Rating: 
Summary: all I can say is wow.
Review: This was a seriously fabulous book. The author has this way of expressing herself that is both cerebral and innocent. I like the way she dealt with Dig's old love and didn't turn her into the demon that Nadine was expecting. Nothing about this book is old. (Well, ya know, except for the happy ending--but that's what I want anyway so I'm not going to complain.)Most books use such stereotypical characters. The gum popping airhead secretary. The irish cop. The super efficient and heartless businessman. Beautiful being synonomous with both heartless and brainless. You don't get that in this book. These are all actual people. Well, obviously not, but they definitely seem that way. In any case, I can't remember the last time I read a chick lit book and got so much out of it. This book was very refreshing. I am, and I feel it only proper to tell you this right now, entirely against reading a book that leaves me feeling hopelessly depressed and a lot of the chick lit authors I have read have tried to add depth to their plotting by giving their main characters psychological disorders. Usually dealing with one form or another of eating habits or alcoholism. I hate that. This book, thankfully, didn't worry about any of that nonsense. Well, now that i feel utterly heartless for saying the above, I'll give this book twelve thumbs up just as soon as I've found five more hands.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice story could have been better
Review: I liked Dig and Nadine two just turned thiry year olds trying to figure out why they are still single with no serious special person on the horizon. You soon realize even if they don't they are perfect for each other and then enters each ones first loves. Delilah and Phil are back in their lives and they have to sort out their emotions and feelings for each other. Here is where it could have been better. The author spent somuch time building up the conflict between Dig and Nadine over their first loves I got bored and skipped some chapters to get to the good stuff. And boy were there some good stuff building in the second half of the book. If you can hold hold out for the second half you will enjoy the book. the writting is good but I thought this book could have been better if the first have of the book was shorter.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Journey !!
Review: Thirty Nothing is one of those books where you know how it is going to end but the journey is so much fun that you can't stop reading. I found this to be an incredibly fun read !!
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Romp
Review: A quick & funny read. Thankfully lacked the pathos of Ally McBeal & Bridget Jones, which is always so awful because what single girl can't identify just a little bit with the scary desperation those twin pillars of feminine evil unleash in our subconscious? This book was light-hearted, funny and enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: The promise of Ralph's Party fulfilled
Review: I read Lisa Jewell's first novel, Ralph's Party last year when I was on a chicklit kick. I wrote in my review that she was the "top of the second tier" in the category and I would definately read her other novels. I was wrong. Lisa Jewell is not the top of the second tier in chicklit. She's a first rate novelist of general fiction and Thirtynothing proves it. Thirtynothing is again a tale of finding love in your early thirties, but moves beyond chicklit because the characters are real instead of cyphers for thirty something singletons and/or Bridget Jones knock-offs and the plot, while not original, is not just a fill-in-the-blanks rendition of romantic comedy. Stealing a few formula pieces and traits then putting them in real characters making believable choices Thirtynothing takes us through a week of the lives of Digby (Dig) and Nadeen (Deen) beginning the day after Dig's thirtith birthday. At the same time it takes us through the key incidents of their fifteen year friendship. Dig wakes up the morning after and realizes he's brought home a seventeen year old girl leading him to decide it is time to quit dating younger women with whom there is no future. Deen wakes up and dumps her latest boyfriend and decides it is time to stop dating men who won't threaten her friendship with Deen. The two concoct a hundred pound bet on who will get in a serious relationship first. Then they run into the woman who stole Dig from Deen fifteen years earlier. What follows is a week of hope as both of them chase the people who they think were their first loves only to discover who they've really loved all along. Is the plot fairly standard? Yes (if you can't figure out the ending from my summary please report to have your cliches installed), but in this case who cares. We are presented with characters we care about and believe in. We laugh and cry and feel and want to read it again. Lisa Jewell brings the three strengths of Ralph's Party to bear: strong characters, a keen understanding of misunderstanding and how desire fuels it, and an excellent turn with words, especially for comic effect. Since that novel, however, she has refined those strengths. The smaller cast (two major characters instead of four to six) give her more time to breathe with each. Dig and Deen both shine through as complete people. The tons of little details supplied (Deen's love of doing everything second hand when she can afford a yuppie life and her ability to do better than a bought life, Dig's obsessive orderliness constrasted with his underground music job and live, Deen's rationalizing making a good living doing page three and calendar photography) add the kind of life most authors miss out on or try and fake with quirks that show up once and are forgotten. While in other hands their actions might constitute the stuff of zany or madcap comedy in Jewell's they are the logical actions of the two characters and never seem fake or forced. That ability to make the elements of madcap comedy part of real lives comes from Jewell's insight in how we misunderstand and why we run with it. While lots of authors used characters blinded by love (even love they won't admit) they rarely take us inside it. However, here we go along for the complete ride of internal emotions as Deen sits in the cold in her pajamas and slippers watching for Dig to come home from a date, as Dig follows a woman from his past through London, and a dozen other events that are completely irrational and often funny. Yet Jewell makes us forget these are stock comic devices instead seeing them as the natural reactions of these people...they could act no other way. Jewell does the same with comic dialog and writing, making it seem natural. She gifts us with plenty of laugh out loud comments. Among my favorites are Deen's speculations on why a woman she's trying to get Dig to chat-up is sitting alone in a cafe, the first page where we get a slow detail of the first four things Dig realizes when he awakes the morning after his birthday, or Deen's slow realizations when she comes home to find her flat trashed. Each is very funny and yet each are something we can imagine doing/saying or at least no someone we can imagine the same. If you are some ponderous person who believes only serious literature can convey anything important or worth knowing or are someone who can only read their particular genres of interest ignore this book. If you are one of the rest of us, put this on your list for this year because you want to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Thirty-SOMETHING!
