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It started out a bit rough for me. Although I could understand and feel for what Lucy was going through, she came across as bit obsessed and whiny. It is difficult to listen to someone struggling with pregnancy, especially when that person seems to think about getting pregnant all the time. You afraid?” he asked. I nodded. “So am I. But I’m all right with that. If I get hurt, I get hurt. It happens, right? Someone always gets hurt. But I don’t want to miss out on us because I was afraid.” How did we get here? This was only supposed to be lunch, remember? This was only supposed to be lunch.” I admit that I didn’t identify with this novel as I do not have children and have not personally experienced the hardships that Lucy and Jonah have. I can’t imagine how it must feel to experience that pain and I don’t wish it on anyone. Putting that aside however, I found Lucy to be a one-note character and didn’t think she was likeable. Further, her desperation to find a man at the beginning of the novel irked me to no end. I wanted to shake her and tell her to gain some confidence and self-respect. I did however like Camille and appreciated the growth of Lucy and Camille’s relationship. Even the style of writing made sense towards the end (the diary/letter paragraphs) which I wasn't 100% sure why they was being written.
There's sooo much in here; if this was a movie you wouldn't know where to look first! I also realllly want this to become a movie one day!!! I think I would have liked this book a whole lot more if the age difference wasn't so vast. I kept bumping into it all the way through, and I kept thinking, no, that's just wrong. Ewww. No!!! I know it's part of what creates the basic tension of this book, but for me it was too much.Hayes! Hayes was just beautiful, caring and wise beyond this years. He was a true fantasy come to life and the reason why I kept reading the book. Loved. Him. Like every great book, the writing is the core of its beauty. The dialogue between Solene and Hayes was superb; the playfulness, the intensity, the tension . . . their differences and their love all played out within the subtlety of their words. "It’s only been two weeks," I said. The Idea Of You,' 'Everything Must Go' & Other Female-Strong Projects Join Welle Entertainment Slate". Deadline. December 19, 2018. From a story perspective, I felt like things dragged on too much, with the focus for 90% of the book being on Lucy’s desperate attempts to become a mother. I got tired of reading about the same thing over and over again, chapter after chapter: Lucy attempting to become pregnant, her nearly daily spats with her husband Jonah over trivial matters that almost always stemmed from her unwavering desire to have a baby, etc. The inconsistency of the writing also bothered me – not so much sentence structure or grammatical stuff, but rather the way the author seemed to “over-explain” things in some sections (especially when it came to Lucy’s thoughts and feelings) but then “under-explain” in other sections (usually when it pertained to things not directly related to Lucy’s desire to have a baby). It almost felt as though most of the dialogue in the book was meant “justify” in some way Lucy’s every word, thought, and action, whether positive or negative. I felt that the husband's character was somewhat inconsistent. At times, he seemed like he was the most wonderful husband on earth and other times, he was a little dismissive or insensitive. I suppose people can be like that in real life, but it just didn't feel true.
