One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.

I first encountered Jojo Moyes last year when I read Me Before You, the story of a paralysed man and the unlikely young woman who becomes his assistant. A touching, heart-breaking love story, Me Before You placed Moyes firmly on my To Read radar so when One Plus One was released this year I included it on my TBR. This new book, about a dysfunctional family and the unlikely hero who must get them to a Math Olympiad in Scotland, blew me away even more than Me Before You did.

Moyes is great at creating character that you will care about and enjoy spending time with. It is one of those books that you will not want to put down, I found myself desperate to get to the end just to find out how things would turn out for Jess, Ed, Tanzie and Nicky, especially once I reached the last third of the book. At turns heart-breaking and heart-warming, dealing with both the darkest and brightest of human nature, One Plus One is much more than just a simple love story, though it does do that very well indeed. Quintessentially British, One Plus One confirmed Moyes for me as a great writer, one to watch and to enjoy whenever she releases a new book.
 
I gave One Plus One 5 stars.