I was so excited to hear Dolly Alderton was writing her first novel after absolutely loving her memoir Everything I Know About Love. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers, I received an ARC of Ghosts and it certainly did not disappoint!

Above all, I adore Dolly’s writing style and her wit and humour (I’ve a bit of a girl crush). I laughed out loud numerous times and sent many quotes to my friends. Dolly is also so observant; she has a deft way of including nostalgia and describing feelings or conclusions in ways that really make sense.

Ghosts is about 32 year old Nina Dean, a single woman in London. As an ode to Dolly’s recipes in her first book, Nina is a successful food writer. The book follows her relationships, friendships and family as well as expectations of women in their late twenties and thirties. Some of her friends are married with children, whereas others - like the hilarious Lola - are serial daters. Nina finds it hard to strike a balance between her ‘settled’ friends and single life, as well as trying to understand millenial males and their attitudes to dating and commitment.

At times the story is difficult and emotional as Nina’s father has early dementia and it describes the toll it can take on families, something I’ve witnessed first hand.

The name Ghosts is fantastically relevant. Yes it literally discusses how people ‘ghost’ others in relationships, but also how memories and the past define the present and future.

This book is a 5/5 for me. It is so relatable and I felt like the characters were old friends. I will certainly be buying a copy upon its release in October!

Now I am completely biased here as Dolly can do no wrong in my eyes but WOW what a debut fiction novel!! She smashed it!

Alderton is best known for her memoir, journalism and incredible Podcast so this was a new venture for her. It was everything I wanted it to be! Funny, tender, emotional and thought provoking.

Ghosts is the story of Nina, a food journalist in her 30s navigating adulthood. This story touched on heavy topics like heartbreak and dementia as well as encapsulating Dolly's usual humour and social commentary.

I absolutely bloody loved this book and recommend to all!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for an early copy of Dolly Alderton's debut novel!

Nina Dean is a successful food writer who finding herself single at 32, decides to navigate the murky waters of modern dating & dating apps. She quickly finds herself entangled in an all consuming relationship only to be ghosted in the most brutal way imaginable. At the same time, she watches as her beloved dad is vanishing in slow motion into dementia, and starting to think about ageing and the gendered double-standard of the biological clock. On top of this she has to deal with her mother's desire for a mid-life makeover and the fact that all her friends seem to have moved to a different stage in their lives, getting married & starting families.

The novel explores themes familiar to the readers of Everything I Know About Love: being single, dating in your 30s, how friendships evolve as we grow & follow different paths in life, being child-free. Alderton does not miss the opportunity to paint the London I love with bold strokes and describes modern dating in a (painfully) accurate manner. Her characters are relatable without being clichéd. Overall, I think it's a solid debut novel that is tender, moving & witty at the same time; its prose is beautifully crafted.

I was able to see my 30-something single friends in Nina's character and can also see myself there in a few years, which the novel made daunting but also framed in a positive light ultimately. Ghosts is a big yes for me (might go as far and suggest that I enjoyed it more than Alderton's essay collection), so keep your eyes peeled!

What a book! I was expecting a light hearted, chick lit book that would just flow over me... What I got was the best of that genre with serious, compassionate issues and a great story.

Nina is 32, still single and dealing with multiple issues in her life as well as looking for a relationship. Although the title ghosts refers to her being ghosted by a man, there are ghosts all over the book - ghosts of past relationships, the ghost of her father... The dementia storyline is handled fantastically and so realistically, I welled up on more than one occasion.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to women in their thirties who will especially enjoy it. Dolly Alderton has such a fun, clever way of writing and talking about even the most serious things its feels personal and thoughtful but not tragic. More on my review here: https://fashionandfrappes.com/raves-rants-and-reviews-july-2020-dolly-alderton/

Amazing read by dolly Alderton again . each character is described in depth and we see how friendships grow.
I didn’t want this to end and I’m sure a sequel should come of it .
Recommended to several friends this will the read of 2020

Nina Dean has a successful career as a food writer, great friends, and a lovely but somewhat eccentric family - now she wants to fall in love. Nina joins dating apps for the first time and experiences the highs and lows that come with modern dating, adding to the fact her friendships are disintegrating as her girlfriend's lives move at different speeds and her family that begins to fall apart as her Dad begins vanishing to dementia. There is definitely more to this story than just a modern romance.

