The Pegster - reads

The main protagonist is Dorsey Bing, in her mid-thirties and divorced for the past 5 years, she seriously has to sort her life out (both relationship status and work situation). So her 2 best friends and Dorsey come up with the idea of a workshop for divorced people, as they are 'divorced - and not dead'. She is not too keen first but just has to go with it. The story pretty much plays out for the duration of the workshop and the days immediately prior and after. Different characters, both men and women, attend the workshop, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them and their different stories and how they changed or, in some cases, how my perception of them changed. I initially had problems to distinguish between the different people, however, in a chapter or two it all becomes clear, as all the characters are distinctive and well drawn out. 

Dorsey's background is slowly revealed during the book - the story of her divorce etc. While this is a serious subject, it is tackled with a wonderful sense of humour, and here for me lies the real strength of this book. I did laugh with Dorsey, and there can't be many of us who haven't' experienced, for example, going to a public toilet and finding droplets on the seat (nice!!). Or how about this:  you have some saved money and you are sure you are going to save for that special occasion /special frock, and than suddenly… yep, something else, very urgent, has come up. I highlighted quite a few phrases where I thought 'this is too funny, I should use this' (not in a book, but in entertaining my co-workers). The story is very contemporary, with references for example to Ebay, listening to Joss Stone. These are things I can image myself doing. 

My favourite character, as so often for me, was actually one of the 'supporting cast' - Ralph, Dorsey's stepfather. Quite simply because if I would ever need/have a stepfather, I would like to have someone like Ralph. I deliberately did not tell you anything about Dorsey's love interest/s in this review -you would have to find out yourself.

The book is not so much about finding 'Mr Right', but more about 'finding the courage to get out there again'. As a first novel, this is very promising and I would certainly read CeCe Osgood again. It made my daily commute go very quick and put a smile on my face.