Millie’s Fling

In a quirky twist of Fate, heroine Millie Brady loses her boyfriend and her job and gains a new friend, all in one day, in this work by bestselling romance author, Orla Hart. Living in Cornwall, England, Millie considers both herself and her love life to be boring. So boring in fact, she can barely make herself pay attention when her boyfriend asks her to move in with him. She’s far more concerned about the woman (Orla) ready to jump off the cliff at Tresanter Point.

Orla feels extra humiliated when she suspects her husband is having yet another affair, especially as she is supposed to be the queen of high-end romance, Jackie Collins style, and vows to end it all. Millie comes along in the nick of time—leaving her boyfriend so enraged, he dumps her. Grateful and feeling a touch guilty, Orla vows to play matchmaker and find Millie the love of her life. Romantic mishaps ensue as Millie barely treads water in the dating pool, reporting and updating Orla all the while.

Millie’s Fling is a delightful way to spend an afternoon, a feel-good Brit chick lit novel, light and funny, and packed with memorable characters. However at 500+ pages, the novel could have used some heavy editing, and could easily lose a good hundred pages without sacrificing the heart of the tale.


My synopsis: The book starts out as Millie’s boyfriend is asking her to move in with him (she thought he was going to propose). But before she can answer, she is distracted. A woman arrives and launches herself out of her car and begins to pace at the edge of the cliff. She becomes so focused on the thought that the woman is going to jump than rather than give her boyfriend an answer - she gets out of the car and runs toward the woman.

Her concerns were right, she realizes, as she sees the suicide notes lined up on the dash of the woman’s car. She discovers that the woman is Orla Hart, a best-selling romance novelist whose own marriage is on the rocks. Millie ends up talking her out of jumping and a friendship between the two women blossom. Orla decides her next book is going to be based on events in Millie’s life and invites her to Cornwall for the summer. She is bound and determined to find Millie the man of her dreams!

My thoughts: Jill Mansell never fails to delight me with her books. Her characters are always warm and far from perfect - which makes them so lovable! She also provides us with a supporting cast of characters that equally as humorous. This is my third Jill Mansell book this year - and while I was a little intimidated at the length the first time I read one of her books - they are so engaging that you are done before you know it!


Shuffle romance, sex, and love. Deal. Play. Then shuffle again. International bestselling author Jill Mansell delivers several unique plots that explore the disguises that men and women assume while dating.

When novelist Orla Hart, whose own marriage is breaking up, finds that her plots and characters are unbelievable, she endeavors to write a “proper literary novel.” To give the “reality of love,” Orla employs Millie Brady to relate her adventures and those of friends and family. The stories are to be ongoing until all have a happy ending.

Millie complies with tales about her divorced mother, who moves in with her ex-husband and his new wife, then begins an affair. And there’s Millie’s roommate Hester, who’s engaged, yet longs for her old flame, Lucas. Hester intends to keep her fiancé while canoodling with Lucas to prove she is still attractive. Millie keeps her own love life a secret from Orla by hiding her serious feelings from the widower, Hugh. Meanwhile, Hugh feels like he’s cheating on his dead wife and cannot show his real feelings toward Millie.

The setting is near Cornwall, with its extensive coastline and mild climate. Mansell’s delightful dialogue is filled with charming British phrases—they really say things like “Oh blimey,” and “crikey,” and “bugger.” The characters sip tea and eat Marmite on toast and “snog senseless” and have their “bloody nerve.”

Switches in points of view and abrupt changes of scene are carried off splendidly with Mansell’s entertaining and comedic style. Imaginative scenes are enlivened with careful description and wry observation. Dialogue combined with the characters’ secret thoughts create an intimate ground with the reader. Millie’s Fling is altogether a delightful read about love, love gone wrong, sex, and romance, and the complications those combinations bring. (September)


Rating: 5 Books

Fast moving, fun filled, with fascinating characters, MILLIE’S FLING grabs the reader and sweeps her into the whirlpool of Millie’s life. Millie, EVEN with her faux pas, foot-in-mouth moments, and other outlandish incidents, is a winner. She emerges a survivor with a zest for life that never subsides for long. She sees people for who they truly are and uses her special brand of humorous philosophy to cope with them while never losing her strong sense of justice, at least, justice as she sees it.

