The History of Lucy's Love Life in Ten and a Half Chapters

By Deborah Wright

Who would you date if you had a time machine? ? Lucy's love life needs a boost. When she isn't flirting with the gorgeous guy at the newsstand, she's daydreaming about torrid affairs with Lord Byron and George Clooney?anyone but her boyfriend Anthony. So she does what any sensible woman would do: she steals a time machine and tracks down the great lovers of the past. From Casanova to Ovid to Byron himself, Lucy's dating pool expands to truly historic proportions. But she quickly finds that even the world's most renowned lovers have their limitations?and that her true love may be closer to home than she ever believed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452289149
• ISBN13: 9780452289147
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Plume
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

4 1/2 Kisses, TwoLips Reviews

Who would you date if you had a time machine? For Lucy this question goes from hypothetical to reality in the blink of an eye. Lucy is feeling bad about getting bored with her terrific boyfriend. She's even faking orgasms, but she knows he'll be devastated if she breaks up with him. When she met Anthony, they discussed their mutual aversion to commitments. They decided to have a one-night stand, which turned into two years and 200+ one-night stands. Now Lucy has decided to break up with Anthony because she isn't feeling that spark anymore, and to her surprise he tells her he was going to break it off the same evening. After the breakup, Lucy isn't herself, and it's showing at work. She manages to get herself fired, and the only consolation is she's sent home with the "useless" time machine her boss had gotten from an admirer. Sleepless from second thoughts about her breakup with Anthony, and wanting a mental diversion, Lucy decides to put together the time machine, and is flabbergasted to find herself in the year 1813. She meets her longtime fantasy, Lord Byron, and though he isn't exactly what she expected, she finally captures his interest. He ends up being a total jerk, and she returns to the present day. My sides hurt from laughing so hard at her cell phone text conversation with Byron after she got home. Hilarious! Her next journey through time is to visit Leonardo Da Vinci. She spends some fascinating time with him, and they develop a close friendship, but it doesn't quite turn out as she had hoped. She comes back home to Anthony, who she's missing but trying not to. Next she travels back to meet Ovid, but that's not such a great experience either. In fact, she barely escapes disaster. Next is a trip to the era of prohibition to see legendary American gangster Al Capone, and this time Anthony goes with her. His quick thinking saves them from being arrested, but their adventure nearly turns into a disaster. We see a dangerous pattern emerging, and fortunately, so does Lucy. She ultimately decides to quit using the time machine. With every journey Lucy took, she learned important lessons and grew as an adult. She also learned to appreciate what she had with Anthony. But might she have learned that valuable lesson too late? The History of Lucy's Love Life in Ten and a Half Chapters by Deborah Wright made me laugh out loud a few times, so I had to read the passages to my husband, which then made him laugh out loud. Her style is fresh, witty and fun. I enjoyed how Lucy's adventures and historical characters were interwoven in the story, and I liked seeing how her experiences changed her perspective on love. This book was very amusing and enjoyable to read, but at the same time it was full of angst and big doses of frustration, and there were times I questioned whether Lucy truly deserved Anthony. She wants what she doesn't have, and then doesn't want it when she gets it. Despite my lukewarm feelings about Lucy, I still stayed up half the

4 stars

Though Lucy and Anthony are both phobic about committing, they find themselves on the brink of doing just that with each other, and Lucy runs from that. She wants to be free to pursue other men, footloose and fancy free. Or does she? When she gets hold of a time machine, she has an opportunity to find out how well she knows herself and soon encounters Ovid, who turns out to be a coward, Lord Byron and his crowd, and Al Capone. Things go truly badly with Capone though, and she finds she has to undo time to fix things, but the price of doing so is as stiff as that of not doing so, it would seem. How many times can one woman lose her true love? How will Lord Byron cope on reality TV? These and more questions are answered in ten and a half fun chapters. **** I've endured many chick lit novels and enjoyed quite a few time travels, and this is nothing like any of them. Comedic thrill abound, making it read something like one of the humor oriented Doctor Who episodes, if Bridget Jones was a companion, that is. The strongest aspect is the constant sense of not knowing where this story will take you, as Ms. Wright throws curve ball after curve ball at her readers. **** Amanda Killgore

engaging whimsical tale

Lucy cannot believe it that her fantasies have more life than her reality. One year seeing Anthony Brown has driven Lucy to total ennui as he fails to compare with her dreams shared with her heroes like Lord Byron, George Clooney and the newsagent who sells her the Daily Telegram. At least in her fantasies these hunks know how to melt a girl's bone marrow. Lucy is stunned when research scientist Dr. Kay Merrick fires her as his personal assistant due to tardiness. Irate, she steals his prototype time travel machine. She decides since modern man is Neanderthal when it comes to romance. She plans to use the invention to meet Byron, Casanova, and Leonardo, maybe even Ovid though Lucy does not swing that way and all the other great lovers of history. Based on the concept that the grass is not greener on the other side, Lucy's trek to find love in history is an engaging whimsical tale that turns HG Wells and Bill and Ted upside down. The story line is fun as begins her quest with her list of three constantly changing when the new reality fails to come close to her fantasy. However, Lucy is too flighty to be likable. She is unable to show up at work on time, unable to focus on Anthony and his needs, unable to relate her needs to him, and unable to stop day and night dreaming of other men. Still Lucy's adventures with history's hunks are fun to follow as her frolics provide a different look at the romantic hero. Harriet Klausner