By about 2/3 of the way through it was starting to drag a little, and yes, I did do a bit of skimming. But the ending was a reasonable one for the story, although it did feel a bit rushed. When single parent, thirty-nine-year-old Solène Marchand accompanies her young daughter and a few friends to see their favourite pop group, August Moon, in Las Vegas, including a meet and greet with the band, the last thing she expected was to catch the eye of one of the members, nineteen years her junior and for a secret love affair to begin. I had seen this book starting to generate a buzz on Goodreads and I have to say that my interest was piqued as I’m always in search of a good romance between an older woman and younger man. I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my Bestie Boo for gifting this book and urging me to drop everything and read it. She was right! This book was captivating! The romance was breathtaking and oh so very heartbreaking. I know this story is going to haunt me for quite some time. It felt so real! For just a little while it was wonderful to live in the world of these two beautiful characters whose love for each other was beyond magical. An honest and elegant book about modern love in the age of uber-celebrity and social media Hill Harper
"The Idea of You" Cast
P.S. I will put a few thoughts into a Spoiler thingy - my thoughts about the end - Happy or not? And about a few other little things! Please don't read it if you don't want to be spoiled! The end. Yeah. We do not get a happily ever after for Hayes and Solène. Nope. I cried sooo hard while reading - especially the end! I so wanted them to work out. I think the message about the book was that you should not be sexist, racist nor ageist. But then Robinne goes and sends Hayes off into the world to live the life of a young guy. Which I totally understand, but I sooo wanted it to be different. With a little baby Hayes and a wedding and Hayes driving his step-daughter to school. But I can still keep on hoping that Robinne will write another book for them! An epilogue novella! I also think that the book could've been made into a 2-book thing. There was so much in here that was only touched briefly, and with two books this could've been a huge thing. Maybe even three books!! And maybe we could've made Hayes 23 and Solène 34 and bam - not as bad anymore! Yes, I will keep on dreaming that there will be such a trilogy one day. Her partner, Jonah, is also really likable, even though I didn’t always agree with how he acted, and at times he really messed up. However, when reading The Idea of You I felt it was really important to remember that no one knows how they’d feel in this situation until it actually happens to them (and hopefully it never will).
Lee does not identify the leading man during that interview, but fans speculated she was speaking about Harry Styles. The former One Directioner, 28, is currently in a relationship with Olivia Wilde, 38, after meeting on set of her film "Don't Worry Darling."
Lucy is a 39-year old advertising executive who has just about given up on marriage and motherhood after her fiance left her to marry her cousin. But when she attends the christening of her godson, she meets Jonah Carpenter who immediately is smitten and so is she. They soon marry and try vigilantly to have a baby with tragic results. Life gets even more complicated when Jonah's 16-year old daughter, Camille, comes for an extended visit. Both Solene and Hayes were complicated characters individually and their relationship itself was complex as well. She’s a divorced mother to a teenaged girl and when the media gets wind of their romance, their lives are effected in a deep and profound way. Hayes was a really mature guy for a twenty year old and there was much more substance to him than I was expecting there to be. I can totally see why Solene was charmed by him! Like Soléne, Lee is finding her own second life as an author and creator. The Idea of You has been optioned for a screen adaptation by Gabrielle Union’s production company, I’ll Have Another, with Lee as a producer. “It’s still happening as far as I know,” Lee told me. “That's all I can say at this point. It's still in development.” If you like strong female characters, this one's for you. Lucy's remarkable in her strength and only had 2 or 3 moments where I thought she was being a little too immature. Enjoy. This was my first book by British author Amanda Prowse who is well known for her emotional women's fiction. In The Idea of You, Ms. Prowse explores a woman's desire for a baby and what it means to be a mother. Her protagonist, Lucy, has suffered several miscarriages and is (obviously) feeling despondent. When sixteen-year-old Camille, her husband's daughter from his first marriage, comes over from France to stay with Lucy and her husband Jonah, Lucy is additionally faced with the problems of step-parenting.
However, Lee spoke out against the idea that the book is Styles fan fiction, telling the outlet that "The Idea of You" "was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles." Instead, she said, "It was supposed to be a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her sexuality and rediscovering herself, just at the point that society traditionally writes women off as desirable and viable and whole." And there is this 20 years old man so British, so famous, so rich, so mature for his age, so pretty, so perfect, so world travelled, so unconcerned about how his decisions can influence so many people (the fans that they never expect that their idol can behave like a human being, and also his older girlfriend who is full of fears about what people think). Interspersed with the chapters which are all from Lucy's point of view, there are little letters are so filled with emotion, but you aren't fully sure initially just who they are to. I loved finding out the reasoning behind them, while really feeling for the writer of the letters.Apparently none of these two lovers will be crumpled and brought to his/her knees (except maybe in the end Haynes and this happens with so much coolness and detachment that I wanted to scream).
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