One Plus One (by Jojo Moyes)

Another "vacation read" that I failed to read on my vacation due to technical difficulties. My tag for this one is "romcom," which I use instead of the irritating term "chicklit," but in this case, there may not be enough comedy to make that label feel accurate. This is not a criticism by the way! This "romcom" is above average; I would put it a notch above Marian Keyes,in fact.

Our protagonist is Jess, a single mom with two kids (the characterization of those two kids--who sometimes narrate--is the best) and they are really struggling to make ends meet. On the other end of the spectrum we have Ed, who is in trouble for insider trading and may go to prison. They meet cute when Jess turns out to be Ed's housecleaner, and later bartender. (Yep, she has two jobs.) Their fates intertwine.

The poverty issue is not glossed over, and Ed is not treated as a knight in shining armor, all of which I appreciated. The kids' father (Jess's ex) is also in the picture, and complicated emotions arise there as well. There is also some bullying that Jess's kids face in school, some of which gets legit frightening. Basically, this is not a frothy romcom. I was very invested in the story, particularly Tanzie getting her dream of going to private school on a math scholarship.

All in all I'd definitely read more Moyes. I recommend her to those of you who are Keyes fans, and I'd be curious to know if anyone has read more by her and would recommend anything else.