Do you know what hope smells like? It’s a combination of the sea, of exposed seaweed and salty air. Of wet sand on a winter’s day. Jayne was mid forties when she experienced the worst and the best times of her life. She fell in love, so desperately in love. She lost everything overnight. But no matter how bad life gets, how far down that dark tunnel you are, there is always a glimmer of hope. … there is always a glimmer of hope.
From her dream house in Kent, via the nuthouse, and eventually to a cottage in Cornwall, Jayne takes a journey that is to wound, to destroy, and eventually heal her.
This is a story of one woman’s quest to find herself, and learn to love herself again.
Contemporary Romance for readers over the age of 18.
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An inspirational fictional story of a woman’s journey through depression. Beautifully written with emotional wealth, this book moved me. I identified with Jane’s hope, her light-hearted exterior, and also with the realistic portrayal of how she suffered inside. The moments of humor mingled with the tear-jerking incidents during the story were perfectly balanced and timely . Characters who were easy to identify with helped me live the many heart jolting moments during this novel. Highly recommended.
This is my absolute favourite book by Tracie. What this poor woman has to endure in her life whilst dealing with mental health issues is heartbreaking. But all isn’t doom and gloom, there are wonderful moments of tenderness. To quote the commonly used phrase, this book has all the feels.
Oh my heart, this book made me cry many times, I cried at times when I have no idea why! It also made me giggle too.
The story was so down to earth and real that it can’t fail to pull on your heartstrings. There were times I wanted to throw my Kindle at a wall because Jane didn’t tell dickhead to do one. Her best friend is awesome, and as with best friends that’s were most funny moments came from.
Steam, oh yes this book got steamy and I was whooping for Jane and her friend.
I think if I’m honest there must be something in this book that has touched everyone as it covers a lot of life’s trials.
I was completely invested in Jane and her story and highly recommend this book to you.
I actually listened to the Audiobook, the story was easy to follow and the narrator did a great job projecting the story and making the characters real.
I love an audiobook the only thing I miss is when you pop back and read a page again, but you can rewind but it’s not quite the same.
5 emotional stars
An inspirational story about love and loss……. This description is spot on!
I finished listening to the audio version of this book and staggered off the very emotional rollercoaster I had been on throughout. But you know what? I absolutely love the buzz of a rollercoaster and there were parts of this story I needed to see written on the page, so I downloaded the ebook, hopped right back on and ended up doing a full reread. That’s how much I loved it and whilst reading I could hear the narrators very expressive voice in my head all the way through. She really was excellent.
A Virtual Affair is Jayne’s story – from a lonely, loveless marriage to a selfish, cheating husband where she had lost herself under years of neglect, a holiday with her bestie where an unexpected new friend sparks life back into her, to a beautiful cottage in Cornwall that finally feels like home. In between an insightful, humorous, emotional, gutwrenching, heartfelt account of love, hope, friendship, devasting loss and the darkest place a person can reach.
It’s a bit eye opening to see some of your own personality traits within a character you are reading, to see some of the mistakes made because you’ve made them too. That’s how real this felt, because I understand and empathise with some of Jayne’s experiences, thoughts and feelings as they resonate with me. However I’m equally relieved and thankful for the things that don’t! It was pure, raw and real emotion.
My eyes were puffy from tears and my heart felt like it had been through an industrial crusher, but for all the cracks, bruises and bumps it picked up on the way, it came out the other side lighter, happier and healed. The authors real life experiences especially with depression, have given this story a depth, heart and soul that I’ve not seen very often in a book. It was simply wonderful to read and the humour threaded throughout made me laugh out loud. The thoughts and feelings it has evoked are going to stay with me for a very long time!
If I could give more than 5 stars, I absolutely would.
Favorite Quotes:
I smiled when I thought of my parents. They lived nearby in Crinkly Bottom as they called it. It was a complex for the elderly.
Before I turned out the light I noticed a white shirt in the laundry bin. It was one of Michael’s. I pulled it out and held it to my face. It smelled of him, of his aftershave. It smelled of her perfume too. I took the shirt into the garden and lifted the lid off the BBQ. I squirted lighter fuel over the top and with my lighter, watched it go up in flames.
Watching my dad die, witnessing the process of death, would live with me forever. As would the smell. There were no words to really describe the smell of death, but it permeated the air, my clothes, and my hair. It was acrid with hints of acetone.
I’d never slept naked before. I had that silly thought instilled from childhood – never sleep naked in case the house caught fire. I had a fear of the fireman having to help me down a ladder with my bare arse on show.
I wanted you from the moment you stumbled on a speed boat. I don’t know what it is about you but I need you. I’ve never connected with someone the way I connect with you. You pull me, all the time.
‘I can’t let go of you,’ he said. ‘Don’t let go of me,’ I whispered.
My Review:
I finished Tracie Podger’s latest masterpiece of A Virtual Affair with my bruised yet hopeful heart in my throat, tear tracks down my face, and a smile on my lips. Poignant is a word that comes close to describing this book – but it doesn’t quite do it justice. Let me add in real world, relevant, heart squeezing, painfully honest, highly emotive, cleverly insightful, masterfully written, and sneakily humorous. As I read through the book, I frequently mused to myself that Ms. Podger knew far too much about depression and personal pain to be able to give such vivid detail and perfectly descriptive words and passages to the dark feelings of despair and sorrow. In reading her ending letter I found that the book contained, “many truths and a lot of made up stuff,” bingo!
