Tom Winter (1)

2.5 Stars

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31 Days of Wonder was a very light story which should have made for the perfect summer read, but unfortunately the story never really took off for me.

Ben and Alice meet for a very, very short time on a bench and without exchanging any kind of information they both know: this is the one. Since Ben believes she is from Glasgow he decides to go there, but is first confronted with some of his own issues. Alice, on the other hand, has quite some issues of her own to deal with.

And that is all that there is to it. Only Ben is behaving most of the time like a young child, and act so irresponsible that it sometimes seemed unsafe he was just allowed to do all these things. This made it hard for me to care for him or his search for Alice. I was expecting something more like 500 Days of Summer, but this was not that.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!… (meer)

31 Days of Wonder opens with Ben and Alice meeting briefly in the park. Ben is quite taken with Alice and the feeling is mutual. The misunderstanding that leads Ben to think that Alice lives in Glasgow is so clever and it is this that underpins the entire story.

Over the course of a calendar month we are treated to chapters for each day - 1-31. We follow Alice and Ben. Ben is searching for Alice in the wrong place but he undergoes a different journey, one of discovery, and Alice uses the possibility of Ben to learn how to stand up for herself. Alice's colleagues are so odd and treat her like a skivvy, her parents find her a bit perplexing and her flatmate is practically a dictator!

From around page 2 I was sniggering away. Ben is so funny as he doesn't really have a filter and just says exactly what he's thinking. He would be a harsh person to come across in real life I think, but in this book I loved him. I also liked Alice very much and felt really sorry for her with everybody making rude comments about her weight all the time.

The supporting characters are so well drawn too. Alice's parents, Ben's grandparents, their respective flat/house mates and even the woman that Alice works with at the food bank. They're all a little eccentric. The situations that the characters find themselves in all the way through this book are brilliantly thought out - I had my hand clapped over my mouth at one point at something quite shocking and out of character for Alice.

31 Days of Wonder is deliciously quirky, witty and original. It's not a love story but a story of how two people, based on a moment's meeting, can learn to believe in themselves. Based on the delights of this book I'm thinking Tom Winter might be an author whose humour is right up my street.… (meer)