This book is...not good.

I had enjoyed both the Bridget Jones books, and the first film, but this was a disappointment. Perhaps having no preconceptions or less familiarity with the main character meant that I judged her (and the book) more harshly, but this just seemed to be a novel about some deluded woman. The use of more 'serious' plot devices such as espionage and terrorism failed to add anything of value. Yes, there were laugh-out-loud moments, and I know as a straight man in his mid twenties I wasn't the target audience, but I thought this was basically twaddle.

It was exactly like an action film with a funny heroine. The ending is the best and I was surprised to see how many details you have to take into consideration in a mission like this. Helen Fielding is either a genius detective, or must have made a lot of research.

Olivia Joules saves the world with the help of a handsome secret agent... And Tim Burton.

Now I know I’ve rated this two stars but it doesn’t mean it was bad. It was a very interesting book. I think it was a bit muddled together and there were a lot of things happening with little context in between. I liked the ending how it all seemed to fit together but I just felt like I was getting confused a lot while reading it. I still think it’s a good book though otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to read all of jt.

This book, I believe, completed my Helen Fielding collection and I can't be more than glad. I spent like less than 100Php for all her 4 books, and practically speaking, THAT'S A LOT OF SAVINGS THERE.

I was enchanted by the sudden coming of Morton C, not believing they'd be together in the end. I also love the character of Olivia slash Rachel. I wish I had her guts to follow a suspected (and notorious) criminal like Pierre, and experience a lot of devastating and outrageous scenes.

I'm giving it 3 stars not because I was bored. In fact, I was very entertained the whole time I read the book. It's just that I felt frustrated about Pierre not being Bin Laden. It could have been better when he was Bin Laden and really trapped or kidnapped Olivia then exhibit her agent-like character. Then eventually be saved by Scott Rich in a somehow dramatical manner to add more spice to their love story.

Overall, I REALLY had fun. Helen, please write more books. I'll be looking forward.

Was ok, funny in places

Rules for Living by Olivia Joules
1. Never panic. Stop, breathe, think.
2. No one is thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves, just like you.
3. Never change haircut or color before an important event.
4. Nothing is either as bad or good as it seems.
5. Do as you would be done by, e.g. thou shalt not kill.
6. It is better to buy one expensive thing that you really like than several cheap ones that you only quite like.
7. Hardly anything matters: if you get upset, ask yourself, "Does it really matter?"
8. The key to success lies in how you pick yourself up from failure.
9. Be honest and kind.
10. Only buy clothes that make you feel like doing a small dance.
11. Trust your instincts, not your overactive imagination.
12. When overwhelmed by disaster, check if it's really a disaster by doing the following: (a) think, "Oh, fuck it," (b) look on the bright side, and if that doesn't work, look on the funny side. If neither of the above works then maybe it is a disaster so turn to items 1 and 4.
13. Don't expect the world to be safe or life to be fair.

This book was okay. I think Fielding was trying too hard to get away from the Bridget Jones image while still having similar elements to have her audience still interested. This made the book a sort of chick lit with action; she falls for men, judges' people for their looks and also has adventures across the global scuba diving and etc. However, I think this came off as pretentious, there are full conversations in French and Spanish with sprinkles of Latin and Arabic, she travels to many foreign countries and has vast knowledge of other cultures and pop culture. Seriously, we could not go a chapter without the mention of some famous celebrate or clothing brand. Fielding also used a plethora of big words, like she had to use a thesaurus to make her clumsy protagonist look smarter. Now maybe these words are more common in England, like sepulcher and somnambulant, but I'm American so I did not understand all of her words or her character, it made me feel like this really was not written for me, I wished the book could have been more Americanized for American audience, like they did with Harry Potter and Fielding or the editor could explain things a little more. But I felt this way with much of the book, that things happened that were not really explained especially character interactions, that did not always feel real.
Well, enough of my complaints, towards the end I started to enjoy the book more. I do not care for the character interactions earlier in the book but when more action and suspense was written I felt this really where Fielding shined. The scuba diving and Olivia explore based on her hunches was really fun.

In my opinion, approximately the first two thirds of the book lacked a solid plot and to complete this one you need to be incredibly patient because it starts falling together towards the end only. It's like a scrambled puzzle since the start and then very slowly, agonizingly slowly, we reach the part where it starts making sense.

Also the thoughts of the main character Olivia are quite far fetched at times, like too far fetched. It's one thing to be over imaginative but another to be delusional. At times only though.

I liked the ending little too much.
PS: It's just because I have a thing for special agents and CIA, FBI, detectives.
Though if you are on a mindless reading spree, go for it.

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13268191

I liked Olivia Joyles because it was not typical stereotype oversexed macho hero beating everybody up. Olivia was kind of everyday girl, therefore likeable most of the times.

What was distracting for me was an inconsistency of genre: the story was way too unbelievable to be taken as a "real-life" spy thriller; then again it was not a farce. It was like a romantic comedy movie, lacking any character development, with the heroine mostly being affected on "love island" feature level, therefore I was missing the real connection with the heroine I so enjoyed in Bridget Jones Diary. It was a bit like reading a James Bond book - really entertaining for a couple of evenings, and definitely not pretending to be taken seriously.

// Note about the rating //
I rated the book 3 "liked", as I did not "really like it". Normally for me 3 stars would be "average" or "ok", and 2 stars definitely is not "ok".