An unforgettable story about love in all its chaotic glory from the author of Last One At The Party
The convention of a book synopsis is fundamentally ridiculous. How can I adequately convey in 150 words the complexity and bewilderment of the past ten months and the effect those events have had on my perfectly regulated life?
One would need much longer to record in detail how I was blackmailed into demonstrating the efficacy of my own soulmate program and forced to participate in a series of dates. How my world has been forever altered as a consequence.
Prior to this I was driven and focused, consumed with completing my own projects, destined to change the world with my work. A woman with one goal. I had no family, no friends and no need for frivolous human connection. My life was structured and solitary.
I am that person no longer.
My name is Indiana Dylan and this is the story of how I fell in love.
There: 150 words.
Book Information: Print Length: 454 pages. Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton. Publication Date: 4th August 2022
Bethany Clift is a graduate of the Northern Film School, the producer of low-budget British horror film Heretic, and the Director of her own production company, Saber Productions. Last One At The Party is her debut novel.
Bethany suffers from itchy feet. She travelled extensively when she was younger and once drove round America for a year, camping and living in her car because she couldn’t afford motels. Her itchy feet mean that, since leaving her childhood home, she has moved house a lot. She once moved house four times in a year. Bethany has now settled in Milton Keynes with her husband and two children and, luckily, she is a big fan of roundabouts.
Bethany has enjoyed many different careers including hairdresser, florist, karaoke bar singer, pork pie maker, barman, jeweller, fruit and veg seller, librarian and a season as an Elf. Bethany has spent the last eleven years working for the NHS and is a huge advocate for the organisation and the world-renowned service it provides.
Bethany is the producer of the low-budget horror movie, Heretic. Bethany produced the entire movie for less than £18k and secured it a UK cinema and DVD release earning the movie the number 3 spot in the DVD charts on the weekend of its release. Bethany was also the Production Manager for the 16-day film shoot for the movie and she did this six-weeks after giving birth to her first child and whilst still breast-feeding and surviving on about three hours sleep a night. She credits watching the Great British Bake Off as the reason for keeping her sanity, and her marriage, during those sixteen days.
Bethany loves reading and watching sci-fi; listening to American country and blues music; dancing to Northern Soul or old-school Hip-Hop and eating, well, pretty much anything. The movie WALL-E makes her cry, and her family and friends make her happy.
My Review:
If you asked me a week ago who Bethany Clift was I would have said “no idea”, but after binge reading Last One At The Party in less than a day on holiday last week and then finding out there is a new book coming out on 4th August, I was lucky enough to be able to download an ARC copy from Netgalley.
I didn’t even bother reading the blurb on this book because as I said in my previous review, I just adored Bethany’s writing and characters and therefore assumed I would enjoy Love & Other Human Errors as much.
Love & Other Human Errors is a standalone story, based in the not-too-distant future and could be classed as speculative fiction. With a similar premise to The One by John Marrs, the future isn’t looking too rosy, the internet and technology control every aspect of our lives and Indiana Dylan has created a revolutionary data harvesting solution to help people find their soulmates, she just needs to find the right company who can finance and roll out the software.
I was going to start to explain more about the storyline, the characters and then realised that I think one of the reasons I loved this book so much is that I had no idea what it was really about and if you just read the book without my waffling on and on, you will understand why it’s quite a difficult book to review without giving away too many spoilers.
There are so many wonderful characters in this story that it is difficult to pick a favourite, from quirky and socially awkward Indiana who sees life very differently from everyone else. She may be a genius when it comes to all things technical, but in real life she struggles with real people and relationships. She is unintentionally hysterical with her observations and I was constantly laughing out loud during her chapters.
Jack is another wonderful character who, on the surface appears to be a confident, friendly, extremely popular employee at JaneDoe, but once you start to dig deeper and find out more about Jack, you start to see the cracks appearing.
Then there is Homeless Frank and Alan the dog, Lina the workaholic trying to juggle motherhood and a career and finally there is Peggy and honestly each and every one of these characters brings so much depth and emotional to the storyline.
I’m going to stop now, as again I can’t quite put into words how much I adore this author’s writing style and storylines. If you are looking for something different, something unique with a thought-provoking premise, fascinating characters, brilliant dialogue and banter then do yourself a favour and download both of Bethany’s books.
