Never Greener: The bestselling second-chance romance from the Sunday Times bestseller and co-creator of Gavin & Stacey

I took a break from the novel with around 50 pages to go to the end, simply because I loved it so much I couldn't quite bear to have it be over. Like many, I have loved Ruth Green's writing on television, and in Never Greener, her skills shine even more. This is a beautiful book. It's touching and poignant without ever being sickly or sentimental, and it's a fantastically realistic portrayal of life, where not everything is simple, love doesn't conquer all, and things get tangled. I loved that each character had agency and depth, and the dialogue always felt natural and real. I also loved reading about older characters in the context of love, sex, and personal growth. So often, middle age is a time either ignored by novels, or if it is discussed, it's in the context of a mid life crisis. Never Greener, though it has a few crises, doesn't fall into that mid life crisis trope, and that is really refreshing. Highly recommended.

This book got off to quite a good start, that moment of fatal attraction between two people who should know better, who should be better. Unfortunately, it goes down hill from there - everybody in this book is relentlessly looking backwards and refusing to live in the present. Whilst your past can be a comfort and nostalgia can be joyful in this books case it is downright depressing and it makes the present bleak and the future one that makes you want to end it all. I never really felt like I got to know any of the characters except in the most superficial of ways. Whilst this worked well for Kate - whose profession necessarily makes her someone you will never truly know (that's my big worry about anyone who is an actor - how much of what you see is actually real? They make their living out of being convincing deceivers after all). It is much less effective for Callum, Belinda, Matt and Hetty. In fact, Hetty is a relatively minor character trapped in Matt's orbit and we perhaps know the most about her. I did find the whole book rather misery inducing to be honest. People lieing to each other, justifying their lies to themselves and just generally behaving badly. Callum in particular annoyed me and Belinda didn't exactly inspire me sympathy to be honest. It was just all so much doom, gloom and heartbreaking. Whilst I'm not averse to a depressing read or a read about the worst in people's characters this book just left me feeling somehow grubby and like I shouldn't have looked in on the character's lives. To be fair, this does mean that Ms Jones managed to elicit feeling from me through her writing. Maybe it isn't the feeling she set out to create but it was there so job done. The narrative does flow well on the page and the author's voice doesn't overpower the tale. Just a shame the characters are so intangible.

I felt this took some time to settle into, however once you got to know the characters it was great. A fantastic debut; funny, sad, heartwarming, but away from your typical love story. Yes indeed it's Never Greener, but nearly all those who deserve to, win.