Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Mabel Donovan has spent their entire life playing second best. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. The ex. The one that got rejected… The one that was cheated…with.

But now it’s make or break, because Mabel has to do something. Maybe it’s time to break free and actually start to learn how to live. Although decisions aren’t actually Mabel’s forte, since they can’t even decide what gender they want to be when they get up in the morning.

Jonathan Templar may be one of the most eligible bachelors in London, with his cover of Time Magazine and millions in the bank. He should probably just let his society mother pick him someone from one of her magazines. Introduce him to some highly ambitious person from his parents’ social club.

It’s just…not quite what Jonny wants. Since he can’t even sleep in a bed like normal people. Struggles to get a decent meal inside of him. He just wants…peace. Solitude. Silence.

And love. Maybe he just needs someone to…

No. Nothing. He doesn’t need anything.

Mabel needs to finally be the one.

And Jonny? He’s not actually into…the tall, beautiful creature that…obviously has a giant piece of equipment hiding under that stunning tailored suit. It’s just a friendship. A relationship…of sorts…and love?

Jonny just needs a good night sleep. Period.

 

Book Review

Mabel Donovan is going through a rough patch. The roof of their tiny and insalubrious London apartment has just caved in, forcing them to live in their parents’ council house in Newbury. That could be a nice change of scenery if their beloved mother’s mind hadn’t been slowly drifting away over the last few years. At least, they have friends. But do they really? Their relationship with their colleague and bestie Mark Quinton, to whom they have devoted years of unwarranted and unilateral love, seems to have taken a wrong turn. Maybe because he has fallen in love with Mabel’s ex-husband Finn Christensen—no happy memories attached to that failure—and the two are about to get married. That Finn is also working in the same hotel doesn’t make the situation easier to bear. Where Mabel thought their job as maître d’hôtel has always been their pride and comfort, it now starts to feel like another dead end. That’s what’s so utterly wrong, maybe—dead ends wherever they look. And that is always a harsh realization at forty-odd years.

 

There’s just one light flickering at the end of that depressing tunnel. A new regular guest in the hotel restaurant Mabel is working in. Jonathan “Jonny” Templar. Attractive and obscenely rich real estate mogul, fiftyish, shy and assertive at the same time, he seems to have a thing for Mabel. What they don’t know is that Jonny comes with a whole bunch of issues, too. He has recently bought the rooftop apartment in the brand-new building next door and moved in. If he doesn’t like to go to public places, he’s hopelessly incapable of filling his fridge or cook a meal, hence his decision to try out the restaurant nearby. By the way, he hasn’t even got around to unpacking his mattress and is sleeping on his huge couch instead. Not that he’s sleeping, anyway. Insomnia has become his best friend and foe. Too much is going on in his mind. Certainly too much to focus on meeting someone. And yet—the moment he sees that wonderful creature who is Mabel Donovan, he can’t keep his eyes off them.

 

That’s where the two stand. A fabulous yet unapproachable maître d’ and their regular dinner guest, who doesn’t have a clue of how to engage with most of his fellow humans. Both parties intrigued, but also aware their harmless flirting and talking can’t lead anywhere. Until one of Mabel’s old friends, a drag queen for whom they sometimes sew dresses, gives them the best advice ever: sometimes you need to jump off the cliff.

 

Oh, I really enjoyed this read! Ever since Mabel made their first impressive appearance in Sophia Soames’s ‘London Love’ series, I was smitten with them. Larger than life, sassy, witty, self-composed, strong, with a heart of gold, they’ve quickly become my favorite nonbinary character in fiction. They’ve only been a secondary character so far, but often stole the scene from anyone else. No wonder that I was really excited to learn they’d be the main character of this book and that I purchased it right away. I wasn’t disappointed, either. Because Mabel is someone we’d all like to have in our lives, I guess. They’re a wonderful friend, maybe even too much for their own good. They’re nice and kind, they’re smart and sometimes silly. I often wanted to shake them and tell them in no uncertain words to tell their pointless love interest Mark to eff off (pardon my French) and let them live.

 

Of course, I loved both Mark and Finn (they played the main parts in book two of this series, ‘Taste’, which I reviewed here) despite and because of their flaws. In this book, however, the perspectives have changed, and I didn’t see and understand them from the inside, but perceived them from Mabel’s and Jonny’s angle. Yes, Mark and Finn are right for each other, and their Happily Ever After was well deserved. But they were and are both toxic for Mabel, and it takes our maître d’ all their courage to open their eyes to that truth. They also need to open up to a possibly fulfilling new encounter.

 

In ‘Sleep’, I got everything I love about Sophia Soames’s writing. Three-dimensional characters (Mabel’s dad was love on first read for me as was their drag queen friend), people with problems (don’t we all have them?) they decide to tackle at long last, kindness and understanding, no swift and incoherent solutions, no insta-love (still not a huge fan), and no self-induced last-minute drama. Instead, there are adults who more or less slowly learn how to cope with their lives and with reality. Like the other books in the series, this one comes with chapters where each main character alternately tells his/their story in the first person. Thus, the plot has a natural, easy flow, from that fateful first encounter between Jonny and Mabel to the twists and turns that leads them into each other’s arms.

 

In one word (or rather four), a highly enjoyable read.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by the author for the purpose of a review.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 283 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	31-August-2024
Price	$4.99 ebook, $12.99 paperback, $16.99 hardcover
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/SLEEP-London-Love-Book-4-ebook/dp/B0CLVD6LLY