I’m going to start by stating the obvious - if you’re a Dolly Alderton fan you will love this book. I felt you could almost hear her voice in Nina with the use of words such as ‘romp’. Ghosts is about so much more than ghosting in the way you would expect - it covers a wide range of relationships from parent/child, friends, marriage, new relationships, neighbours - you name it it’s in this book! Dolly has crafted all of her characters so beautifully it was impossible not to enjoy (I especially liked Nina’s mum who struck me as a bit of a Pam from Gavin and Stacey). As well as being fun and funny, Ghosts also made me quite emotional in parts and examine my own life and relationships which is another reason I loved this book!

I’ve given this book five stars and without being a giant walking cliche it is a perfect millennial love story that every 20 something will be able to relate to in some way! I would rush to buy this when it’s released in October!

After devouring Alderton’s first book Everything I Know About Love at the start of lockdown (which also kick-started my reading bug again), I knew I had to read her first fiction novel, Ghosts. Following 32-year-old protagonist Nina Dean, the story tackles the varying states of friendships, relationships, and family matters through exploring the idea of ‘ghosting’ – whether that be in the twenty-first century communicative sense, the ghost of a person, or the memories we leave all around the city we grow up in that are also embedded in us. The novel also talks about what happens when a parent experiences Dementia in both a realistic and emotionally touching manner.

From the first few lines you immediately feel as if you know Nina, as well as her friends and family. These characters are instantly recognisable – at least in my own city life – without being stereotypical. From Lola, the lovable daydreamer to Katherine, the childhood best friend who has become a stressed-out mother. It is so easy to care about these characters and root for them – though it’s never clear what we are supposed to root for (in a good way), as what we want in life constantly changes, whether due to necessity, or because we reassess what we want when outside the concept of ‘conventional’.

Alderton has such a gorgeous writing style, simply catching the most ordinary moments in such a beautiful way. There were moments in the book where I had to put it down for a moment and process, the moments when Nina and Lola hypothesise about ghosting definitely made me reflect on my previous relationships (“I provided him with a feeling that he enoyed. But he couldn’t quite see the actual outline of me”).

An open-hearted debut fiction novel. I drunk it up in 3 sittings.

I picked up this book as a lighthearted girly read in between some dark books and I was... blown away with what I got.

It isn't a typical romcom at all, its deep. It covers so many topics beautifully, it feels so modern and heartwarming but it really made me reflect on my own life and place people I know as the characters within the story. I couldn't stop reading it.

5/5.

My husband was hospitalised with Covid 19 back in April and I had no choice but to face the possibility that I might never get him back again and to even think about what would I do if he didn't make it. When I finally got him home I told him that it was a damned good thing he hadn't died because there was absolutely no way on earth that I'd ever go online to look for a new man. 'Ghosts' reminded me of that vow and made me so glad that I was dating in an era before online dating.

It used to be that people met their dates at work or through friends or shared interests. I'm not saying no guy ever treated a woman badly because that's clearly not true, but if he did - especially if he did it again and again - word got around. Friends told friends to stay away from the bad ones. These days, people can be quite deep into a sexual and emotional relationship without knowing their partner's birthday, middle name, where they work or who they are. When a guy gets cold feet today, it's relatively easy to just disappear or 'ghost' a girl. It probably cuts both ways, but in this novel, it's the men who ghost the women and they're utter bastards for it.

I'd just finished another NetGalley ARC which had been rather heavy going. I thought 'Ghosts' would be a bit of light and insubstantial fluff of the type that I seldom read and about which I tend to be generally very dismissive. It wasn't. This book has a lot of hidden depths. It is WAY more and WAY better than the cover blurb. The writing is excellent, the main character is no airhead bimbo, and she's got plenty of very real-world problems to deal with; setting up as a professional food writer, dealing with a mother who's having a mid-life crisis and a father in the early stages of dementia, and redefining friendships with people she's known for years. She also has the best relationship with an ex that I think I've ever read. We read about how roughly the world treats single women in their thirties but not in any 'poor me' way. And then there's a spectacularly aggressive relationship with her downstairs neighbour who might be a potential killer - or might not. We learn a lot about the lies people tell each other.

This isn't a book that I expected to like, let alone to love but it delivered on so many different levels. And I was happy that the author delivered a happy ending that didn't comply with all the expected stereotypes.

I received a free ARC copy in return for an honest review. Thank you to them and the publishers.

Uncannily relatable, this was the ‘it’s not you, it’s them’ advice that I’ve needed for years. Max and Kat and Lola are all incredibly recognisable in our lives, some fondly, some sadly. I loved how the three stories - her family, her relationship with Max, and with Angelo are thought provoking, funny, and all add new dimensions to the story. What I loved most though, was that it’s not genre-predictable. It’s not got a ‘happily ever after’ and that felt very much ‘on brand’ for the protagonist.

