … the one with Nina and Max and the one with Nina and her father.

There are other issues happening in the book as well: the distancing relationship she has with her childhood best friend, Katherine, navigating friendship with her recently engaged ex-boyfriend, Joe, and her toxic relationship with her downstairs neighbor, Angelo. Regarding Angelo, his inclusion in the book and an event involving him at the end, is my one big black mark against it, and I really can’t make sense of why the author went there, despite the book’s explanation.

Plot and believability issues aside, I loved the writing and was completely engaged in the story, and I would absolutely read another book by this author. I just hope the next time around is a little lighter!

★★★ ½ (rounded to 4 for the excellent writing)

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing, Netgalley and author Dolly Alderton for this ARC in exchanged for my honest opinion. This will be published August 3, 2021.

Nina is dealing with a whole lot of life in her early 30s. The changing landscapes of friendships, family dynamics, health of loved ones, and romantic relationships are making her wonder what she really wants for herself. When she meets Max she thinks that she has found someone she could build a meaningful relationship with and they quickly fall in love. But then Max just stops responding and seemingly disappears from Nina’s life. During his absence she experiences how friendships can shift as people enter different phases of life and how human our parents really are. These were the parts of the story that I identified with most. Nina’s father is facing dementia and she and her mother are on different pages about his care. This was a heartbreaking and very real storyline that I have experienced with the same sadness and stress. The author did a beautiful job of showing how both Nina and her mother loved her father while approaching his illness from different perspectives.

I had a harder time relating to the storyline with Nina and Max, maybe because I don’t think I could have reconnected with him after the “ghosting”. I did understand Nina’s desire to see the relationship through and the desire to expect the best of those you love. Ultimately I loved Nina’s friendships and her resiliency. The end of the story was realistic, satisfying, and full of hope. I am excited for Dolly Alderton’s next book.

Thanks to Dolly Alderton, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the ARC!
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2.5 stars rounded up to 3 for me. Ghosts was a solidly average book. I'm not sure how else to put it without sounding offensive.
There were funny parts that I enjoyed, but much of the book fell just a little too flat for me to really enjoy/connect with fully.

Nina Dean is single and not bothered by it. She is a published author with another one on the way, she’s friends with her ex as well as having a few good friends.

On the negative side, her father has dementia and her mother seems to have turned into a whole new person!

Of course, she joins a dating site. And of course, she meets a man who ghosts her. We’ve all done it. But Nina is not giving up. But she really should.

I really wanted to like this book, but goodness how depressing it was. Everyone was behaving badly and wondering why they weren’t happy.

NetGalley/ August 3rd, 2021 by Knopf

Ghost by Dolly Alderton is an excellent summer read. It completely takes me back to living in London as a 20-something. The main character is new to the online dating scene, and the too-common phenomenon of “ghosting” someone you’ve been dating. On top of that, she is balancing the needs of her aging parents, one of whom is suffering from cognitive issues that continue to decline. Despite all this, Ms Alderton gives us a funny and heart warming story of friendship and family. Highly recommended.

This book was well written. The main character was mostly likable, but I felt it hard to relate to her. This is a great book for people in college or early twenties.
I would like to thank Knopf and NetGallery for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This one was a very relatable tale of dating - especially using online services and apps. The world today is full of ghosts, people who can’t be bothered to actually communicate and find it easier to just disappear.
While the ending was so realistic- I wished for more happiness for our main character and her bestie.

This was a difficult book to rate. Some parts were quite funny with intelligent humor. But Nina rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning, with the way it felt like she was judging everyone she knew from her friends and their husbands to her parents. She even pre-judged the neighbor and got into a ridiculous war with him instead of behaving like an adult. There was just too much mocking of everyone else instead of looking in the mirror and maybe realizing that she was part of the problem.

The part with her dad was quite sad, and these were the moments where she felt more human to me. Regarding Max, I was hoping she would grow a spine and handle that completely differently than she did. She is supposed to be in her 30s, not high school. This book felt very long and dragged in places. I was not motivated to finish it until Max was back on scene to see how that would be handled, and then that turned into a disappointment. The ending did not satisfy me; I prefer happy endings and this just seemed to end with nothing resolved.

This was an interesting book. You get inside Nina's head and how she feels about her friends and the events around her. I feel like you just got a snippet of her life. I would love to know what happened in the future.

Whew -- this book will stick with me. I found it layered and meaningful, even more so upon reflection than while reading it. I appreciate how the author explores various types of love -- romantic, self, family, new friends, old friends, and platonic friendship between former lovers. I thought the technique of telling the story through a year in the main character's life worked well in this case, bringing themes of seasonality and growth into focus while also feeling like natural bookends of the story. This was a quick and enjoyable read, but one with substance.

Ghosts should be required reading for all women in their late 20s. This is what growing up is like- friends who have moved on in life, boyfriends that disappear, parents that are losing their memories. To get through it you just need to be honest and learn to laugh. I love the conversations Nina has with her mom and her two friends. They contain the information younger women need to get through the crap of life. And in the end, you need hope.

Harlequin Junkie Top Pick!

 Profound wisdom leaps off the pages as our protagonist Nina navigates a life thwarted with the perfect combination of liberation, self-reliance, security and absolute fear in Ghosts. Set in London, Nina progresses through an 18 month cycle in her early 30s, attempting to understand love, its gifts and sneaky thefts – love in all its wondrous magnitude, whilst putting herself back on the dating market, and equally, coming to terms with her beloved fathers’ dementia.

As a first person narrative, we explore Nina’s life first hand; her ironic pot luck in succeeding with her first dating app experience, her friendship transitions as everyone she loves seems to be getting married or having babies, her successful career as a food writer, and her various observations, self-deprecation and witticisms, as she comes to terms with who she is and what she really wants. Thus, in a very real and certainly metaphorical sense, Nina’s tale is about understanding her own ghosts – ghosts from childhood, ghosts in friendships, ghosts in her family and more recently, the obscene way that people can cut others off whom they have previously claimed to love. Embedded with astute social observations and wrapped in a type of feminist realism, this RomCom will have you nodding, sighing and laughing simultaneously whilst crossing toes and fingers for a type of happily ever after that only comes from an honest place.

Given the inherent honesty within the text, Nina was brilliantly drawn, along with all of the characters throughout her journey. Lola, her unclaimed best friend, is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best side characters a novel can offer up; honest, vulnerable, quirky and shamelessly hilarious. For the most part though, it was the earthy pragmatic undercurrents that didn’t apologise or attempt to be anything but, that held serious weight throughout.

Despite her very real heartbreaks, at no juncture did Nina fall into the typical narcissistic pit that saw her wallowing in herself for too long, and in fact, her reality was so very 30 something that she was able to start listening to and thus use her own voice to destroy some of the silence she had experienced for years. For Nina, her relationship with her father was a bedrock of her own identity, and in more ways then one, her narrative is nuanced with a philosophical take on memory, and how our experiences invariably shapes us by providing a framework of love and understanding that ultimately determines the way we live our lives.

Overall, Ghosts was a seriously impressive novel that covered so much in a short time frame and dabbled in trying to come to terms with what it is about love that makes us unapologetically human; romantically, platonically, and unconditionally – I can’t recommend the inherent insight, laughter and warmth within this one enough!