Mad About the Boy

What do you do when a girlfriend's 60th birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend's 30th? Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating?

Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice? Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant? Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood?

Is sleeping with someone after 2 dates and 6 weeks of texting the same as getting married after 2 meetings and 6 months of letter writing in Jane Austen's day?

Pondering these, and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of single-motherhood, tweeting, texting and redisovering her sexuality in what some people rudely and outdatedly call middle age.

My opinion: I was so excited about this third book in the Bridget franchise. That was until I read that Fielding had killed off Darcy. This threw me into a state of disarray, and whereas I would have definitely bought the hardback copy, this revelation left me in doubt as to whether I wanted to read it at all.

I had some audible tokens to use up, so started off by listening to this book (begrudgingly, but curiosity got the better of me!) and when it got reduced to £1.99 on the Kindle, I decided to finish off reading it myself as I wasn't keen on the audiobook narrator.

I'm going to jump straight into my thoughts on this one, and will start with the positives. This very much has the same feel as the previous Bridget Jones books and is still in a diary form. In lots of ways it was like catching up with an old friend and in lots of ways she hasn't changed. She is just as accident prone and hopeless with men as ever, but now with two children and twitter! Quite a dangerous combination!!

Fielding's writing style hasn't been adapted in any way so Bridget's voice is still very much the same. Overall it was an enjoyable read and I'm glad that I gave in to my curiosity with the book and overcame my stubbornness. However, there were a number of things that seriously grated on me.

I have to just say it. Why the hell did Fielding think it would be a good idea to kill off Darcy?? In what world is that ok?! I hated this element of the storyline. I understand that the story is about Bridget getting back into the dating scene and getting into predicaments with men, but surely there could have been another way? I would have much preferred if they had got divorced and he was still in her life. This would have provided more comic value and we could have avoided the dark and sad undertones of the story. I couldn't get over this point in the story, but accept that this is probably just my opinion.

In non-Darcy related matters, where the f**k was Shaz?? Jude and Tom were very much present, but no mention of Shaz. Also, I want to know more about the intervening period between book 2 and 3. I found that I got lost in the story now and again because I couldn't quite grasp how the point had been reached.

All in all, it was a great catch up with some old friends (minus Darcy *sob* and Shaz), but I think this should be the end of Bridget's adventures. I would even go as far as saying that I hope this one doesn't get made into a film as I don't think it is worthy. I'd recommend to Bridget fans, but with the health warning that our favourite thirty something singleton is now in a very different place, and certainly made me look at my former heroine differently.

My rating: Even though I enjoyed it overall, I can't give more than three stars