Lisa Jewell, Vince and Joy

I loved this book instantly and was hooked from the very first page as the group of friends recalled how they lost their virginity. Vince's story is so captivating and you so desperately want everything to work out for him and Joy. I loved the fact it was so true to life and the characters were so realistic, from the really down to earth step father who swears like a trooper and the miserable snobbish possessive George who is so stifling. i couldn't read it fast enough and loved every page. It is a really easy read and really tugs at your emotions.

Vince and Joy

Lisa Jewell

HarperCollins, Oct 2006, $14.95

ISBN: 0061137464

In England, thirty-something-year-old friends were discussing the time they lost their virginity. Vince explains that he was nineteen years old when he met eighteen-year-old Joy seventeen years ago in 1986 at the Hunstantan camp site. His stepfather Cliff pushed them together and they eventually made love. The next morning, she and her parents were gone; a note that he concluded was a Dear John letter was left behind, but most of the writing washed away in the rain. The only clear statement is "I am so ashamed", which he assumed meant about their lovemaking.

Years later Cliff mentioned that he had to beat up Joy's dad because the punk was fondling his wife, Vince's mother, over her objections. Vince realizes that Joy was not embarrassed by them but by her dad. As he searches for her, he has good and bad luck; he finds her, but she is marrying someone else. Though he has married and divorced and has a child he loves, Vince believes Joy is the only one for him and destiny has failed him once more.

This is an interesting contemporary romance starring two likable protagonists who fall in love at first sight, but fate seems to dictate they stay apart though they meet up several times over the next two decades or so. The storyline is mostly told from the perspective of the lead male as he tells his tale of love discovered, love lost, love re-found, love re-lost, etc. Because this is a deep British character study, some of the vernacular will seem strange to the American audience, but sub-genre fans will still find joy in Vince's fine jewel of a story.

Harriet Klausner