One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until … Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight in shining armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.
One Plus One is Jojo Moyes at her astounding best. You’ll laugh, you’ll weep, and when you flip the last page, you’ll want to start all over again.
more
I recently read this book on holidays and became completely lost in the characters! Smart, romantic and funny.
Like the movie “Little Miss Sunshine,” ONE PLUS ONE tells the story of a struggling family that battles against all odds to help make a special young girl’s dream come true. In this case, the little girl is a math genius, and her dream is to attend an academically challenging private school, rather than the rough-and-tumble public school in her working-class neighborhood. Her mother holds down several jobs and still can’t make ends meet, her brother gets regularly bullied by neighborhood thugs, and her chance of attending the prestigious private school hinges on the kindness of a man in legal boiling-hot water. The trials and obstacles add up until it’s almost too much, and thankfully Moyes doesn’t make every last travail miraculously vanish. This is a feel-good book. Enjoy it!
Probably my favorite JoJo Moyes novel! It is fun and fast paced but so satisfying. Loved the story. Loved the ending!
I just re-read this Jojo Moyes road-trip comedy–it’s such a funny book, and it’s quickly paced and multi-layered. Moyes has such a fabulous sense of humor, and an incredible talent at creating characters who feel so real. Pick this one if you want some smart cheer.
I’m so glad I finally read this book, which had been in my TBR pile for a while. Jess and Ed are unconventional people, and theirs is an unconventional love story. There is so much going on in this book (with her daughter Tanzie, her stepson, Nicky, her not-quite-ex husband, and Ed’s family and business issues)…it’s just a wonderful, dense read. I got completely swept into the story, and SO in to what was happening with each character, that, like Jess, the black moment caught me completely off-guard (my lame attempt at not giving away a spoiler). OH MY! It was just terrible when that came back to bite her. A sign of magnificent writing that I’d completely forgotten about “the thing” even though it was there all along. I became Jess! LOL
I’ll admit, at the beginning, Jess’s constant optimism bordered on TSTL for me. It took me a bit to get on board with her. But she won me over completely, especially the way she handled her children and other people.
And Ed. Oh, Ed…his insider trading mishap was mostly forgivable because of his motive and his social ineptitude.
Jess and Ed really struggled on their own, yet together, they managed to pull off nearly impossible things. I think the improbability of it all–the quirky, down to earth, so-awkward-I-might-cringe moments made me smile and my heart turn soft.
I absolutely loved them and the ‘family’ they were cobbling together so much, the speed with which it happened didn’t even bother me. Something about the pace of that 4 day car trip–the micro scenes–made it seem like these two had known each other for years.
This is not a romance novel, but it is a helluva great love story. I’m glad it ended with an HEA because these two characters belonged together.
I did enjoy the chapters in Tanzie and Nicky’s POVs, too. They added something necessary to the story–to the understanding of Jess and why Ed was vital to her.
Do yourself a favor and try this one!
I’m not a big fiction reader– prefer nonfiction– but this book totally entranced me with such believable characters! I could feel their pain and joy throughout the book. I’ve read other books by JoJo Moyes but this is by far my favorite.
Wonderful book with quirky, lovable characters. Ms. Moyes has a knack for wringing emotion out of you, both laughter and tears.
I can’t say enough good things about this book! I loved the entire journey from start to finish. LOVED it!
This book focuses a lot on blended families. and the have and have nots. I like how it deals with real life issues like bullying, girls who excel in Math, the pressures of money, insider trading, finding love, and asking for help for the most unlikely of sources. Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures questioning morality. It really makes you think.
The beginning is, and the story is charming, the book is funny, and the plot is flowing.
This is the story of a family in crisis. The main character, Jess’s husband left her, her step-son has been abandoned by both his father and his mother and left in Jess’ care and he is constantly getting beat up by the neighborhood bullies because of the way he dresses; her 10 year old daughter is a math prodigy who doesn’t fit in anywhere. Jess cleans houses and works at a bar just to get by, and she is barely doing that.
Then a chance for her daughter to go to a prestigious school comes along, and Jess wants to make it possible for her daughter to attend. Her daughter gets a chance to go to a math Olympiad where she can win $5000 which would pay for her daughter’s tuition. Only problem is – the Olympiad is in Scotland and they don’t have anyway to get there. Along comes Ed who owes Jess a favor. Ed, a wealthy businessman needs to escape his own problems, so he agrees to drive Jess, her two kids, and their dog to the Olympiad. What happens on the trip changes all of their lives.
This was a great book. I love Jojo Moyes – she is a great writer. The story was well written and very sweet. She developed the characters well. It is a thick book, but the story was so good, that it only took me a few days to read it.
Grab this book. Even though it has a lot of pages, it is an easy and enjoyable read.
I wondered if I would like this book very much considering I loved “Me Before You” so much, wondering if the author could recreate such magic. She did! This novel did not disappoint. I enjoyed the realistic characters and not knowing where the crazy and unpredictable story would take me.
I listened to this book on audio tape, and it blew my mind. This is the first book I’ve read from Jojo Moyes, but it won’t be the last. The multiple perspectives were done so well; the audiobook provides different narrators for each POV shift and does it so well, it sucks you right into each of their stories. The book made me laugh and made me tear up–I literally spent 45 minutes parked in my driveway so I could get to the end of one particular chapter on this audiobook!
Fantastic read/listen on Jojo Moyes, “One Plus One.” Seriously, you’ve got to put this one on your “To Listen” pile!!!
Great book!
Interesting story but it did not hold my attention as some of her other books have
While I enjoyed this book I liked prior ones from the author more.
Sad and depressing until the end. Not good for pandemic reading.
Could not get into it
Believable characters and an interesting plot
I didn’t want it to end!