Jill Mansell has many story lines going at once, but she never lets the reader get lost in the maze as she blends all these together with remarkable skill. She makes everything sound so real, even with the ridiculous antics of the characters that make the reader laugh, sigh, and sometime cry. The events propel the reader along to share the extreme emotional highs and lows of the diverse characters. Jill’s humor, both subtle and blatant, lifts the spirits and makes the heart sing. With her masterful use of words to reveal the complexity of the characters’ personalities, she makes the reader feel as if she is right there with the action.

The characters and events elicit laughs, giggles, chuckles, and reveal exuberance for life that is contagious. The feeling that a new adventure is just around the corner makes even the “poor-me” scenes fun to read. The twists and turns in the story make the reader unsure of who will end up with whom when all is said and done.

Being rejected by the man she feels is her soul mate does not deter Millie from meeting life head on—meddling in her friends’ lives, making a living, getting herself into all kinds of jams, and always being the one people can depend on. Of course, we get our happy-ever-after, but we get SO MUCH more along the way in MILLIE’S FLING.

Years and years ago, I was given two Jill Mansell books as a present. One was Good at Games and the other was this book.

It has been a sufficiently long time so that I couldn’t remember too much about what happened in this book, all except for one scene. If anyone ever talked to me about a Jill Mansell book, I would always talk about the very last scene in this book, or more precisely, the very last line. It is not that it is a perfect ending,, although all the loose ends are tidied up nicely, and it is not that the line would be particularly funny taken out of context, but the last line finishes off this book in such a perfect tone and was so memorable to me that I could still remember it six or seven years after I originally read it. The closer I got to the end of the book, the more I was looking for the clues of how we would get to that last line. I guess it is kind of strange to begin a review talking about the last line of a book though!

Our main character is Millie. She works for a very uptight travel agency in Cornwall, and shares a house with her friend Hester. Her boyfriend is about to ask her to move in with him when she notices a woman standing on the edge of a cliff. Regardless of what her boyfriend thinks Millie talks the woman away from the edge, and so in the process saves the life of well known novelist, Orla Hart. Orla is in an unhappy marriage, and her latest book has just been completely savaged in a review and so she is feeling quite desperate.

When Orla crosses paths with Millie again, Millie finds herself out of a job, as well as minus her boyfriend (no great loss there) and so Orla decides that she is going to try something completely different for her next book - she is going to write about Millie’s life. Now Millie and her housemate have just vowed to have a summer free of the complications that having sex brings, so that isn’t necessarily going to provide the novelist with a lot of fodder, so she steers several good looking young men her way. Her new job as a gorilla gram also provides many ideas, as does Hester’s long standing crush on Millie’s new boss, even though she has a loving boyfriend who is currently working at the other end of the country.

Millie tries to navigate her way through her love life, all the while falling for a man who is emotionally unavailable, Hester finds out that she doesn’t necessarily want what she thinks she wants, and Orla finds more out about herself.

One of the highlights for me is the dialogue between the characters, especially between Millie and the major male character. What starts off as a very awkward introduction blossoms nicely and their dialogue is sometimes light and entertaining, and at other times much deeper, and the author has a deft touch in knowing when to include each type of dialogue.

At around 560 pages long, this is not a short book by any means, but it reads as a much shorter book than it really is. I find myself getting lost in Mansell’s books, and I am looking forward to reading another from her.

For a reader who doesn’t normally do rereads, I think the fact that I can see myself reading this book for a third time at some time in the future speaks volumes.

If you are looking for good chick-lit, you can do yourself a favour and pick up one of Jill Mansell’s books. Luckily Sourcebooks is currently releasing some of this author’s books which were previously not easily available everywhere.

Millie Brady saves best-selling romance novelist Orla Hart from jumping to her death one afternoon. Orla is so greatful that she has decided to make Millie the heroine in her next book. She is determined that Millie will find that special someone over the summer and she’ll do whatever she can to make it happen. She’ll interview and hire just the perfect hunky gardener, she’ll have a party in Millie’s honor and invite celebrities, and she’ll set her up with who she thinks Millie may find acceptable. She won’t set her up with Hugh Emerson though. His wife recently died, and a rebound relationship is not what Millie or her book needs.

Millie met Hugh through very unusual circumstances. One evening when she and her roommate Hester were walking home from the clubs, they found Hugh’s wallet in the bushes. Being good samaritans, they return it, but not before having a wee bit of fun. Millie calls him up and with a fake accent tells him she is pregnant and he is the father. Hugh is not amused as his wife just died, unbeknown to Millie. She is so ashamed and the guilt eats at her for weeks, until she calls him again to apologize. Hugh is intrigued and asks her to coffee. They see one another again a few times, and eventually have a fling, but Hugh isn’t looking for a relationship and Millie’s heart is stung.

Millie’s Fling takes us on a warm and humourous journey. The main character is Millie, but a side story of her roommate Hester is an added bonus, and Jill Mansell blends them perfectly into one seamless British Chick-Lit. Just reading it makes you feel good, even when things aren’t going so well for Millie. An absolute delight!


Millie Brady is parked on a scenic overlook with her boyfriend Neil when she suddenly realizes he is going to propose. Millie thinks this cannot be happening to her. After all they have only been dating for three months. At twenty-five, Millie thinks there must be more to life than this. As if her prayers have been answered, Millie sees a woman attempting to jump over the cliff and she takes off to help her, leaving Neil alone and upset.

The woman about to jump is Orla Hart, a well known romance novelist. After talking to Millie about her troubles she is so grateful that she decides to write her next book about Millie. Orla invites Millie to spend the summer in Cornwall so she can begin her work on the book. Millie looks forward to a quiet summer without dating. Neil has just dumped her and now she is free. Orla has other plans however, and decides she is going to find Millie the man of her dreams. They soon find out that they have different ideas of what a dream man should be.

As Orla begins her book Millie questions whether her boring life will be exciting or steamy enough for readers. She relates to Orla funny stories of her family and friends, and Orla secretly schemes to add excitement to the pages. What follows is a hilarious, laugh out loud read as signals get crossed, opportunities are missed, and Millie even takes on a job as a roller-skating gorrillagram. Orla doesn’t realize that Millie deliberately didn’t tell her the juiciest piece of gossip that could add to the book. Millie is funny and quirky and her best friend Hester adds to the plot. Will Orla find Millie a real life dream man or just another character for her book?

Millie’s Fling is funny and witty and transports readers to the English countryside. This is one of Mansell’s best.

I’ve been enjoying the Jill Mansell novels that Sourcebooks has been releasing over the past few months. Both An Offer You Can’t Refuse [review] and Miranda’s Big Mistake [review] were fun, light novels that were easy to read. When I heard Sourcebooks was releasing another one of Mansell’s books this fall, I was eager to read it.

One of the best parts of Millie’s Fling was the sheer number of characters. Mansell gave each of them distinct, well developed personalities, which meant that it was easy to tell them apart and keep them straight. There was a lot going on in this book, but it was never overwhelming. At 512 pages, it needed to have a relatively complicated plot in order to keep the reader interested, and Mansell accomplished that very effectively.

I have to admit, I found the addition of Orla into this novel a little weird. Though in some ways, she was the glue that held Millie’s Fling together, I also think the novel could have worked without the complications she provided. Still, she certainly was a funny, eccentric character and I enjoyed reading about the havoc she wreaked.

Millie herself was a great character. I thought she was funny with a healthy sense of humor. I appreciated that she wasn’t the typical “quirky” chick lit heroine who does incredibly stupid things during the course of a novel. She was level-headed, and while she sometimes found herself in unique situations, they were never a product of her own making. She was a great character and a fun heroine for Millie’s Fling.

I also appreciated the relationship between Millie and the man that eventually becomes her love interest in Millie’s Fling (I don’t want to give anything away!). There was something real about it. The quandaries that they got themselves into were believable ones, and I thought they really worked as a couple.

Millie’s Fling is an enjoyable British chick lit novel and is a worthy addition to Sourcebooks’ Jill Mansell lineup. I definitely recommend this book for some light, fun reading!



Jill Mansell has surpassed herself once again in Millie’s Fling. Chicklit and women’s fiction readers will enjoy this spontaneous journey in Cornwall, England.

"Having ignored his plea, Millie promptly cannoned into the lamp-post behind her. Clutching her left shoulder and trying to pretend it hardly hurt at all—ow, ouch—she wondered why her life had to so closely resemble Mr. Bean’s. What she wouldn’t give to be sleek and chic and in control at all times." (Page 108-9 of ARC)

Millie is a down-to-earth girl, whose life is a bit like Mr. Bean’s because she tends to fall into ridiculous situations unwittingly. Her roomie, Hester, is in a long-term relationship with an up-and-coming chef, Nat, but still has a flamethrower burning for an old love, Lucas Kemp. Millie’s Fling is the age-old search for love and happiness, but this serendipitous journey is rounded out with Orla Hart, a highly successful author with marital problems whom Millie befriends atop a cliff.

Happily single, Millie consistently tries to keep her roomie on the right relationship track since Hester’s boyfriend has taken a job in Glasgow to further his career as a chef. By chance, Millie stumbles upon a lost wallet in the bushes—a wallet that becomes the tie between her and Hugh Emerson, a young recently widowed computer specialist. Readers will giggle, tense up, and shake their heads as Hugh and Millie fumble through getting to know one another under impossible circumstances.

"’Two more things I can’t stand,’ said Hugh. ’Violent women. And girls who can’t take a joke.’

’I hate men who wear nasty cheap aftershave.’

’What really annoys me is getting phone calls from people putting on ridiculous accents, asking me the answer to crossword clues.’

’That isn’t true!’ Millie exclaimed. ’You asked me to give you the clues. You were bursting to show off how clever you were. And that’s something I really can’t stand in a man.’" (Page 398 of ARC)

Mansell’s dialogue between Millie and Hugh is fresh and witty; some of the best sequences involve them rattling off their favorite words or their most hated things about people, particularly at times when they are awkward with one another. Although there are some cliche moments in this novel, Mansell has well-developed characters on the edge of reality who bounce dialogue off one another in a way that makes the pages fly in Millie’s Fling.


Once again, Jill Mansell has reminded me why I enjoy British chick lit and need to read a fun romance every once in a while. There’s plenty of romantic mishaps and entertaining characters in Millie’s Fling, the latest of her novels to be released in the U.S. by Sourcebooks.

The heroine of Millie’s Fling, Millie Brady, is a 25-year-old woman living in Cornwall, England, who describes herself as a female Mr. Bean. She’s dumped by her boyfriend in the very first chapter of the novel — he’s asking her to move in with him, but she’s more concerned about the woman ready to jump off the cliff at Tresanter Point. That woman is Orla Hart, the best-selling romance novelist who is deeply hurt by her husband’s infidelity. Millie convinces her not to jump, and a close friendship — and work relationship — blooms. Orla, still reeling from a bad book review, decides to shake things up a bit with her latest novel, which she decides to base on Millie’s life. Millie must spill the beans on everything that goes on in her life — such as comforting her best friend and roommate, Hester, as she tries to juggle a long-distance romance with Nat, a chef working in Glasgow, and her long-time crush on Lucas, a womanizer who becomes Millie’s boss.

Other than her job as a roller-skating gorilla who delivers kissograms, Millie has a boring life (or so she says). The people around her, however, are another story. As usual, Mansell creates several interesting characters that kept me turning the pages, from Millie’s desperate mother, Adele, to the horrid couple with whom Millie worked as a travel agent. The supporting characters have mishaps of their own, which makes for an entertaining read. As for Millie, Orla figures introducing Millie to various men will spice up her life and enhance the plot of the book being written about her. However, Millie gets herself into a pickle with Hugh Emerson, a widower whom she meets after finding his lost wallet and playing a phone prank on him.

Mansell writes bumbling but endearing heroines whom you can’t help but like, and though her books tend to hover around 500 pages, it’s easy to get so wrapped up in the story that you forget about the length. The dialogue, particularly the banter between Millie and Hugh, is brilliant and had me smiling and chuckling to myself. While the plot was predictable, Millie’s Fling is a feel-good book for chick lit fans or readers looking for a light and funny novel packed with memorable characters.