During a cold and unhappy marriage, the main character of Jayne had gradually become a ghost of herself – and like many caged and neglected animals in a zoo – had become complacent in her misery. Following a traumatic loss, she tumbled into a steep spiral. The inner narrative of her struggles and recovery was deeply moving, and my eyes seemed to develop a strange wetness that just wouldn’t go away. But I don’t want to give the impression that the book is morose and maintained a constant level of gloom and angst – NOT! As with any and all Tracie Podger stories, A Virtual Affair also contained stealthy and welcome hits of clever levity throughout, as well as a few deliciously steamy sensual scenes. Ms. Podger has mad skills, as well as a wicked and underhanded sense of humor that I just adore – more, please!
I felt like I should have read this book years ago. Jayne is not the strongest woman at the beginning of the book but her later strength is forged by love, loss, and the kinship of her friends and family. I will say I laughed so hard at the waxing scene I could hardly breathe. On the flip side when she finally decides to take a chance on true love and finds it, only to be devastated by a tragic loss, I could hardly breathe because of the pain in my heart. Her struggles are real, infidelity, depression, loss, missed opportunity and she fights them all, growing stronger throughout the book. No spoilers from me but Jayne-grows into a strong woman, Carla-is an awesome best friend, Kerry-is a beautiful soul of a non-daughter-in-law, the ex-is an ass and Stefan is a dream come true. This is a beautifully written book full of emotions, grab a bottle of wine and a box of tissues and enjoy.
4.5 “CAPTIVATING” Stars!
Whew! This book was exhausting, but in the best possible way. I read it in two sittings, because it was just so compelling. There were so many elements to this story centered around a two-year period of 45 year 0ld Jayne’s life. Although it takes place over two years, Jayne’s story was years in the making. Precisely, how the past 25 years shaped who she had become and the following two years that dramatically shifted her life.
While at times humorous, maddening, heartbreaking, and/or romantic, A Virtual Affair was ultimately captivating. Jayne was a fabulous heroine that rose above her doormat existence, but not without crashing to the bottom first. I felt like I walked these two years right alongside her and I wanted to be that friend that helped her fight the forces that wanted to crush her. The romantic elements in this story were beautifully built and created a wonderful longing in me to see Jayne’s HEA. From what I understand, this is the author’s debut book and the quality of writing was stellar. I will definitely be checking out more of her work that crosses into various genres.
A Virtual Affair is probably the most difficult book I’ve ever had to review. At first, I wasn’t even sure I would finish it, but I’m certainly glad I did. In the end, it was worth pushing just a little more until the story picked up.
We start at a very confusing place – a woman (Jayne) looking out at the waves crashing along the shore. She sounds pensive and a little deflated, but we really don’t know why. Immediately after, we are thrown into a coffee shop where we learn that Jayne is married to a coward of a man. A cheater. A man who treats her worse than garbage. Her best friend, Carla, convinces her to go on holiday, but before that happens, we muddle through her low self-esteem and debate about whether or not the marriage should continue for a little while.
On holiday, Jayne meets Stefan. The low self-esteem is certainly present in this situation, and though her husband has been cheating for years, Jayne feels guilty for her attraction to Stefan. But, despite her reservations, they begin an email friendship that, over time, begins to turn into something more. At this point, life begins to unravel for Jayne. Literally. And it is about here that the story starts to pick up, where the author starts to seem more comfortable with her story and the way she’s telling it.
There are some highs. Some sexy moments. And a lot of real, real lows from that point on. I found myself wondering if things would ever be okay for Jayne and then, just when I think they might be, the rug is pulled out from under her. The journey to healing is long and slow (as it always is), and Jayne ends up writing about everything and turning it into a book. But all of it is still missing something very important, and there are parts that will never be the same again…..How does it all end? You’ll have to read it yourself to find out!
About my rating:
I could tell how personal this book really was for Tracie Podger, and there are parts that definitely reflect that. Yet there are others that felt….a little excessive. Like, there were literally entire chapters that I just kind of skimmed over because, even if there were snippets of important details, some of the story seemed to run in a loop – sometimes because the same concept was repeated, and other times because I had already deduced what the author wrote on my own. So, essentially, just a lot of over-explaining.
That said, I have to give the author serious props for tackling some really big, deep issues. Infidelity, emotional abuse, death of a loved one, depression….these are not easy topics to write about, and it takes a lot of courage to do so. At times, I felt like maybe the author had distanced herself from those topics (possibly because it really is hard to actually live through some of those emotions as you write about them), but there were a lot of sections that I, myself, wanted to just curl up in a ball and cry over. They just felt that raw, that real.
All in all, I decided to give A Virtual Affair three heels because it really just fell right in the middle for me, and Tracie Podger is still an author that I would be willing to give another try. If you’d like to check it out and read it yourself, you can pick it up here: