AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE

A London teenager sells out her boyfriend, but will it put an end to true love ten years later?

Lola and Dougie are madly in love, and though Dougie is slated to go to university in Edinburgh, the two plan to see each other on weekends. That is until Dougie’s shrewish mother makes Lola the title offer: £10,000 if Lola breaks it off with her son. Lola is outraged, but when she returns home she finds her beloved stepfather Alex packing his bags. Alex has been gambling on the sly and now loan sharks have threatened him. So Lola takes Mrs. Tennant’s money, writes a Dear Dougie letter and leaves for a waitressing job in Spain. Ten years later Lola is back in London, a happy-go-lucky bookshop manager. Then, late one night, she intervenes in a mugging and saves the victim, the still nasty Mrs. Tennant. At a thank you party in Lola’s honor, Lola meets Dougie again. Sparks don’t fly, especially when Dougie learns Lola accepted money to break it off with him. But Lola is persistent and proceeds to court him through the rest of the novel. Mansell, with a number of witty romantic romps under her belt, presents the escapades of three other potential couples. First there is Sally, Dougie’s stepsister, temporarily sharing a flat with Gabe, Lola’s neighbor. The two have nothing in common, and besides, she’s a slob and he’s a neat-nick. Then there’s Lola’s mum Blythe—who, after being widowed, is now happily dating the scruffy, sandal-wearing Malcolm—whom Lola would like to fix up with her biological father, the dashing Nick, who has just reconnected with Lola. Then there is the harmless dalliance Lola is having with EJ, a fabulously rich music producer with nerdy tastes. Throw in the paparazzi, a balding starlet and a TV-show makeover, and you get a happy mix of the real and the absurd.

Mansell knows her craft and delivers a finely tuned romantic comedy.