The Love Square by Laura Jane Williams - Book Review.

Before reading this I would like to put a trigger warning that this book review does mention cancer. 

Laura Jane Williams debut novel, Our Stop, came out in 2019, it was such a successful hit that fans were waiting for her second book to come out. And then it finally did, a year later in 2020. I bought this book last summer, I recognised the author’s name from reading her debut novel, and decided because I liked the storyline of Our Stop, I’ll buy this book. 

From the title of this novel, anyone can guess it is a romance. It starts with a prologue where we are introduced to protagonist Penny. She’s saying goodbye to London, to her cafe, and to Francesco. We then travel back to a month, where we meet single Penny and learn quite a few things about her. She is a survivor of breast cancer, and has also lost her mum to this at a young age. Her dad left and she and her sister were raised by their uncle. We learn that she really wants children, and is thinking of doing it alone without a partner. But unfortunately due to having cancer she can never be pregnant herself, yet was able to freeze her eggs. The last thing we learn is that she is unlucky in love. When it comes to men, it always ends badly.  We follow Penny’s journey of love and meet Francesco, he is also a chief. They hit it off and the next three weeks are a whirlwind, everything is perfect. Until bad news hits the family, and Penny has to go to Derbyshire to help look after her Uncle’s restaurant.  Six months have passed and we are introduced to Thomas, who went to the same school as Penny. He’s a fun loving guy who doesn’t believe in monogamy, especially as his job in the music industry makes him travel a lot. Penny doesn’t mind this. They go on adventures of hiking, until he has to leave but promises to see Penny soon.  Priyesh is the final man of the love square. We meet him before Thomas as the annoying wine merchant who is extremely boring. But during the Christmas party something alarming happens, and Penny and Priyesh creates a relationship, mainly around sex.  During this time, Penny and Francesco have become friends, and he has quit his job and decided to come up to spend time with Penny. He’s given a job there. But Penny is committed to keeping him as a friend.  With any romance, you know who will end up with who. We knew that Penny will end up with Franceso for many reasons, he is a chief like her. Thomas doesn’t really want children. Priyesh is twenty years older and a good friend of her uncle. 

But what did I like about this novel? I’ll tell you. 

Love triangles can be seen as a common element to romance novels, heck I even have one in my novel. Williams creating this as a Love Square creates more complicated relationships and causes even more conflict. Any writer will know that conflict is needed in a story, no matter how small it is. Conflict is what drives the story from the start to the end. I liked that Williams created this love square of different personalities, and it’s this that causes the tension.  Representation is always beautiful, and in here we meet Charlie an non-binary character. Seeing this representation helps educate people that this is completely normal, as well as helping more people understand their own pronouns. 

However, as much as I tried to really really enjoy this novel, there are some areas that stood out to me which affected the flow of the novel. I couldn’t actually visualise Penny with any of these three men. When it comes to writing a romance with a love triangle or a square, there needs to be a connection created between each love interest and the protagonist. A way to keep on making the reader question who they will end up with. However, when the chemistry is missed, it makes it unrealistic.  Slut-shamming. There’s a scene between Penny and one of the three men, where Penny asks if they are slut shaming her and they reply with “‘Are you a Slut?’”. This point never comes back, and the man who mentions this never even apologises, and Penny just lets it go as if it is fine to be called by this. Especially as this was said by a man that claims to love her. The Epilogue. I love epilogues. What I didn’t like was Williams introducing new characters and I was slightly confused, as there was no real explanation about who they were. If there was a little information how Penny knew these characters, it would have helped piece everything together, and it would have been fine introducing these new characters.

To be honest I am slightly disappointed with this novel, just because it started with such high hopes and as it carried on it didn’t feel realistic at all. I couldn’t relate to Penny because her actions were questionable, as I couldn’t feel the emotions that she felt for these three men. I know that Laura Jane Williams is having another book published this summer called The Lucky Escape. Will I read this book? I’m not sure. It won’t be a book that I will be dying to buy, but I will most likely wait to see what the reviews say, read the blurb and decide then. And if I end up not liking her third book, then I guess Laura Jane Williams isn’t the author for me.