Pear Shaped by Stella Newman

Pear Shaped is Stella Newman's debut book. I had this ready to read on my kindle but decided to save it for the holiday as I loved the sound of the plot and so was sure it was one I was really going to enjoy. I was looking forward to having a few good laugh out loud moments after reading how "witty" and "achingly funny" it was.

Plot

If you found yourself glued to David Nicholls’s One Day or belting out the lyrics to Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black then you’ll love this book.Girl meets boy.Girl loses boy.Girl loses mind.Sophie Klein walks into a bar one Friday night and her life changes. She meets James Stephens: charismatic, elusive, and with a hosiery model ex who casts a long, thin shadow over their burgeoning relationship. He’s clever, funny and shares her greatest pleasure in life – to eat and drink slightly too much and then have a little lie down. Sophie’s instinct tells her James is too good to be true – and he is.An exploration of love, heartbreak, self-image, self-deception and lots of food. Pear-Shaped is in turns smart, laugh-out-loud funny and above all, recognizable to women everywhere.


My Opinion
I have struggled to write this review. I really wanted to enjoy this book but I think I got my hopes up a bit too much after reading the synopsis and the comments about how funny it was. I have to say there is not one moment in this book where I found my self smiling let alone laughing, I really don't think you can call this a "funny" book.
The first half of the book started off ok but just under half way through the pace really started to take a dive and I had to struggle along to manage to finish the book.
I think the main problem for me in this book was that I really couldn't see what it was that Sophie sees in James. He has to be the most awful male character I have ever read as the love interest in a book, he constantly puts Sophie down and not in a tactful way, I just couldn't figure out why she would put up with so much negativity in a relationship when he clearly was holding her at arms length not wanting a serious relationship. He is such a vile character that my faults towards his character soon took over any enjoyment in the book.
The best parts in this book were when Sophie went to work, when Stella Newman talks about desserts in this book the story seemed to flow a lot easier as did the relationship between Sophie and Will. It was because of these parts of the book that I didn't give the book a 2 star.

This would not be the kind of book I would read again but at the special price on kindle at the moment (99p) it will be worth reading just don't expect to get a stitch from laughing too much!