Millie’s boyfriend is about to ask her to move in with him on a cliff when, distractedly, she notices someone idling very close to the cliff alone when she realizes this particular spot as known as Jumper’s Bluff more than a hotspot for romance. Not wanting to live with him, or even continue this relationship past this very moment, she jumps out to talk down the woman with the fiery red hair. Very quickly Millie recognizes her as bestselling novelist Orla Hart.

Distraught over her husband’s infidelity, coupling that with a very negative review ripping her latest to shreds, Orla has decided she doesn’t have much to live for, and can’t imagine a life without her beloved groom. Millie points out that it’d be very unfair to Orla herself that her husband and his mistress should be rewarded with her estate should she jump, and that seems to get through to Orla. Soon she’s driving Millie back into town, and they part ways until Orla finds her at the travel agency she works at. When Millie quits her job following another fiasco with her married bosses, Orla finds her and tells her she wants to pay to use her life as a basis for the main character of her next novel, as she is determined to get back on top of the bestsellers lists once again. Millie agrees though she knows her life is just not that interesting. Until she meets Hugh.

After a night out on the town with her roommate Hester, who’s ended the night with her typical throwing her stilettos to the wind, it appears that Hester has hit a cat with one of her heels. Millie runs to the bushes to check the cat and finds he is okay and then finds a wallet to boot. After rifling through and finding that the owner is a good looking man indeed, Millie decides to prank him and tell him of their affair behind his wife’s back three months prior. His humor at the joke turns cold with mention of his wife, and he tells Millie it’s not possible as his wife died eight months ago. Mortified, Millie ships off the wallet with a letter apologizing profusely, remaining anonymous or so she thinks. When Hugh calls and asks to take her for a drink in gratitude, she reluctantly agrees. Sparks fly between them with both doing their best to ignore it, and Millie trying to keep it from Orla. The poor man’s had his heart broken, there’s no need for him to have to worry about showing up in a novel.

I really enjoyed this book. It was quick and fun. The banter was funny and easy to imagine and even the slightly darker topics (cheating, death) were not made heavy in the book. It was cute and it played out well. I will definitely look forward to more of Jill Mansell’s novels. Does anyone else love the influx of British chick lit authors coming here lately? Harriet Evans, Dorothy Koomson and Jill Mansell are three notables and I enjoy them all immensely!

Many a girl will understand Millie. She’s bored with dating, not attracted to the guy her friends have set her up with, and an expert at putting her foot in her mouth.

When Millie finds a wallet in some shrubbery, she decides to play a little joke on the owner of the wallet before returning it. Unfortunately, the joke goes horribly wrong and she’s left with pounds of guilt and no way to assuage it. Luckily, she’s distracted by her new-found friendship with Orla Hart, a bestselling author of romance novels. Orla needs a fresh idea for her next book and decides to base it on Millie’s life ... of course, Orla will have to spice Millie’s life up just a bit to make it novel-worthy. But just leave it to Orla to stir things up and make things happen!

In the meantime, Millie’s roommate, Hester, is having boyfriend problems. An old flame of Hester’s moves back to town, and Millie still can’t trample down the horrid guilt from her joke-gone-wrong. Add in Millie’s crazy parents, a kissogram (singing telegram) agency and Orla’s idea of the perfect man, and you’ve got a story that will keep you turning the pages — and laughing the entire time.

The novel is set in small town England and is a wonderful change of pace from the many British chick lit books that are set in London. The reader gets a glimpse of small town life "across the pond." As much as I loved the setting, I loved the characters more. Mansell has a gift for writing charming characters — most so quirky that you can’t help but love them.

Millie’s Fling is British author Jill Mansell’s third U.S. release. Mansell’s fast-paced, multi-plot novels are some of my favorites of all time. She juggles an amazing cast of characters and manages to keep all of their plot lines up in the air. The reader is constantly trying to guess what will happen next; meanwhile, the plot lines are crisscrossing and intersecting. It’s just plain fun.

Format: Paperback

Dimensions
Length: 8 in
Width: 5.25 in
Weight: 19.20 oz
Page Count: 512 pages