Review: Conditional Love by Cathy Bramley

2.5 stars for Conditional Love by Cathy Bramley.

To some extent, book covers do affect my decision to place a book high up as priority reading or simply add it to my ever growing list of to-be-read to be dealt with later. So with this cutesy picture of a book cover which I simply adore, Conditional Love has been upgraded to a read-now rather than later book.

This standalone novel starts out great with a strong focal point drawing upon a mysterious inheritance with specific condition to be met, but unfortunately fizzles out less than a quarter to the story. Don't misunderstand me, the plot is fine and the writing is fairly smooth flowing but I find it really draining to try liking the female protagonist, Sophie Stone, a girl who likes to daydream herself silly, makes inane assumptions and ignores well-intentioned sensible advice from friends. Perhaps the author is trying to construct a before and after distinction by creating a female lead who starts out with fluff brains so as to differentiate her from the later bettered version. If so, the plan undoubtedly backfires, at least the case for me. Though I can understand why the heroine is crafted as such initially, I find it difficult to appreciate a doormat who readily accepts what life throws at her and continually chooses to go with the flow just so to avoid responsibility, disappointment and failure. More so, I find it even harder to accept that Sophie practically swoons and worships the ground on which Marc, an incorrigible character of a man steps upon. To make matters worse, there is this really selfish mother of hers who is unbearable downright to the core.

So, you can imagine how relieved I am when finally the author decides to give Sophie a wake-up call in the second half of the story by making her face up to her future: take up the responsibilities, make her own decision, design her dream house, stand up to her unforthcoming selfish mother and most importantly, build her future on her own terms. Even so, the damage has already been done as first impression matters and it tends to stick. With that, I see the stars for my review rating of Conditional Love floating away one by one, or more accurately, half by half, slowly but surely as I read on.

Overall, this is a fairly ok story for a debut romance novel albeit tending on the long side. Due to lack of much surprises and monotony of the plot, I admit to being guilty of skimming through the story from third quarter of the book onwards.

Publisher: Cathy Bramley; 1 edition
Publication date: 26 Dec 2013

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Meet Sophie Stone, a thirty-something, serial-procrastinator. Tesco knickers, Take That, and tea with two sugars is about as exciting as it gets. But when her boyfriend dumps her on Valentine’s Day and a mysterious benefactor leaves her an inheritance, even Sophie has to accept that change is afoot.

There is a catch - a condition in the will that threatens the very foundations of Sophie’s world. What did the old lady want her to discover? Was there more to her parents’ break up than she was led to believe?

With a boss from hell, bickering flat mates, manipulative mother and sexy ex-boyfriend, Sophie has plenty to contend with without the brooding architect who puts his foot in it every time he opens his mouth. Sophie will have to face the past and learn some shocking home truths before she can finally get her own happy-ever-after.

*Blurb from author's website*

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