An Offer You Can't Refuse

by Jill Mansell

Book Overview

What's a girl to do with...An offer you can't refuse? A new bestseller from one of the UK's biggest authors Nothing could tear Lola and Dougie apart, except his mother... Seventeen-year-old Lola has no intention of accepting when her boyfriend's snobbish mother offers her a huge bribe to break up with him. Then Lola discovers a secret that makes her think again, and the only way she can help one of the people she loves most in the world is to take...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1402218338
• ISBN13: 9781402218330
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Good but...

I thought the book was very good, but kind of cringed at the whole desperate woman trying desperately to make a man fall in love with her... Other than that, the book was good...

Couldn't put it down

This was my first title by this author and I picked it up on a whim. What a great read. Mansell did an amazing job with creating unique characters and making them believable. This book had me laughing out loud most of the time. Definitely worth the price I paid and I'll probably re-read it once I get it back from my sister.

Would You Take the Money?

Lola and Dougie were very much in love. Though only 17 and 18, they had promised each other forever. This changed in the blink of an eye. Dougie's mother was not a big fan of Lola's. She didn't think that Lola belonged in her son's "privileged" life, so she offers Lola 10,000 pounds to leave Dougie and convince him that it is over. Lola is outraged and is bound and determined to tell Dougie what kind of mother he has. Before she has a chance to speak with him, her circumstances change and she is forced to accept his mother's bribe. Now, 10 years later she is working as a bookstore manager and living in Notting Hill. Coming to the aide of a woman in distress manages to land her face to face with her old love. Can she fan the flames and reignite his desire for her? Or will the truth of what she did keep them apart forever? This is a great chick-lit book! The story has a host of secondary characters that are just as entertaining as Lola. They also each have their own story to add to the mix! We have Blythe, Lola's fashion-challenged mother; Malcolm- Blythe's monopoly-loving boyfriend; Gabe - the neat-freak, next door neighbor - who also happens to be Lola's best friend; Sally - Dougie's sister and Gabe's eventual flatmate - and she is as messy as Gabe is neat. Let's not forget Dougie himself and his current girlfriend Isabel - who is both beautiful and intelligent. Throw in a couple of celebrities and a long lost relative and you have a delightful read. I found this book hard to put down. If you like Sophie Kinsella, I think you will like Jill Mansell.

Fun and light summer reading

Rating: 4.5 stars An Offer You Can't Refuse, which is already a bestseller in the UK, has just been released in North America. It starts off telling the story of seventeen-year-old Lola, who was just offered 10,000 pounds to break up with her boyfriend Doug, from his mother because according to her, Lola doesn't fit in with the privileged life she wants for him. Lola refuses the money but upon discovering her step-father's huge gambling debts, decides to take the money to bail him out. Fast-forward a number of years later, Lola decides to move back to her hometown and through certain circumstances runs into Doug. Lola realizes that she still has feelings for him but seeing her only arouses the anger and pain he had felt when she inexplicably broke up with him in a letter and left town. Despite the challenge, Lola fights to win back Doug's affection while trying to keep the secret about the money and her reasons for accepting it to herself. I seem to be reading less and less of traditional "chick-lit" because I find that even light books need some substance to truly be enjoyable for me. That is exactly why I was so pleased with An Offer You Can't Refuse. Although the ending is predictable and it has its share of overly sentimental parts, Jill Mansell's witty writing and interesting characters put this book in a different league. It may appear that Lola is a helpless and pathetic woman, still pining over Doug after all those years, but she is not portrayed as weak at all in the story. Actually the opposite is true given how loyal Lola is to her step-father by refusing to divulge the real reason why she needed the money. She stays true to herself and to her morals, even though it would have been a lot easier to betray her stepfather's trust and tell Doug what really happened. Even though this book is longer than most chick-lit books, it was an incredibly fast read. I was very absorbed in the storyline and especially enjoyed the cast of entertaining and at times wacky, secondary characters. It turned out that there was a lot more to the book and its plot than the description mentions, including a secret affair with a celebrity and the return of an estranged father. Jill Mansell's writing is fresh and fun, not to mention being released in North America just in time for some great light summer reading! http://bookopolis.blogspot.com

Delightful Brit Chick Lit

I admit it - I LOVE chick lit - and I think British chick lit is some of the best! I am so excited that Sourcebooks is bringing Jill Mansell's titles to North America! An Offer You Can't Refuse is being released today. Seventeen year old Lola Malone is madly in love with Dougie Tennant. But Dougie's mother Adele is less than enamoured with Lola - she wants her out of Dougie's life. She offers Lola a large sum of money to do just that. Lola is horrified, but when a family situation necessitates a large cash influx, she is reluctantly forced to accept Adele's offer. Fast forward ten years - Lola is back in Britain and the manager of a bookstore. I loved Mansell's choice of occupation for Lola. "She craved a proper bookshop like an addict craves a fix. There wasn't much that could beat that gorgeous new-book smell, touching the covers and turning the pages of a book whose pages had, just possibly, never been turned before." Or the customer who wants a book about insects that might have a pig in it. (Keep guessing - I'll tell you the title at the end of this post) When Lola suddenly meets up with Dougie again and finds she is still madly attracted to him, she hopes that maybe, just maybe....it will work this time around. But when Dougie hears about the payoff, he wants nothing to do with her. She promised to never reveal the reason she needed the money, but how is she going to win Dougie back when he thinks she is nothing but money hungry? Lola is an absolutely endearing character - someone you wish you had as a friend. The supporting characters are just as captivating, as are their story lines. Gabe is the male neat freak best friend, who through circumstances ends up living with Dougie's sloppy sister Sally. Lola's mom Blythe is a free spirit in love with a rumpled bear of a man who adores Monopoly. What will happen when Lola's real dad shows up again after twenty something years? Will any of them find true love? An Offer You Can't Refuse is a fresh, funny, charming read that will have you rooting for Lola, her friends and family and love until you turn the last page. The writing is warm and witty. Mansell's About the Author end note gives you some idea... " Jill Mansell lives with her partner and children in Bristol, and writes full time. Actually, that's not true; she watches TV, eat gum drops, admires the rugby players training in the sports field behind her house, and spends hours on the internet marveling at how many other writers have blogs. Only when she's completely run out of ways to procrastinate does she write." An Offer You Can't Refuse was #4 on the London Sunday Times bestseller list in the summer of 2008. I'm sure it will be a hit here as well. I'm looking forward to reading Mansell's next title, Miranda's Big Mistake , when it releases in June of this year. Love the Shopaholic series? You'll love Mansell too! Oh - that book title - Lord of the Flies!