My Oxford Year

The reviews made me think this was simply going to be boy meets girl at university with the crunch coming when girl comes to the end of her year.
The first few chapters made me think there was substantially more with the main character having opportunities to be involved with a USA presidential campaign as well as studying at Oxford. Further on in the novel it moved back to the love story and basically reminds us that in life choices have to be made.
Overall I enjoyed reading this novel, the characters were a good mix and there were lots of light moments as well as sad ones.

This was just a typical romantic story. Girl meets boy, fall in love, boy gets sick, family opposition etc. All been done before. It is set in Oxford, which was nice, but I found the central character, Ella, a bit of smart ass. Some of the other characters were interesting though, which made me keep on reading the book.

I didn’t hate the book, and I did finish it, but it was not very inspirIng,

I was initially quite gripped by this book ( the potential for insights into the American political system against a backdrop of academia in one of the most famous but curiously guarded by its unique exclusivity seemed like an exciting combination for a work of fiction. Sadly for me it went downhill from there. Whilst the writing style and descriptions of the various surroundings were enjoyable it seemed to be just one cliche after another - any one of the storylines might have been credible ( at a push!) but the combination of multiple, impossible to believe scenarios rendered the book to nothing more than a light holiday read if you've run out of everything else.

Ella Durran is a very focused young lady. Not only is she determined to make a name for herself in American politics but, at the start of the book she leaves the U.S. to take up a Rhodes scholarship, giving her the opportunity to study at Oxford for a year. Things get complicated before she even arrives in the UK when an unexpected phone call results in a job offer as part of the presidential campaign team for a rising star. After some very smart negotiating it is agreed that she will do the job remotely for a year while also continuing with her study plan. But then she meets Jamie and the complications escalate very quickly to a whole new level.

This book is very easy to read but dismissing it as a holiday read would be doing it an injustice - it is so much more than that. It has a depth which goes way beyond a typical chick-lit novel, addressing a number of issues in a very well thought out and profound way. Love and death, to name just two! It is also heart-warming, amusing, witty and heart-breaking. The characters are both interesting and wonderfully developed, helped by the fact that the setting allowed for eccentricities which might seem less plausible in other circumstances. Nearly all the main protagonists were also likeable, which always helps. When it comes to books I probably have a tendency to cry more than most people. That means that there are certain books that it is unwise for me to read on public transport. Unfortunately we are not warned in advance which books come into that category. On a number of occasions I found myself surreptitiously wiping a tear from my eye as I progressed through this novel. In a similar vein, it is almost equally embarrassing to suddenly burst into involuntary laughter when sitting on your own on a bus or a train while surrounded by strangers. Whilst I was saved from this public ignominy with this particular book as I didn’t find that the humour was of the “laugh out loud” type, it certainly had its fair share of amusing incidents which elicited a wry smile.

I don’t think I can find a single thing that I didn’t like about the book.

A great page-turner and well worth a read. I will certainly be looking out for more by this author.

This is an entertaining romance. Whilst parts of the book are a little cliched, it is worth persevering. The main characters – Ella and Jamie – hate each other at first sight. He’s a rich, handsome, notorious womaniser, and then they fall in love. However, despite a somewhat predictable beginning, it is fun to read. The story is a little slow to start and there are probably too many characters’ names to remember at the start, but eventually the tale gets on track, and people and events fall into place.

Hate, love, intrigue, curiosity, mystery, and friendship all make an appearance in the story. It’s an easy read and a page turner towards the end. A classic happy ending of sorts.

This isn’t the great English novel, but it is a charming, readable book to escape with.