Book Review: Thanks, That Was Fun by Andy Nash
March 30, 2016
Jordan Lockhart is 30,
oversexed, underemployed, and screwed up. When her boyfriend falls for his
bisexual neighbor, Jordan decides to give up on love once and for all. Then,
she meets Louis. Barely 20, sweetly naive and impossibly gorgeous, Louis is a
gift from the gods. When he announces his intention to move to the Alaskan
wilderness, Jordan hatches a desperate, hilarious plan to make him stay.
Thanks that Was Fun
is a story about a woman on a serious bender of drugs, sex and toxic
relationships. Meet Jordan Lockhart – an artist nearing thirty with a life that
appears to be as sexually dysfunctional as Samantha Jones in an episode of Sex in the City. After a hilarious
introduction to Jordan’s sexual prowess, we soon discover that she is a woman
just looking for Mr Right. What Jordan is craving is just for someone to love –
someone to love her in return even with all her faults, and we have the
opportunity to follow her on this sometimes messy, sometimes hilarious and sometimes
sad
journey.
Along with her friends, Iris and Genna, Jordon tries to make
sense of her seemingly stagnant life. When a chance meeting with her
ex-boyfriend Mark leads them to rekindle what they’d once had, Jordan
desperately want their relationship to work out this time around, but she is
bitterly disappointed by Mark’s seemingly wandering gaze to his bisexual and all-too-perky
neighbor.
Enter Louis – a sweet-as-pie, good Catholic boy who turns
Jordan’s life upside down. The complete opposite to her in every possible way
imaginable, she decides to pursue him, hoping to change his mind about his
beliefs so that she can finally get her way and get him into bed.
However no matter how hard she tries, Jordan is just never
going to be able to get what she truly wants.
I really enjoyed this book from the witty dialogue to the
crazy situations Jordan finds herself in. The style of writing flows really
well, which means that I read the book in a couple of sittings. The plot is
succinct – not getting bogged down in events that don’t add to the plot as
other books can. Nash obviously has a
great sense of humor, and this is reflected in her characters and their
sometimes cringe-worthy antics.
But the more
I read about Jordon’s existence as an oversexed and generally neurotic woman,
the more I felt sorry for her. This woman is really screwed up. Her addictive
personality doesn’t help her in the slightest. She’s desperately seeking the
man that will stick around, and this desperate need could possibly be linked to
the fact that she lost her father at such a young age.
Her relationship with Louis was really doomed from the
start. They were both looking for something completely different from each
other, and no matter how many times they fought and made up, it was never going
to work. Jordan was doing what all women do to the men in their lives – even if
they don’t realize they’re doing it – they try to change them, try to mould
them into something that fits their needs and lives rather than just accepting
them the way that they are.
I found Jordan to be quite selfish in a lot of ways. Despite
Louis constantly telling her that sex will never be a possibility between them,
Jordan’s selfish need to get laid means that she’s willing to compromise Louis’
believes.
“What you’re saying is I should live according
to your beliefs. I live by my beliefs. I follow my heart.” ~ Louis
Although I
can’t exactly say that it’s all Jordan’s fault. Louis is also to blame in this
little pseudo-relationship they’ve found themselves in. He would say things to
her, and touch her in ways that made her think he wanted her. These mixed
signals drive Jordan crazy. She is a real glutton for punishment though;
instead of just leaving things well alone when they fall to pieces, she picks
and pokes the wound again until it bleeds.
All the
different characters added to the storyline, deepening it and making it
believable and realistic. I’m sure we all have some friends/people in our lives
like these – the couple that always fights, the flake, the highly successful,
highly driven friend and then there are those that want nothing more than to
sit around and get stoned.
Nash has done
a really good job with writing Thanks
That Was Fun. It was a really enjoyable read, and it was also refreshing to
find out that it wasn’t just about finding love; rather it was about finding
out who you really are. I hope that Jordan will get her happily-ever-after, but
I believe it will take a strong man in her life for that to happen.
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