Book Review: The Beginners Guide to the Birds & the Bees, by Sophie Hart

Let’s talk about sex… would you share your bedroom secrets if it meant saving your marriage?

Another big thank you to the lovely Bookouture for providing me with a review copy via NetGalley.

“A refreshingly open and uplifting romantic comedy about friendship, love and sex. Sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone in order to give a relationship a good dose of TLC…

Sex therapist Annie Hall helps couples put the fizz back into their relationships. It’s a shame her own love life is non-existent. When Jamie who works next door catches her eye, she can’t ignore the spark of chemistry.

Most men would jump at the chance to skive off work for an afternoon quickie with their gorgeous wife, but Nick knows Julia is after only one thing – a baby. Sex shouldn’t be a chore. Can Annie help Julia see that?

Newly engaged Zoe and Simon can’t keep their hands off each other. They’ve decided to take a vow of celibacy until their wedding night. Will Annie help them stick to it?

Ray and Linda have been married for over thirty years but she’s more interested in the family business than getting intimate with him. Can Annie convince Linda to rediscover her passion for Ray after all this time?

While Annie begins to work her magic with the three couples, she soon discovers that she’ll need to take some of her own advice if she’s going to let a new man into her life. “

This book was wonderful. It’s charming, funny, sweet and just an overall pleasure to read. Chick Lit in it’s purest, loveliest form.

Despite Annie being a sex therapist- and indeed sex is a large topic throughout the book – it’s not raunchy, or vulgar or explicit; it’s warm, and charming and cheeky. As is often misunderstood with Annie’s profession, at the heart of it all, it’s about relationships – about love.

Annie herself, I fell in love with the moment she got home from work and greeted Harry and Sally (you’ll have to read it and see!). This is a girl after my own heart. She’s had her heart broken in the past and is scared of making the same mistake again, but she’s still a romcom lover, in love with love, and believes in happy endings. This is why she does what she does; she may not be great at getting her own love life together, but at least she can help other couples achieve their happily ever after. And I love her for that. I also love her standards. Between persistent (and ill-suited) match-making from her sister, Holly, and pressing comments from her mother, Annie’s feeling the pressure to be settling down with someone. But, she refuses to settle for anything less than her dream romance. She wants a man who makes her heart beat fast and puts butterflies in her stomach. Someone who’s truly passionate about her too, and not just the first looks-good-on-paper guy who agrees to go on a date with her. And I love her even more for that. I really found myself desperately rooting for her to find her own happy ending.

I really enjoyed the way the book told the story of Annie’s clients, as well as her own story. The clients we meet are 3 very different couples, with 3 very different problems, and each character in turn is created beautifully. Sophie’s writing is just an absolute delight to read, and I really felt like I was truly getting to know each and every one of them. As they attended their group therapy sessions, it was also lovely to watch how the relationships between the group developed, as well as within each couple. I definitely grew attached to them all and was rooting for their happy endings almost as much as I was for Annie’s.

The whole book is just a fabulous story, wonderfully written. It makes you feel as warm and cosy as all great Chick Lit should, and gets five heart-warming stars.

Rating: