clutch: a novel is the laugh-out-loud, chick lit romance chronicling the dating misadventures of Caroline Johnson, a single purse designer who compares her unsuccessful romantic relationships to styles of handbags – the “Hobo” starving artist, the “Diaper Bag” single dad, the “Briefcase” intense businessman, etc. With her best friend, bar owner Mike by her side, the overly-accommodating Caroline drinks a lot of Chardonnay, puts her heart on the line, endures her share of unworthy suitors and finds the courage to discover the “Clutch” or someone she wants to hold onto.
In 2013 I had the pleasure of checking out Lisa Becker's 'Click' series which started with the novel 'Click' (click here to read my review). I really enjoyed the book, just like the two other parts of the series: 'Double Click' (click here to read my review) and 'Right Click' (click here to read my review). I was excited to see what Lisa would treat us to next and luckily, I didn't have to wait too long! On the 26th of October her latest work 'Clutch: a Novel' was released and I received an early review copy of the book (thanks, Lisa!). I really enjoy Lisa's writing style and plotlines, so I hoped 'Clutch' would live up to my expectations and be another great chick lit read!
Caroline Johnson is quite the successful businesswoman, starting her own popular handbag business 'The Clutch' in LA after she finished school. Yet, there is one thing that continues to be missing from Caroline's life and that's romance. All the dates she goes on usually start out promising, but there always appears to be something to surprise her later on. Luckily, Caroline has her best friend Mike, who owns his own bar, to support her. Mike and Caroline met at Harvard Business School and have been friends since the first day. But while Mike is quite happy to have a different girl every week, Caroline wants nothing more than to find her Mr. Right. Question is: where is he?
'Clutch' is quite a short and sweet read with just over 140 pages. In combination with author Lisa Becker's well-paced and comfortable writing style it felt like I was almost flying through the pages, finishing the book way earlier than I wanted to! This is once again a wonderful chick lit read by this author, with a nice storyline and interesting characters at its core. I personally always enjoy books that focus on dating adventures and I loved joining Caroline on her search for her Mr. Right. Caroline is a sophisticated and hard-working woman and I liked both her and her best friend, Mike, who also plays a big role in the book. Their friendship is a great part of the book and definitely one of the strengths of the story, in my opinion.
I did feel that because of the relatively short length of the novel, there wasn't too much space for the author to go into a lot of detail. We didn't find out much about Caroline's past, what makes her tick as a person, and this also resulted in me not really being able to warm to her as much as I perhaps would have liked. Yet, I do understand there's simply no room for these kind of things in shorter reads like this one. I did love the way the chapters were all named after a specific kind of bag, and the simple but classic style of the cover fits the story inside perfectly. Overall, 'Clutch' is a light-hearted and quick romance read that I highly recommend to any chick lit fans looking for their next read. Lisa Becker's work is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of this genre, so if you haven't already, definitely give this one or the 'Click' series a chance!
8,5/10
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