See you at In The Dark at 8p.m. on Tuesday. It’s a restaurant – don’t eat beforehand. I’ll send the address soon.
Oh, okay. Thedateis going to be forced proximity and a literal blind date.
Right.
I work quite late and then have a Friday evening dinner with uni friends, and it’s only when I’m on my way home that I think again about the challenge and next Tuesday.
Have I made a strategic error asking Freya to go first? Given her a head start on me?
No. I’ve just given myself extra planning time, which I should use.
Given that Idohave extra time, I’m thinking I should use it for extra research.
Yep. I’m going to read a second Freya Cassidy, much as it pains me to add to her sales. I’ll listen to one on the way to visit my parents and brother tomorrow.
I always enjoy the journey out of Central London to Barnes to visit my family. Firstly, the familiar route gives me a kind of comfortable going-home feeling. Secondly, it’s nice visually to see the beautifully well-kept pastel terraces of Chelsea give way to the bustle of the Sloane Square end of the King’s Road, followed by the always-fascinating array of different shops as I trace the road all the way to the New King’s Road and Putney Bridge (thankfully for once not too traffic-ridden) and along the south side of the river to leafy Barnes.
Today, though, my journey is marred by having to listen to my second Freya Cassidy book. I’m frowning within only a few paragraphs. The first chapter of this one is written from the hero’s perspective, and at first acquaintance he seems to be completely different from her other hero, but equally lovable.
The second chapter sounds weird to me, because it’s from the heroine’s perspective and read by a female narrator, and – even though I do not like Freya – I can’t help wishing that it’s her, and not some stranger, reading her words.
By the end of this chapter, I realise that, yes, the herodoesseem very different from the other one. And the heroine, also adorable, is different from the other heroine.
And that is a real bugger, because maybe, after all, I’m not gaining any insights into Freya Cassidy, the person behind the author. Or into her perfect man.
No. That can’t be true, I think as I pull up outside my parents’ house.
There must be some common themes. Like, for example, both her heroines are very optimistic people. And her heroes are both creative (this one’s an architect).
It’s a relief to spend some time with my family and then drive Max, my brother, out to the Surrey countryside to get a break from obsessing about winning the challenge. I tell Max about it and he laughs so much I actually feel grateful to Sonja for a moment.
I finish Freya’s second book the next morning, Saturday, while on the treadmill in the gym. I have to admit that it’s genuinely almost unputdownable (or un-stop-listen-to-able). I find myself really caring about her characters and simultaneously sad to say goodbye to them and happy about the ending. (I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that, yes, they do have a happily-ever-after.)
The story was – within the constraints of being another romance – really quite different from the first one. I don’t think I’ve fully got a handle on the perfect hero for Freya yet.
I’m going to have to read a third one.
And – something I would not have credited – it isn’t even going to be that much of a hardship if her other books are as well written and as unputdownable as the two I’ve read.
By Tuesday, when it’s time to head out to meet her and whoever she’s set me up with, I’ve read (almostinhaledif I’m honest) another three of her books and have come to the conclusion that she’s cleverer than I had previously given her credit for and that her books reallyarequite dangerous. (I’m also wondering why I’ve never read a romance before;sheis not great, but her storiesare.)
Ofcoursereaders fall in love with her heroes. Ofcourseher books are contributing to marriage breakdowns. Real people are rarely going to match up to fictional but well-drawn, believable ones.
I think it’s going to be very hard for me to outright win this challenge.
I’m not giving up though.
7
FREYA
As I wait for my friend Charlotte outside the restaurant where she’s going to be having dinner with Jake this evening, I grapple again with the ethics of this challenge. Ireallydon’t like upsetting people. Even people like Jake Stone.
I saypeople likeJake Stone. There are very few people like him. He might be the only one.Themost annoying person ever born. I’ve literally never met anyone else who gets under my skin in the exact way he has done on the two occasions we’ve met. He isn’tovertlyunpleasant (except to me), it’s more hisair. Like heknowshe’s right. Except he isn’t. And he isn’t loud or brash by demeanour, but people still justlistenwhen he speaks, because he has this really irritating air of authority. (As commented on, on social media, by many of the viewers of the show.) And it’s incredibly annoying when someone is extremely authoritative and yet wrong.
And heknows, it seems, that my books cause relationship break-ups.
I mean, please. Of course they frigging don’t.
