I had extremely high hopes for this book after having loved the first two Bridget Jones books, but I’ve left this book with a bad taste in my mouth, a taste of disappointment and things not quite going my way.

I think part of it was probably that in the first two books, Bridget is about 30, much closer to my age. But in Mad About the Boy, Bridget is the other side of fifty, with two children, suddenly a (SPOILER ALERT) single parent, and completely out of control of her life. I found it quite unrelateable if I’m honest, which meant that I didn’t feel any real connection to the book and I didn’t steam through it in one sitting like the others, at times having to force myself to pick it up and read it. I didn’t feel the same sense of urgency to turn the page and find out what was going to happen next.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love Fielding’s writing, the characters are all perfectly brought to life and the plot is smart, witty and surprising, but after reading the book, I kind of wish I’d not read it and left myself with the happy picture from the end of The Edge of Reason. And I know that Mad About the Boy had its own (slightly predictable) happy ending, but it wasn’t the happy ending that I wanted for Bridget, and I guess that’s the thing that stung me the most. I think I would now like to see another book to see where this happy ending takes Bridget, and if she can ever truly have her happy-ever-after, but I would guess that in truly bumbling Bridget style, nothing will ever run smoothly…