Chances, by Freya North

Freya North’s early novels were fresh and zesty, with a healthy dose of quirky thrown in. Funny, sexy and ultimately romantic, her heroines were appealing and her heroes attractive; a tiny element of magic realism added something a little different to the chick lit genre. Later novels took on a slightly darker edge, with some difficult dilemmas thrown in and boy and girl not always ending up where you thought they would. Chances, her eleventh outing reads a little tired and by the numbers. North has always teetered on the edge of didactic, notably in her Tour De France-themed novel Cat, and here she topples over it. Facts and figures about trees and wood are shoehorned into the narrative – she did the arboriculture research and she is bloody well going to use it. Hero and heroine are too good to be true and the regret of the ex is just not credible to any degree. Nothing of the outcome is left to imagination or speculation, a strength of earlier stories. It could have used a bit more work and a tighter edit on some unnecessary repetition. That said, Chances is a pleasant enough tale of recovery from heartbreak, whose most appealing character is the pear tree in the back yard.