Book Review: A Year of Being Single by Fiona Collins #BookReview #WomensFiction #AYearOfBeingSingle

Title: A Year of Being Single

Author: Fiona Collins

Publisher: HQ digital, Carina

Date: April 21st, 2016

Pages: 260

Format: eARC

Source: from Publisher for a review

Review:

This year I made a decision to clear out my Netgalley shelf, so there are lots of backlists reviews coming your way, so be prepared!

A Year of Being Single is the one title I had on my tbr for the longest time, and there are really no excuses why I haven’t picked it up before. I could bore you with me whining how I didn’t have time to read all the titles I wanted to, how I was in a reviewing slump that lasted for almost a and all that jazz, but I won’t.
The one important thing is, I am reviewing it now, so I’ll just say “Better late then never”.

My expectations for A Year of Being Single weren’t too high to begin with, but I did expect it to be better then it was.

The story follows three friends, Imogen, Frankie and Grace who all decide to spend a year as single ladies. This sounds like a good premise for fun, right?
Well, the story itself wasn’t fun at all.
I am not sure if the sense of humour in this book was very different for my own, so I didn’t laugh at all while reading, or is it the fact that this book actually wasn’t funny.
I know there are so many books out there that are masterpieces and they don’t have any jokes in them, aren’t funny at all, but if you promise me a laugh-out-loud story in your premise, then I expect to smile at least once!

Also, I expected that A Year of Being Single would be a novel about friendship and relationships friends have with each other, but what we really got in this book were three different stories to follow, about three women who decided to be single, but are kind of desperate about it.

I didn’t like how they lied to each other about men they were hanging out with. I mean, if you’re singe, you can still mingle!
It’s like these characters “decided” to do a year of celibate, not of being single. I mean, you don’t have to whore yourself while being single, but we all know that being single does not mean not even talking to guys or having some fun while building relationship with yourself.

What I also didn’t click with is how these women had a need to change guys. 
It is very different from my point of view on relationships. I believe that you have to find yourself a person you like, to be with him/her, and not someone you would like if only this/that was different about them.
People are not projects, and there is a reason why there are so many of us. If you constantly have to change people around you, ask yourself whether the one who needs to change is you!

The story is written in third person, following perspectives of Grace, Frankie and Imogen.

Out of all of them, I liked Frankie’s story the best, even though I still don’t understand how could she just leave her four children because she had enough.
I still wonder if I misunderstood that part!

Overall, this was a quick read and I would still recommend it to women’s fiction lovers.