To the moon and back

My first book in the What's in a name challenge (travel/movement book) and book number 11 in the 100+ reading challenge.


To the moon and back
by: Jill Mansell


Outer back cover: When Ellie Kendall tragically loses her husband she feels her life is over. But eventually she's ready for a new start - at work, that is. She doesn't need a new man when she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company...
Zack McLaren seems to have it all, but the girl he can't stop thinking about won't give him a second glance. If only she'd pay him the same attention she lavished on his dog.
Moving to North London, Ellie meets neighbour Roo who has a secret of her own. Can the girls sort out their lives? Guilt is a powerful emotion, but a lot can happen in a year in Primrose Hill...


I bought this book at the airport in Brussels, but I didn't read much on the plane and it has just been lying next to my bed for the last two weeks, not because it was boring, but because I've had so much else to do. Yesterday  picked it up again and read the last 300 pages, almost in one sitting.


Not that I can even begin to imagine how it must feel like to lose a husband, but I think Ellie's emotions and thoughts are very realistic, she thinks a lot like I would in most situations. At the same time I also get very exasperated with the decisions she make.


The book is full of clichés, but personally I still found the book interesting because there were quite a few surprising things happening, and I almost said "NOOO!" out loud a couple of times. In other words: typical "chick-lit", but I like those books, obviously or I wouldn't be reading them. The book could very easily be turned into a big Hollywood chick-flick.


My favourite part of the book was when Ellie had the flu, it was both funny and charming and made me wish I had someone that would take care of me in that way, although part of it was a bit over the top. My favourite character was Roo, who undergoes a massive change during the book, but I liked her both before and after, although I think she was occasionally being a bit too difficult after.