#REVIEW: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Description

One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

American audiences have fallen in love with Jojo Moyes. Ever since she debuted Stateside she has captivated readers and reviewers alike, and hit the New York Times bestseller list with the word-of-mouth sensation Me Before You. Now, with One Plus One, she’s written another contemporary opposites-attract love story.

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight in shining armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.

One Plus One is Jojo Moyes at her astounding best. You’ll laugh, you’ll weep, and when you flip the last page, you’ll want to start all over again.

My Take:

5 Stars!

I did not want this book to end, I loved it so much, and now I have to go on to the next book still not wanting to leave these lovable, flawed characters behind. These characters really grow on you the more you read this story. 

You are going to love this author's writing . . . a lot! Now I want to grab ALL of her books and dive in only reading them!

This was an emotional story of growth for everyone involved with a lot of firsts for all of them, and being open to help from others for the first time, too, since they are all so self-reliant. In the description of this book it says opposites attract, well, that statement couldn't be further from the truth!

The first and most important character in this story is Norman, the family dog, he held everyone together. Don’t dogs just do this! Gotta love them!

Jess. Her husband left her two years ago leaving her a single mom now to two teenagers, neither one having much confidence in themselves making them prime targets for bullies at school and in the neighborhood to bully them around. Jess worked two and three jobs at times to keep their heads above water, which did only that, and very minimally, never having anything for an extra, ever, which her kids did grow used to. Jess never stopped working, and even when at home worked to keep their house afloat with groceries even, very creative and sometimes strange recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but it worked. She held off the bill collectors with strategy, and it worked. Don't get me wrong, she paid her bills, it was just extremely creative how she shuffled the money around to be able to do so. It was impressive! She didn’t need her ex’s money which he claimed not to have anyway. He said he was ill and couldn’t work, so . . . she was left to fend for herself and her kids, and she did an amazing job, even though she couldn’t quite see it that way. She’s a pretty amazing woman. Once she got something to do in her head, she did it, from point A to point B with the in-betweens working their way out, even if haphazardly. Her life was never boring, nor was it boring to read about. When faced with adversity, her cleverness always won out. I would find myself shaking my head when she did it! Amazing!

Tanzie, her daughter, is a geeky brilliant math whiz who gets the opportunity of a lifetime to go to a special school for Math whizzes on a 90% scholarship. She is introverted, shy and meek, but Norman the dog helps to keep her grounded and goes with them everywhere. He is the rock of the family after all, again.

Nicky, not her ‘by blood’ son, but left to her to raise as her own, was very ‘goth’, wearing mascara and eyeliner, which helped him hide parts of his insecure self which would be changed by one very special person who never thought of himself in that regard.

Ed. A millionaire who’s house Jess happened to clean without whom he never really gave a second thought about. He is currently facing a possible sentence in prison for insider stock trading. He had succumbed to a beautiful woman who only wanted money out of him and she knew how to do it. He had no clue she was after anything, but now he stands to lose everything he worked his entire life for all because of her brother wanting to get his hands on the company’s money through his and his sister’s illegally devised plan to gain money from his own company’s stock which by definition is ‘insider trading’, as it would be called, even without his knowledge of what and how they were going after the money. How was he supposed to know her brother would end up being a part of this, a man he never even met or a brother he never knew she had? He had no clue what was happening until it did. You couldn’t help but to feel sorry for him or wonder when you get into a relationship do you really need to find out about their entire family, the jobs they all held, etc.? Geeze! He had no idea as to what she was after, he just happened to fall under her spell, which is exactly what the plan was all along. Attraction and sex. It can ruin your life sometimes.

One day Ed happened to be driving down the road and saw a woman on the side of it with two teenagers and the police arguing over what looked like a limousine? He thought about stopping to see if he could help, if he really did know that woman and from where? He continued on driving, thought better about it, and turned around to go back to see if he could help. This simple act of kindness started to breathe a breath of new life into him despite how much he did not want it to, or how much Jess and her two kids irritated the hell out of him.

These characters end up together in a car from London all the way to Scotland so Tanzie can go and take a Maths quiz for exceptional students to win a scholarship to go to a special school that even with 90% of the tuition covered, Jess would still not be able to cover the remaining 10% even while working three jobs, again, with no help from Tanzie’s father, no less. He didn’t care. All she could manage to do was scrape by as it was, let alone adding more expenses for this school. Even though, she still felt she had to give Tanzie the opportunity to try, so was the trip to Scotland, thanks to Ed.

Ed had no idea why he was doing this. Not only was it the three people in his car, but their huge dog who smelled, too. He was told he couldn’t drive over 40mph, so taking the freeway was out and also extended the trip by days or else Tanzie would become violently ill. The times he did go faster, whipped around here and there, yep! Tanzie got sick. She would vomit everywhere. Poor Ed . . . but throw in a little adversity into his life, and it changes, even if a little. Throw in some very unlikely romance of opposites attracted to each other, and you’re wanting more!

The story was wrapped up so well, as I said in the beginning of this review I did not want to say goodbye to these characters at all. This author made these characters so human, so real, you craved to read the book when you could not. The story was always in the back of your mind, planning on when you could pick the book back up.

Don’t miss this story! You’ll end up falling in love with these characters and their story as much as I did! You won’t want it to end as much as I didn't want it to! I received this book for FREE from PENGUIN GROUP Viking and NetGalley in exchange to read and write a review about it. It is NOT required for this review to be either positive or negative, but of my own honest opinion. "Free" means I was provided with ZERO MONIES to read this book nor to write this review, but to enjoy the pure pleasure of reading it. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

ebook: $11.99
print:  $19.53

About this author

Jojo Moyes is a British novelist.

Moyes studied at Royal Holloway, University of London. She won a bursary financed by The Independent newspaper to study journalism at City University and subsequently worked for The Independent for 10 years. In 2001 she became a full time novelist.

Moyes' novel Foreign Fruit won the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) Romantic Novel of the Year in 2004.