Don't Want To Miss A Thing by Jill Mansell

Dexter Yates loves his fun, care-free London life; he has money, looks and girlfriends galore. But everything changes overnight when his sister dies, leaving him in charge of her eight-month-old daughter Delphi. How is he ever going to cope?

Comic-strip artist Molly Hayes lives in the beautiful Cotswold village of Briarwood. When it comes to relationships, she has a history of choosing all the wrong men. Leaving the city behind, Dex moves to Briarwood - a much better place to work on his parenting skills - and he and Molly become neighbours. There's an undeniable connection between them. But if Dexter's going to adapt, he first has a lot to learn about Molly, about other people's secrets...and about himself.

Don't Want To Miss A Thing is Jill Mansell's 25th novel and was published by Headline at the end of January 2013.

I've always enjoyed Jill Mansell's writing, and have been reading her books for many many years now.  I practically inhaled this story!  Within the first couple of pages I was completely engrossed in the life of the residents of the small village of Briarwood, especially the lead characters; Dexter and Molly.

Dexter is a high-flying city boy, he drives a flashy car and has a different girl dangling from his arm almost every week.  Molly is an illustrator, unlucky in love (her last boyfriend tried to win her back by presenting her with a giant fish!), she lives quietly in the village.   Dexter fancies an out-of-town bolt hole and buys the cottage next door to Molly.  Then tragedy strikes and Dexter's sister dies suddenly, he finds himself in sole charge of his eight-month-old niece Delphi.  Overwhelmed by grief and terrified of the prospect of caring for a small baby, Dexter quits city life and goes to live full-time in Briarwood.

If you want to know more about the plot, then you'll have to go out and buy the book!  Jill Mansell has created a community full of larger than life characters who embrace the reader and make you feel as though you really do know each one of them.  And, you really do care about them.  The warmth of the writing is infectious, and the reader will laugh, sigh, cry and gasp along with the characters.  Cleverly interwoven into the main Dexter/Molly story are the stories of the other main characters, and some of these feature really serious issues, yet they are sensitively handled by Mansell with her trademark charm and wit.

Jill Mansell

I think this is Jill Mansell's best novel to date, it really is the perfect pick-me-up.

To find out more about Jill Mansell, visit her website here.  She is also on Twitter and you can follow her tweets here

My thanks go to New Books Magazine who sent my copy for review.