Product Description

Ever wondered what happened to your first love? Imagine bumping into them twelve years later and realizing you still fancy them rotten. That’s exactly what happens to Dig Ryan when he sees Delilah again. Now imagine you’re Nadine. You and Dig have been best friends for fifteen years. And you’ve finally realized that you’re in love with him. So when Delilah – who always was your nemesis – returns, you’re mad with jealousy and can’t help behaving childishly. Like phoning your first love Phil – just to get your own back … Thirty-Nothing is a story of ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends and friends dabbling with yesterday when they really should be thinking about today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70873 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"What did you do with the rabbit?" Not a surefire line to seduce a woman perhaps but when Dig Ryan bumps into his first love after a 12-year gap he just can't help himself. Instead of winning her back with his wit and whispered sweet nothings, Dig finds himself faced with an affliction he didn't know he had--he says completely the wrong thing at completely the wrong time. Often. But his ex, the delicious Delilah, seems as keen as he is and it looks like Dig is about to put the something into his thirty-nothing life.

So where does that leave Nadine--Dig's best friend since school? Instead of being thrilled that Dig is settling down, the reunion unlocks her insecurities and she regresses into the "big ginger gooseberry" she was as a teenager. She realises--just when it's too late--that she's in love with him, that she's always been in love with him. And, to make matters worse, she thinks she just might feel better if she gets back in touch with her ex (who Dig reckons is the Antichrist). The result is irresistible; an immensely enjoyable read that will guzzle up the hours and more than delight.

Thirty-nothing is Lisa Jewell's second novel, hot on the heels of Ralph's Party, which sold more than 200,000 copies and was the UK's top-selling debut novel of 1999. Lisa, who is currently writing her third novel, has also contributed a short story to the War Child anthology Girl's Night In, alongside Amy Jenkins, Marian Keyes and Freya North. Her Web site (www.lisa-jewell.co.uk) has a great guide to writing and getting published, plus a quirky list of Lisa's favourite novels and further information about her work. --Jane Honey

The Independent
"Jewell writes with invigorating zest and lashings of what the shrinks might call emotional intelligence - pop fiction at its proudest."

From the Author
Synopsis
"Delilah could have let him down, been a disappointment after all these years. She could have been fat, or old-looking, or happily married with loads of children. She could’ve been rude or stand-offish. But she wasn’t – she was better looking than he remembered, she was obviously unhappily married, had no children and was actually much nicer than she’d ever been when they were together."

Have you ever wondered what happened to your first love?

Imagine bumping into your first love twelve years after you last saw her. Imagine that she’s even more beautiful than she was when she was eighteen and that you ask her out for dinner and she says yes. This is what happens to Dig Ryan on the day of his thirtieth birthday.

Now imagine that you’re Nadine, Dig’s best friend for the last fifteen years. Imagine that Delilah was your nemesis at school and that even after twelve years, you can’t bear to be around her. You might find yourself feeling unexpectedly jealous and you might do something really childish like phoning your first love and asking him out, just to get your own back.

This is a story about ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends and what happens when you start messing with the past. It’s also a story about best friends and growing up and how sometimes what you’re looking for isn’t in the past or in the future, but right under your nose.

Customer Reviews

Predictable!
Digby Ryan hasn't found true love since his best girl mate Nadine didn't want to know. Nadine Kite has spent the rest of her life wishing that she didn't knock him back. But when Delilah Lillie comes on the scene, things change...
Delilah was the cool girl at school, the girl everyone wanted to know. She was Dig's first girlfriend, and took him away from Nadine. She broke Dig's heart.
Suddenly, she comes back on the scene, leaving Nadine's nose firmly out of joint. Nadine is so jealous, that she contacts her first boyfriend, Phil, who was a sponger and compulsive liar.
Then things get predictable. Delilah portrayed as home wrecker. Check. Bouts of drunken jealousy. Check. Pain as characters realise what they should have done in the first place. Check.
A good book for a quick read.

Really Hard Slog
This was a serious challenge to read. Dont get me wrong, the story was perfectly ok. Predictable and fluffy about finding the love of your life in your best friend. But, and it's a big but, i just couldnt get past the altering tense and the author feeling the need to over detail certain things. Sentences at times ran like a biff and kipper book. Sections of narrative severely struggled and i found myself skipping over to the dialogue to prevent myself relegating the book to the back of my bookcase. A shame. It was an ok story, just not great writing.

Predictable and "samey"
Why are all chick fic books set in London? why are the women always precisely the same? This book was quite dull which plodded along with very little actually occurring. I read Ralph's Party and i enjoyed it, but sadly i was very disappointed with this effort. I don't understand the whole "nice" thing thats associated with Dig, i didn't pick up on that at all. To me he was arrogant, self centered and ignorant. The whole story and the characters within the story were a pointless cliche which ended in the worst possible way.