Review: Lisa Jewell's second novel, Thirtynothing, surprised me. I was expecting nothing more than a lighthearted romp of a story, something akin to the typical chick lit I've read countless times over. But I was wrong. Thirtynothing, while having many of the chick lit qualities, was more than your average looking-for-love saga for me. Dig Ryan and Nadine Kite's friendship has stood the test of time. And after 15 years together, Dig and Nadine make a decision -- to finally find their soulmate. For Dig, turning 30 and discovering a 17-year-old in his bed was a wake-up call. Same for Nadine, who finds fault with every guy she goes out with and never makes it past the 1- or 2-month anniversary. The pact is made, the bet is shook upon, whoever finds their soulmate first wins $100. Sounds fair, right? Well, it did until moments later Dig runs into his first and only love, Delilah Lillie -- the woman who had threatened Nadine's friendship with Dig and proved to be a constant source of anguish and frustration for her. So, Nadine does what anyone else would do in her situation -- she rings up her first love, Phil, with determination not to let Dig win the bet or for Delilah to get the best of her...again. It's war between the sexes, but mostly it's all about crossed wires. And the troubled pasts that Delilah and Phil bring into the picture adds another complicated layer to the cake. I wasn't surprised at the ending, but I enjoyed how the story unraveled to get there. Lisa Jewell has written a page-turner, a soul-searching journey for Dig and Nadine, and a romantic adventure that will have readers everywhere sighing with happiness.
Rating:
Summary: Bloody Good!
Review: Charming and funny. Hilarious in fact. A real feel good book!!
Rating: 
Summary: Insipid characters...
Review: I usually read books in a sitting or two, but this one didn't hold my attention very well - it took me a week of stopping and starting to get through it. The characters didn't invoke much sympathy - to my frustration, I found them to be incredibly shallow and entirely lacking good judgment. Even worse, the entire plot was predictable. My advice? If you want to read this book, borrow it from the library or purchase it used.
Rating:
Summary: better than your average Brit-chick book
Review: I picked up Thirty Nothing expecting more of the post-Bridget Jones phenomenom, but was pleasantly surprised with a well-formed story about Dig and Nadine, best friends since childhood and recent "thirtynothings". Neither has had a real relationship since university, when Delilah, Dig's first love, broke his heart and Phil, nadine's first love, broke hers. They place a bet that the first to break their destructive holding pattern and have a viable relationship wins 100 pounds. No sooner have they made this bet than they bump into Delilah .... The story has many layers, and flashes back to Dig, Nadine and Delilah's days as teenagers, when they first met Delilah and a rivalry sprang up; to Dig's youthful crush on Nadine; to Nadine's hunting down Phil. Who has changed and who hasn't, and who will end up with whom? The book does well in that it offers viewpoints from both Dig and Nadine, and makes them reassess their lives from the last 12 years. Have they achieved all that they said they would by age 30? Which dreams rightfully died and which should be resurrected? And with whom should they share it all?
Rating:
Summary: Truly sharp and funny.
Review: As a Late 20s Something myself, I could really relate to the point that Lisa Jewell is trying to make. The best part is, she makes the point without preaching and without bemoaning being in your late 20s/early 30s. This is one of the few books that actually celebrates this time in your life. What is also noteworthy is the fact that Jewell does it from both a male and female perspective. Read this book-- you won't be able to put it down.
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