When I started this book I thought I knew what would happen. Nina is a thirty something with a job she loves but looking for a man. So far, so blah. But, without giving away the plot, it wasn't a straight forward girl meets boy.
The book is very much of its time and of a certain time of life. The trials of dating, the changes in friendships when people start getting married and having kids and the realisation that out parents are ageing.
I got really invested in it. It's a rare book that makes me feel so frustrated at the characters, so upset and what's going on and so wanting to know what happened next.

Ghosts is a heartwarming story, that mirrors today’s society very well. As heart breaking as ghosting can be, the strength of friendship reminds you that we all go through life in a different way, at different times. There is no perfect way of doing things, and the relationship she has with her parents extends that to the level of growing up, as adult alongside your parents, not always agreeing but doesn’t mean you just give up on people.
An absolute read for anyone, not just women being ghosted.

If you enjoyed, ‘Everything I Know About Love’, then you will adore this book. The narrative follows the life of Nina Dean and her relationships with men, family and friends. Alderton captures the intricacies of modern friendships, family life and love within beautiful metaphorical descriptions. Her observations on the pressure of dating apps, weddings and having children are incredibly relatable. It has moments of real humour from awkward hen dos to irritating neighbours. Yet, Dolly perfectly balances this with Nina’s pain surrounding her father’s dementia. This is ultimately a book that has been crafted with immense talent. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for this advance copy!

Alderton took the world by storm with “Everything I Know About Love“, so naturally everyone is anticipating her debut fiction novel. I hadn’t read her previous novel, so this is my first experience with her work. And honestly... it’s underwhelming. I tried not to have high expectations because they never match up, but it was still an okay book, but nothing spectacular.

Because it follows a formula that I’ve noticed in a few contemporary fiction novels.

There are a lot of trends when something becomes popular, and recently it’s the ‘millennial coming of age story’ trend. It’s where the twenty or thirty something year old woman trying to navigate love and relationships and career goals. I think it really came into popularity with Sally Rooney’s “Normal People“ and so many stories are following this pattern. They’ve always reached a rut where their career or their love lives have stagnated, so she goes on a journey to discover what they want and learn more about herself. I’ve seen it so much I know instantly how it’s going to end, and I’m never excited for those stories. And I really hated “Normal People”, so I should’ve known I wouldn’t love this, but Alderton’s novel has more substance than “Normal People” ever had.. The relationship between Nina and her father, who is slowly losing himself to dementia. It had some nuances that I hadn’t seen explored often, so this added a freshness to the tired formula, even if it wasn’t enough to revitalise it. I liked the friendships portrayed, the dissatisfaction the traditional nuclear family, and inauthenticity of modern day life when everything is out online to be judged.

If you’re looking for an easy holiday read, then this will satisfy your tastes. Alderton definitely has a distinct voice, and can obviously explore love and friendships with nuance and vulnerability well, but I just wished it explored something more than the tired and trendy formula. My review is more of a it wasn’t for me issue than being a bad book, because it definitely is not, so I hope for success to come Alderton’s way with her new release.

I really enjoyed this book - clever, funny and moving, it absolutely lived up to the expectations set in place by Everything I Know About Love.

I devoured this book so quickly, Dolly Alderton writes in a way that is instantly relatable. Although there were times I found it slightly cynical I am so glad it didn't end in the same way that a lot of romantic novels do where the girl runs back to the guy. I really enjoyed reading this and I hope she continues to write fiction!

This was such a compulsive read - did not expect being unable to put it down! The flow of the story, the friendships, and the struggle - were very relatable.

A gréât read full of twists and laughs and a great ending that was not really what I expected. A modern look at love, dating and friendship.

Dolly Alderton's writing somehow manages to be both sincere and irreverent, funny and wise. Her writing is sentimental in a way that so few writers can pull off (and why that word is so often used as a criticism). Everything I Know About Love was the most relatable, wise and memorable piece of writing so I was excited and intrigued to see how her very distinct and engaging voice would translate to Dolly's debut novel. Of course, Dolly's journalistic voice translates into wonderful, wise and witty fiction. I regularly highlighted passages that struck a chord or made me laugh out loud. Funny, heartfelt, packed full of emotion and empathy and flawlessly readable. Ghosts is exactly the sort of novel we need in today's world.