Title: One Plus One
Author: Jojo Moyes
Publish Date: July 1, 2014
Publisher: Penguin Group Viking
One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Timesbestselling author of Me Before You
American audiences have fallen in love with Jojo Moyes. Ever since she debuted stateside, she has captivated readers and reviewers alike, and hit the New York Times bestseller list with the word-of-mouth sensation, Me Before You. Now, with One Plus One, she’s written another contemporary opposites-attract love story that reads like a modern-dayTwo for the Road.
Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.
One Plus One is Jojo Moyes at her astounding best. You’ll laugh, you’ll weep, and when you flip the last page, you’ll want to start all over again.
Jojo Moyes is a British novelist.
Moyes studied at Royal Holloway, University of London. She won a bursary financed by The Independent newspaper to study journalism at City University and subsequently worked for The Independent for 10 years. In 2001 she became a full time novelist.
Moyes' novel Foreign Fruit won the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA) Romantic Novel of the Year in 2004.
She is married to journalist Charles Arthur and has three children.
One Plus One is an incredible story about a single mom who just won't give up. Jess has been left alone to care for her quirky daughter and her loner step-son when her husband moves back in with his mother to help get himself back together. She juggles jobs and bills while trying to manage the bullies attacking her step-son and scraping together enough money to get her daughter to a math competition in Scotland. The award for the math competition could be the money that Jess needs to get her daughter to a private school that will help her sharpen her amazing math skills and it will be a place that will hopefully accept her daughter's oddities.
On the trip to Scotland, Jess and the kids run into Ed, who Jess also happens to clean house for. Ed takes pity on the struggling group and helps them get to Scotland. Unfortunately for both Ed, Jess has her own ideas about how the trip should go. What follows is a sometimes hilarious sometimes heartbreaking series of events that cause Jess to see Ed as something other than the rich geek she had always known him to be. Jess also learns more about both of her children and what she discovers solidifies her decision to get her daughter out of the school she is currently in.
This is a terrific story that touches on something that all moms must feel; inadequacy. I cannot count the times that I have felt that I must be letting my kids down, that they could probably even do better without me, but I still get up every day and determine to just do the best I can for that moment.
Jess is buried beneath piling bills. She longs to protect her children from people who seek to hurt them, but how do you do that when you are busy rushing from one job to another just to put food on the table that evening? Jess is the eternal optimist and an amazing person.
Ed has made a huge mistake that has completely altered his future. As he faces possible prison time, he is still a very trusting and caring individual. Ed sacrifices his time and his money to help Jess and her family on their trip to save their own future. Ed faces his own feeling of incompetence. With every phone call from his family he is reminded of his own short-comings and becomes even more determined to help Jess and the kids succeed.
I will admit that I struggled through the first chapter or two, once I got into the story I could not put it down. Jojo Moyes is an exceptional story-teller who taps into human emotions like no other.
5 out of 5 stars
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