31 DREAM STREET by LISA JEWELL

31 DREAM STREET

BY LISA JEWELL

THE BLURB:-

Leah and Toby have lived across the street from one another for years without meeting... and in that time Leah has been itching to peek behind the front door of Toby's eccentric house, always packed to the rafters with weird and wonderful tenants. When fate finally lets her in, Leah finds that Toby needs her as much as she is surprised to realize she might need him.

Sometimes life needs a helping hand- with a sprinkle of romance and their own special magic, Toby and Leah's dreams show the glimmer of a chance of coming true.

THE REALITY:-

This was a novel I raced through from start to finish- because I was eager to get through it and move on to the next book waiting in my reading pile, one that will maybe have some bearing on the way I earn my money. For too long now, I have been stuck in a crappy retail fashion sales job. I'm a designer by trade but it seems that there are very few jobs available nowadays so I'm spending my days dumbing down my skills, which is a truly ridiculous situation to be in. I'm not upset about leaving fashion designing behind- I can still do it for myself, after all, and am delighted to be able to embrace writing as my future- but my financial back-up job needs to change soon, and it will... watch this space!

Back to the book... It was easy to get through this novel quickly as it wasn't a bad read but it was the worst of the three Lisa Jewell books I've read. The formatting was very appealing, with short chapters (which meant that finishing “just one more chapter” before going to bed became five more chapters) and also a collection of lists, letters, a postcard, a divorce petition and an engagement party invite. I liked this- it kept the story quite fresh and gave the book a modern feel.

There didn't seem to be a point to this book as I wasn't sure where the story was going. There was no definite obvious conclusion to dwell upon (like, say, in a murder mystery, where the whole story revolves around outing the perpetrator) and it came across more as a documentary detailing the general lives of the characters. Shame, as they were very varied, easy to picture and interesting, as was the magnificent house glorified in the title.

It wasn't until page 154 that the book really started to pick up and draw me in, when we learn that Daisy has cystic fibrosis. Many years ago, I knew a man who had this condition. A fun kind of guy. And the inevitable happened to him. He was only around twenty eight years old, poor chap, so that aroused a few memories. This book shows exactly what bad parenting can do to a person (and yes, there's a lot of it out there) and the person I could relate to the most was Ruby- made superfluous to requirements by her mother, she takes a long while to grow up as she's still in need of nurturing. I also found Con's attitude towards her after they'd slept together not very kind. Yes, he may have regretted it but don't take it out on Ruby- it takes two to tango, after all. And I also empathized with Toby's antisocial, wary-of-people, state. Yep, not all of us are people people and some of us have to really push ourselves to “put ourselves out there” in any way that doesn't involve sitting behind a computer. Joanne was another horror story and her predicament brought a tear to my eye, but I shan't spoil it for you.

I didn't catch on to the (spoiler alert!) Leah and Toby romance thing until right near the end. Maybe the subtlety was the whole point, but it was wasted on me! Having said that, I wouldn't call this book bad and would recommend it. It's something that's not too heavy and something nice to read on holiday on the beach, or while you're off work sick.