Life... With No Breaks/Mad Love

A week's holiday requires some easy reading - and it doesn't get much easier than Nick Spalding. Having read a couple of his books, I consider myself a fan, and so it wasn't too much of a challenge to get through two more in a matter of days.

Life... With No Breaks was Spalding's debut, and actually his most interesting concept - could he write a fully fleshed book in 24 hours? Well, yes and no. Firstly because it took (slightly) longer than that, and secondly because the result isn't your average book. It's more of a conversation with the reader, as Spalding takes considerable time to introduce himself and recap why he has set himself this challenge. From there, though, it is an interesting and enjoyable read as he slides between topics nicely, bemoaning various aspects of modern British life and veritably churning out one-liners in the process. And he's not afraid to go deeper, touching on death, his divorce, previous failures in the literary sphere and the inevitable passage of time. I also found it a good indication of the origin of his writing style, which I have found inflexible in the past - it turns out his characters all talk like he does. All in all it's an interesting idea well executed.

Mad Love is a much more conventional rom-com novel that follows a man from London and a woman from California as a dating website, as a publicity stunt, singles them out for marriage based on the compatibility of their profiles. The prospect of £30,000 and a rent-free year in a penthouse flat is enough to convince Adam, a video game reviewer, and Jessica, a student in nutrition, to go through with it. The wedding itself is dealt with quickly, and the plot soon settles into a routine of arguments as it turns out their profiles may not have been entirely honest. Mad Love lacks, for the most part, the ingredients that got me into Spalding's other work - the laugh-out-loud moments, well-constructed scenes and memorable characters. The ending was predictable, and the dialogue just didn't quite work at times. But the book as a whole was saved by a moment of breathtaking sadness that proved that, if Spalding ever decides to write something serious, he would probably do a very good job.

All in all, I pretty much knew what to expect going in and both books delivered - lighter than air, capable of raising a smile, and a much-needed break before going back into the heavy stuff.

Life... With No Breaks - 3.5/5
Mad Love - 3/5

Life... With No Breaks seems to have anticipated a trend that has recently emerged in music of writing fully-formed songs in as little time as possible.  This is the best combination of time/result: