Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones is back.....!

What do you do when a girlfriend's 60th birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend's 30th?

Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating?

Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice?

Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant?

Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood?

Is sleeping with someone after 2 dates and 6 weeks of texting the same as getting married after 2 meetings and 6 months of letter writing in Jane Austen's day?

Pondering these, and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of single-motherhood, tweeting, texting and redisovering her sexuality in what SOME people rudely and outdatedly call 'middle age'.

The long-awaited return of a much-loved character, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is timely, tender, touching, witty, wise and bloody hilarious.

By now, you will all have heard the "SPOILER" about the latest Bridget Jones book.  And if you haven't....stop reading now and hide under a rock until your copy gets delivered.

Yes, Darcy is dead.  And all of you that are outraged by this fact and as a result of your outrage are protesting by not reading the book, well you're quite simply missing out on the same old lovable Bridget.  Yes it is sad, and yes we all miss him (including Bridget), but GET OVER IT.

Think about it logically.  If Darcy was still alive, he and Bridget would be married.  You'd want them to be happily married and for it to last forevermore.....they would have their beautiful Darcy-like children and there would be the chaos that comes with children, but Bridget wouldn't have the dating disasters that we all came to love her for......unless she left Darcy.....and that would be even more outrageous.

I personally can't recall reading the first two books, although they sit neatly on my bookshelf, so I can't compare and reassure you that "Yes, it's just as good" or shake my head miserable and say "No, it's not the same, I preferred the first book" but what I can say is that it's enjoyable, it's funny, it made me laugh out loud and it made me cry.  It is the same old Bridget Jones, and as I read it, I can vividly see the spectacularly embarrassing moments being broadcast to me on the television in years to come.   

Helen Fielding most certainly hasn't lost it, she has perfectly captured Bridget Jones.  It is a different chapter in Bridget's life and you need to embrace that.

I was pleased to see that Daniel Cleaver still features, albeit occasionally.  Helen Fielding has his character well and truly nailed.....reading those passages is like listening to Hugh Grant speak to me, which quite frankly, is amazing in itself.

Of the new characters, I loved Bridget's children, especially her little girl....who sounds like the cutest thing on the planet.  

All in all, I enjoyed it.  Yes times had moved on since Bridget Jones first crashed into our lives, but it's still a great read, with or without Mark Darcy.  It made me laugh, it made me cry (more than once!) and when I'd finished, I closed the book with a smile on my face.

I know Helen Fielding didn't write this book with a film in mind, but we all know it will happen and it will make a wonderful film.  They're going to need to start looking for a very cute young mini-Bridget (think Karen from Outnumbered) and an equally as dashing mini-Mark Darcy.