How accurate and perceptive this book was. It was like a window into what life can be like as single woman. Tremendous skill and craft shown in the writings, I absolutely loved Dolly’s first fiction book!

This was actually a DNF for me unfortunately. I just couldn’t get onboard with the story and couldn’t connect with Nina at all which is a shame because i know this is an incredibly loved novel!

Thanks to Netgalley for my ARC.

As soon as I saw Dolly Alderton was writing another book, I was desperate to get my hands on it. Her uncluttered, sympathetic and insightful voice shone through in “Everything I Know About Love”, and it does in “Ghosts” as well.

I’ll admit I was nervous reading the first chapter as the narration was definitely more showing than telling, making it hard to relax into the story. However I’m glad I persisted as it gave way to a truly special story about a woman called Nina, one of the perennial singles in her friendship group.

This book joyfully captures the glorious mundanity of hitting your 30s and being made to feel left behind by others. The cast of characters - Joe (the now best friend, formerly boyfriend), Katherine (the smug yummy mummy), Lola (the wild single...), Max (the potential love interest) and Nina’s parents - all felt fully rounded and I enjoyed their journeys as much as Nina’s.

Overall this book offers a story that captures life, from new beginnings to coming to terms with being nearer the end than you’d like. It is an optimistic read and definitely one I’d recommend.

A nice read with a nice character but I did get a bit bored half way through.

Quite easy to relate to, she is single, goes on a great first date which leads to a great dating life. Gets ghosted. Her dad is sick and her mum doesn't really understand how sick nor how she needs to adapt to care for him initially.

Some good laugh out loud bits too but there wasn't much of interest to keep you going.

Ghosts explores the complications of dating in your 30s, ghosting, being single when your friends are settling down and a desire for parenthood. It was an enjoyable read, but for me the most unique aspect of the book was the main character’s relationship with her parents and the challenge of suddenly feeling like she needed to take care of them, rather than the other way around, as her father develops dementia. It was very sad, but sensitively done.

‘Ghosts’ is the debut novel by Dolly Alderton.

Nina Dean has arrived at her early thirties as a successful food writer with loving friends and family, plus a new home and neighbourhood. When she meets Max, a beguiling romantic hero who tells her on date one that he’s going to marry her, it feels like all is going to plan. A new relationship couldn’t have come at a better time – her thirties have not been the liberating, uncomplicated experience she was sold. Everywhere she turns, she is reminded of time passing and opportunities dwindling. Friendships are fading, ex-boyfriends are moving on and, worse, everyone’s moving to the suburbs. There’s no solace to be found in her family, with a mum who’s caught in a baffling mid-life makeover and a beloved dad who is vanishing in slow-motion into dementia.

‘Ghosts’ is Dolly’s debut novel even though she’s already published a book called ‘Everything I Know About Love’ and has a regular newspaper column.

‘Ghosts’ is seen through the narrative of Nina, who like many other females in the world is adapting to life as a singleton as everyone is pairing up around her. Her career as a food writer is going from strength from strength and just as her relationship with Max starts to develop, he disappears, ghosting her. Her father is battling dementia and disappears into his own world but already remembers Nina as his ‘Bean’.

This book is a powerful story and one that many will wholeheartedly relate to. The surprise and disappointment of online dating, finding the one only for them to let you know and to be judged on your status in life, married, children and if not, why not?

I loved Nina, I loved her independence and passion and how she was always there for others, no matter how they treated or disregarded her. I adored her best friend Lola, who was looking for happy ever after and was determined to find it, no matter how long she stayed on WhatsApp.

I loved the dynamics of the female relationships, how women behaved differently towards single women as if they were preying on their husbands and genuinely found this to be true of real life. I found the scene with Nina’s parents to be hard hitting as her mother dealt with her husband’s dementia by engaging now with friends to escape the pain, whilst Nina struggled with seeing her father become a different person. These scenes are hard hitting and emotional in parts and did make for quite tender reading.

Beautifully written and sadly relatable, ‘Ghosts’ is a poignant and bittersweet story about getting old, looking for love and finding your place in life. Filled with humour, cynicism and nostalgia for what has been, this book brought back all kinds of feelings and was truly a masterpiece of a read.

You can buy ‘Ghosts’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

This is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I’ve been unable to put down. I love Dolly’s podcast she does with Pandora Sykes, The High Low; the wit she demonstrates there carries over to her fiction beautifully. I’m yet to read Everything I Know About Love, but reading and enjoying Ghosts has bumped it higher up on my reading list! Dolly’s writing in Ghosts reminded me a lot of Heartburn by Nora Ephron so if you liked that, I’d happily suggest you’ll like this too!

👻 🎶 Yeah, yeah, yeah….🎶👻 I may be singing Wham’s, ‘The Edge of Heaven’ for a while (while seriously sniggering at the “proper” lyrics!) 😂 I loved this book. The protagonist, Nina, is fun, funny, witty, clever, a best friend, a wonderful daughter, an intellect, she is also human. The start of this book I felt it was going to be an easy osy frivolous chick lit read, I was so very wrong. It has all of the above, but so many deeper life issues, many of lives complications involving relationships but also mental health. Friends come and go, good friends always come back, and family is for life. Dolly Alderton has made me laugh out loud, cringe, cry, smile, rub my hands down my face in frustration! An all encompassing, hilarious, heart felt story. High recommend this one!

