NEW RELEASE
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy - Helen Fielding (2013)
Bridget Jones is back for a third installment of her utterly fabulous diary. Last time readers heard from Bridget, in 1999, she was in her 30s. Now, she's reached that critical stage in life called "middle-age" and is raising two young children, Mabel and Billy, on her own after her husband, Mark Darcy, dies tragically. As Bridget stumbles through the world of Twitter, drunk texting (and drunk tweeting), wearing the latest clothes and dealing with the posh school mums, you get a glimpse of the ever-present character the world came to love, though she has aged. Her humour is still there and despite the loss of the perfect Mr Darcy, you can still catch glimpses of him in young Billy, who has many of his mannerisms. Being a single mum - and a widow - is hard and lonely, so with the support of her loyal friends, Bridget finds herself dating again - five years after Mark's death. Her newest love interest isn't exactly who you'd expect Bridget to be with but he's funny and sweet and quite a character. Billy and Mabel are a perfect addition to the story and probably the most lovable children you'll ever encounter. Mabel, 5, has an unhealthy obsession with the word "dammit" and reading about STDs, whereas Billy, 8, is more calm and assured like Mark Darcy. Can Bridget raise Billy and Mabel on her own without falling into a grief-filled hole? Will she ever find love again? This is one story you don't want to miss. Though many people are upset about Mark Darcy, the story is so great that you shouldn't let that put you off it. It's a story of love, redemption and moving on with life even when you don't want to. (AS)
The highly anticipated third novel in Helen Fielding's series, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, introduces readers to a whole new, enticing phase of Bridget's life. It is set in contemporary London, and includes the challenges of maintaining sex appeal as the years roll by, and the nightmares of drunken texting, the skinny jean, the disastrous e-mail cc, total lack of Twitter followers, and TVs that need ninety buttons and three remotes to simply turn on. The summary says: "What do you do when your girlfriend's sixtieth birthday party is the same day as your boyfriend's thirtieth? Is it better to die of Botox or die of loneliness because you're so wrinkly? Is it wrong to lie about your age when online dating? Is it morally wrong to have a blow-dry when one of your children has head lice? Is it normal to be too vain to put on your reading glasses when checking your toy boy for head lice? Does the Dalai Lama actually tweet or is it his assistant? Is it normal to get fewer followers the more you tweet? Is technology now the fifth element? Or is that wood? If you put lip plumper on your hands do you get plump hands? Is sleeping with someone after two dates and six weeks of texting the same as getting married after two meetings and six months of letter writing in Jane Austen's day? Pondering these and other modern dilemmas, Bridget Jones stumbles through the challenges of loss, single motherhood, tweeting, texting, technology, and rediscovering her sexuality in - Warning! Bad, outdated phrase approaching! - middle age." Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is out in October 2013.