#BookReview : Flying Solo by Zoe May #FlyingSolo #romcom @rararesources @zoe_writes

Hello Readers! I’m excited to share my review of Flying Solo by Zoe May as part of blog tour, organized by Rachel’s Random Resources. Many thanks to Rachel for tour invite and author for providing review copy.

Flying Solo by Zoe May
Publication Date :  6th July 2020
Genre : Romantic Comedy
Pages : 250

Rachel Watson has it all worked out. By 30, she’s ticked off most of the goals on her Life List. She’s a homeowner, a partner at her law firm, she has a gorgeous boyfriend, lots of hobbies and loads of good friends. The only thing that’s missing is a ring on her finger.

According to her Life List, Rachel should be getting hitched around now, so when her boyfriend, Paul, plans a romantic date, Rachel’s pretty confident he’s going to propose. Except Paul has other ideas. He’s jetting off to India to find himself.

Distraught, Rachel doesn’t know what to do. Not one to easily admit defeat, she embarks on a mission to win him back.

Flying solo to India is definitely not on Rachel’s Life List, but could her trip teach her some unexpected lessons about love, life and herself? Could she realise that perhaps her Life List wasn’t exactly what she wanted, after all?

Other books I read by the same author:

Perfect Match

When Polly Met Olly

Flying Solo was delightful romantic comedy that revolved around Rachel’s unplanned trip to Indian ashram. It was about realizing life is better unplanned, finding yourself and true happiness, and finding love at unexpected places at unexpected time.

Writing, like previous books, was entertaining and fun with beautiful setting of Indian ashram in Bangalore. It was first person narrative from Rachel’s POV that made book refreshing and light-hearted.

It started with Rachel expecting to be proposed after 6 years of relationship with her boyfriend, Paul. She planned her whole life, checked all boxes of life list within time period she had set, but getting engaged and hitched. What she didn’t plan/expect was flying to other side of the world. Paul broke up with her on the night she expected him to propose her, packed his bag and gone to some random ashram in India. She couldn’t let go of this long time relationship, she thought this is Paul’s midlife crisis, she could change his mind and win him back. And so started her unplanned adventure in India. I was excited to find out what she would experience in India, how she would adjust to different life style of Ashram, could she win Paul back, what would she learn from this experience and how it would change her.

What I didn’t predict was Paul behavior when he saw Rachel at ashram, his new competitive girlfriend, and how attracted Rachel felt towards a handsome Canadian neighbor in ashram who vowed celibacy. But it all turned out really entertaining and dramatic.

All characters were fun to read. Rachel was lovely throughout the book. She was workaholic, home furnishing obsessed who had her Life List with timeline but she had reason for all that. Her childhood story was realistic and I could see why she was the way she was. At first I didn’t like how she was behaving, taking everything as joke and I couldn’t  believe how she didn’t talk about ashram with her Indian friend before on her way to airport, she had no idea what she was going to find there. But I liked how she tried everything in ashram even though she was skeptic, didn’t believe in meditation or spirituality and how she had her own opinion, kept open mind, and enjoyed her stay.

Her development was great. She got over her break up, made friends, found some shocking things about ashram, and found love. At heart she was nice and lovely and knew her elements, learned that life was better unplanned, keep hobby enjoyable rather than obsess over it, there is nothing wrong in being workaholic but it’s also important to enjoy life, go with the flow, step out of comfort zone, and experience knew thing.

Paul was total jerk. It was unbelievable how he suddenly decided to leave without discussing his decision with her like 6 years of relationship was nothing to him and then disrespecting it by latching on new girl and making Rachel feel bad about how she lived and what she did. Seb was cute. He was friendly and lovely guy and I liked his story. I loved Meera and Priya for how friendly they were and how they helped Rachel.

This is not just romance book, in fact there is very little romance and more about Rachel’s new experience and development. Both Rachel and Seb felt spark, supported each other, and spent time knowing other as best as they could, and we don’t know if there was happily ever after till the end, which I felt was good thing.

What I loved most was seeing India from non-Indian’s eyes. Some titbits about India were real and funny.  Rachel’s thoughts and experience after setting foot in India was hilarious. I laughed at her appalled look on seeing Indian toilet and her room in ashram, and most epic was what she packed in her suit case. Who brings dildo to ashram! Most hilarious scene was Spirit Animal Workshop.

I’m not a fan of Ashram but I liked how author added another layer to story by showing reality behind ashrmas and gurus. What Rachel found about it was not shocking for me as I know these things really happen in some ashrams. I agreed with what she thoughts, how crazily people follow scamming Gurus, throw their logics out of window and make it easy for such scammers to take advantage.

Climax was great with Rachel finding reality of Ashram, her new case, what happened to Paul, and lovely date. End was fun. I liked that end conversations and Rachel’s decision.

Why 4 stars-

I wanted a bit more at the end. An epilogue telling what happened to case or if romance lasted or how long it took for them to get together would have been great.

Overall,

Flying Solo was entertaining, dramatic and lovely romcom with amazing setting and some hilarious scenes. If you are looking for light-hearted, entertaining read that make you laugh, I highly recommend this.

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Purchase Links:

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B082K48FX8/

US  – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082K48FX8/

Author Bio:

Zoe May is an author of romantic comedies. Zoe has dreamt of being a novelist since she was a teenager. She worked in journalism and copywriting in London before writing her debut novel, Perfect Match. Having experienced the London dating scene first hand, Zoe could not resist writing a novel about dating, since it seems to supply endless amounts of weird and wonderful material!

Perfect Match was one of Apple’s top-selling books of 2018. It was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s Joan Hessayon Award, with judges describing it as ‘a laugh out loud look at love and self-discovery – fresh and very funny’.

As well as writing, Zoe enjoys walking her dog, painting and, of course, reading! She adores animals and if she’s not taking a photo of a vegan meal, she’s probably tweeting about the dairy industry. She is half Greek and half Irish and can make a mean baklava. Zoe has a thing for horror films, India, swimming, hip hop and Radiohead. She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of handbags having spent several years working in fashion copywriting and could probably win Mastermind if this was her specialist subject!

Zoe loves to hear from readers, you can contact her on Twitter and Instagram at: @zoe_writes. Zoe’s Facebook page is: www.facebook.com/zoemayauthor/

She posts updates and blogs on her website, www.zoemayauthor.co.uk

Social Media Links : Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

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I hope you enjoyed this review. Let me know what do you think about the book, if you have read this already or any books by the same author. Which is your favorite book set in India.

Happy Reading!

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