I'm a fan of contemporary romance novels/novels about young women and enjoyed Alderton's memoir but sadly, Ghosts was a disappointment. I feel like I'm swimming against the tide with this, so many people love it and maybe I'm missing something but it was just too thin and flimsy for me.

Didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did. The start had me scratching my head - all those people being mentioned, descriptions about who's who and what's what, and I was like, Do I want to push on? But something inside me told me to keep at it...and am I glad I listened!
This book is real. I don't have a better way of describing it. Real, raw, poignant, addictive, flowy, sad, quirky, on point, beautiful... Just like life. It really feels like we lived one year in Nina's life, but not just that - we lived it as Nina. We become her through the writing, the voice, the hold the author has on her, the depth and breadth and scope of her persona, all scrawled out so bluntly and sometimes harshly for us on the page.
I wanted to compare this book to chick-lit, but it also so much more. This is what an immersive read that made me totally become the character is supposed to be, what 1st Person POV is supposed to be. Wordy, messy, complex, deep, but most of all, resonant! Resonating for the character, but also resonating with us, the reader, as we cannot help but go along for the ride, dips and lows and highs and everything in between.
Loved it! Really, really loved it!

I really enjoyed this book about family, friendships, love, hope, disappointment. The characters were, on the whole, likeable and realistic. It was very poignant in places and overall quite a beautiful story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

I wanted to love this I really did - I adore Dolly and loved her first book.

However this book just didnt click for me... I found it slow and the main character unlikeable.

Thanks ro Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review :-)

Having followed the author's weekly column in the Sunday Times style for some time, I had high expectations of their debut novel.
The book is fun and entertaining dive into the life of an early 30-something with reflections on love, loss, grief and life.
Nina is a likeable main character and is fleshed out nicely along with her friendships and relationships.
The story is well-paced and you get easily absorbed whilst reading.
There were times throughout where I found that in an effort to be profound with Nina's reflections, they became a little over the top and sometimes the writing tripped over its eagerness to be witty and fun into being complex and dense.
The experiences of having a parent with dementia were addressed in a sensitive and thoughtful way.
There were some plot points which were cliche such as the resolution of the situation with the difficult neighbour and I didn't feel satisfied by how it panned out with Nina doing most of the apologising.
Overall a nice book choice for reflecting on the state of adulthood in this generation and the effects of technology on our lives.

I had heard great things about this book so was really excited to start it. I liked it but can't say I loved it!! I did expect alot after reading such amazing reviews but was let down! I found the beginning to be slow moving and chapters quote long. It covers the subject on dementia very well and that adds great emotion to the book. Nina was said to be a very relatable character but I found her rather annoying! She was constantly giving out and begrudging her friends for getting married, having kids, not going out drinking etc but yet she fell for the first boy she met on a dating site and was hung up on him! I felt quite let down after reading this book but would definitely still read another of Dolly's books. Thanks net galley, the author and the publisher for my copy .

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is a modern cultural commentary on today’s online dating scene and the phenomenon of ‘ghosting’. The story also explores the pressures and expectations put on women to be settled down and start a family, competing against the ever ticking biological clock threatening their chances of fulfilling their ‘purpose’.

The characters are very middle class, and come across as somewhat dull at times, with little character development throughout the story. For me, the most interesting dynamic was between Nina and her mother as they struggle to come to terms with a terminal illness diagnosis in the family, I found this storyline quite moving and thought it was a shame that it was cast to the sidelines as a secondary plot.

I am slightly younger than what I believe to be the intended audience for this book, and so it is possible this is why I didn’t quite connect to the story. However I am beginning to think that maybe storylines based upon finding a love interest just aren’t for me, as the element of this book that intrigued me to most was the concept of the new cookery book that the protagonist was working on (definitely going to be researching more into the link between food and nostalgia!).

This is the story of a 32 year old woman and the trials and tribulations of finding love. She follows the advice of her only single friend Lola and joins an online dating app.
She meets Max and starts a relationship which needless to say isn't without it problems.
She is also trying to cope with a father slipping into Dementia as well as doing her job as a food writer and author.
A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Dolly’s writing style is so accessible, so funny and poignant at the same time. I eeked this book out as much as possible as I didn’t want it to end!

An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author. Love her Times column.

Nina Dean is in her early thirties when she meets Max, who on their first dates tells her he is going to marry her. She feels like her life is finally going to plan.

Max comes into her life at the right time, her friendships are fading as they settle into their new families. Her own family are struggling with her beloved dad's new diagnosis of dementia.

I was scared to read Ghosts at first, as I needed to love it. I'm glad it exceeded my expectations. I'm sure it will ring true to so many people who are entering their mid 20s/ early 30s, it's observant and heartfelt.

I loved Dolly's observations on dating and relationships, on female friendships and how it can be difficult to maintain friendships when the dynamics change in them. I think Ghosts is a novel that everyone can find themselves in, and I think that's why it's so special.

I thought I was going to like this book from the first chapter but it went nowhere. Boring characters, ending felt like it was stuck on at the required length. Awful book.