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.
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loved it
Another great book by JoJo Moyes. Great character development and an intriguing storyline. Made me laugh and made me cry. Couldn’t put it down.
It was a little slow to start but I soon got involved with the unique characters and found myself caring very much about their situation and wondering if they would ever find out a way out of their difficulties. Once the story started rolling…I couldn’t put it down. Norman—the big smelly slobbery dog—provided comic relief, was an unlikely hero, and became the glue that held them together when things hit bottom. A true love story where forgiveness and acceptance triumphs over hardship and human frailty.
A thoroughly enjoyable & fast read! Entirely different than “Me Before You,” & and just as good! I found myself emotionally involved & pulling for the four main characters. Spoiler… Thank GOD, she didn’t kill the dog!
I just stumbled on this book at the local library, but now I am a total convert of this British author, who is a combination of Nora Ephron and Sue Miller. Such sharply observed and quirky characters! This book tells the story of a heroic, down on her luck single mom, her math-obsessed wonder child, and the unexpected savior she finds trying to get a break for her child that she never had. Inspiring fun!
Loved this one! And the dog was awesome!
Jess Thomas is a single mother in a hard-scrabble town in the south of Britan. She cleans houses and works as a bartender to make ends meet. At 16, she met Marty Thomas and at 17, she was a new mother. A few years later, Marty’s 8-year-old son came to live with them.
Two years ago, Marty left, saying that he was depressed and needed to regroup and recuperate at his mother’s. Jess has been struggling to make ends meet ever since then. Their daughter, Tanzie, is a math savant and his son, Nicky, is into goth and, so, is beat up at school on a daily basis.
She cleans the posh vacation home of Ed Nicholls, a software genius who owns his own company. Ed has his own issues, even though he’s rich and successful. He hooked up with a woman who was the “it” girl in college and, after a few weeks, realizes she’s crazy and offers her a tip about how his company will be making a ton of money when its latest invention is revealed. Ed is hanging out at his vacation home to avoid the press and licking his wounds after being accused of insider trading.
Through an odd series of events, Ed ends up driving Jess, Tanzie, Nicky and their huge dog, Norman, to Scotland so Tanzie can compete in a math “Olympid” that has a prize of 5000 pounds.
I wasn’t engaged at first, but after the first 130 pages, I was cheering for Tanzie; wanted Nicky to feel wanted, and for Ed and Jess to fall in love. SInce I rated this a 4, you have to assume that I was happy with the result.
Listened to the audio book
What a unique and fun story. At first I didn’t really care for the characters, but as the story progressed they developed into exceptional characters. A truly great book.
I borrowed this book from our mobile library and thought I’d share my thoughts on it here as it is the first book by Jojo Moyes I’ve read.
Jess Thomas is the main character and is the single mother of Nicky, an eyeline wearing teenager who loves his Nintendo, and Tanzie, a mathematical genius. Jess works two jobs as she struggles to pay the bills and she receives no financial help from her ex who has his own problems. By day she cleans at a holiday park and by night tends the bar in a local pub.
Via her cleaning job she meets Ed Nicholls who has his own company designing software. He’s made a terrible error of judgement and to keep out of the way has moved onto the holiday park. He makes a bad first impression on Jess but when Tanzie is offered the opportunity of a lifetime, in a maths competition all the way up in Aberdeen, it is Ed who agrees to drive them there, along with Norman, their massive dog.
Ed did not anticipate having to make the journey at only 40 mph, otherwise Tanzie would be sick, or quite how much more chaos being on the road with this family would bring into his life, especially as Jess is less than friendly, to begin with.
However, this is a romance and eventually our leading couple fall for each other. But Jess has made her own mistake and when Ed finds out about that everything changes.
This is a long book and steadily paced throughout. It is quite a task to fill such a slow journey taking several days with enough to keep the readers interest and for the most part I thought Moyes did a good job. I have to admit there was a point when I was just starting to think that this trip was never going to end when it did. Amid more chaos.
There were many events during the story that did not go according to plan for the characters plus other things that fell beautifully, if sometimes rather fortuitously, into place. Overall though the characters were great and I thought about them and the story when I was not reading, which is always a good sign. I enjoyed this read, and I think anyone who is a fan of good storytelling will too. Highly recommended.
Quick read, great story!
Once again Jojo Moyes comes up with several original yet flawed characters, adds an interesting plot and turns it all into a page turner where you aren’t quite sure how things will work out. (But you hope that they will.)
Jess Thomas is the single mother of a math whiz girl and a teenage stepson who cleans homes for a living, struggles financially but somehow maintains an optimistic world view. Ed Nicholls is one of her clients – a self-made software success story whose personal life leaves much to be desired. How these two lives become intertwined around an unlikely road trip to a math olympiad is the basis for the book. Along the way, there are a few substantial moral issues raised, including the difference between right and wrong, and some truly horrific bullying moments that left me emotionally drained.
You shouldn’t have any problem sticking with this one.
The kind of book that makes you feel good while you’re reading it. Moyes makes it easy to cheer for her characters. If you want a good read that won’t stress you out-pick up this book. If you enjoyed Me Before You, load this one too.
I love anything by JoJo Moyes. She has such a way with developing the characters and the twists and turns in the story.
This was my first time reading JoJo Moyes but definitely not my last time. The book moves along pretty well and the characters are very easy to visualize. You’ve got two adults thrown into a situation neither one of them wants to be in but for the sake of little girl and a big opportunity, they are thrown together. Throw in a dog and a teenager struggling with his own issues and you have a really good read. It was easy to read and I enjoyed the book. I will admit that I got a bit tired of them being in the car so much, but that was the point of the story was it not?
Easy to read, entertaining story.
A very fun read!
Seriously love this writer!
I enjoyed this books. well written
I listened to this book on CD in the car on a long trip. It’s a fun and easy “read”, and JoJo Moyes again develops quirky and principled characters who are easy to like. I loved having it entertain me, and hated to turn off the car.
At first it started out slow but gained momentum. Couldn’t put it down!
I nice version of the grown up fairy tale. The happy ending is not obvious. A well told, entertaining story. The story just makes you happy when it is done.