looking for love in all the wrong exes

Esther Adams is out for a bout of day drinking with her two best friends when she stumbles on an ancient issue of Cosmo. As she’s about to turn 30 and trying to recover from a strong of bad dates, she flips through the pages of the magazine, feeling nostalgic for the dating tips. And that’s when she comes across the article about the seven different types of relationships a woman encounters while dating. And Esther realizes she’s been through all of them.

There is The First Love, The Work Mistake, The Overlap, The Friend With Benefits, The Missed Chance, The Bastard, and The Serious One. As she thinks through all her exes, she decides that she missed the one that she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with. That life partner was there all along, and she let him get away. She has no choice but to look them all up and figure out which one is her truest love.

Her friends at first think she’s crazy for doing this, but they decide to support her. Louise is in a long-term relationship with Sven, and Bibi isn’t interested in dating at all, but they’re all-in for Esther’s walk through her past dating mistakes. She starts easy, with Alistair, her first love from high school. And after meeting him for a drink and finding out he’s in a relationship, she moves on to her next ex, the missed chance.

But as Esther reconnects with these loves from her past, she starts stirring up a lot of emotions, and the effects of that spin out first to her best friends and then to the others who live in her building and even to her assistant at work. She becomes obsessed with this journey back in time, and focuses her energy on her exes, while not dealing with the repercussions for those closest to her. Will it all be worth it? Will she rediscover the love of her life? Or will she just burn it all down and end up alone again?

Seven Exes is a playful, whimsical rom com about taking the time to look at your past. Author Lucy Vine asks the questions that all single women of a certain age ask themselves, namely, did I already meet the person I’m supposed to spend my life with and blow it completely by being an immature, selfish partner?

I really enjoyed this book. I love the premise of the seven types of relationships, and I certainly remember the desperation that comes along with certain milestone birthdays, and feeling like I just wasn’t performing the adulting as successfully as I was supposed to. Tagging along with Esther on her journey was a lot of fun, and it stirred up a fair amount of nostalgia for me. It’s a little frothy, but it’s also got a lot of laugh-out-loud moments and a lot of heart.

Egalleys for Seven Exes were provided by Harper Perennial through NetGalley, with many thanks.