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The Continuity Girl by Patrick Kincaid #BlogTour

When this little beauty arrived through my letterbox my 9 year old picked it up and said "Mummy it looks like an old strip of film but made to look like the Loch Ness Monster". That was the cover certainly nailed and being a previous media studies student that sort of thing appeals to me.

The book was primarily set in the Highlands and being a frequent holiday-er to those parts I also appreciated the location. Set around the discovery of an uncut version of a real film (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes) it flits between the 1969 film shoot and present day London. The concept reminded me of Beautiful Ruins (one of my favourite reads of the year) and I of course had to immediately Google the film and now have developed an urge to read Conan Doyle's back catalogue.

I really liked Jim the marine biologist looking for proof the Loch Ness Monster did(n't?) exist. The book is billed as a romantic comedy and it was different reading this type of book from a male's perspective, never getting to know what was in the head of April Bloom (The Continuity Girl).  Jim was immediately likeable and the books strongest asset providing much of the humour.

In the present day part we switched to Gemma a film studies professor involved in the screening of the uncut version of the film. I found both Gemma and April to be strong independent characters, successful in their careers and good at what they did. I loved April's reaction to Jim's confession about the extent of his feelings. How many times have I read about a girl wearing her heart on her sleeve only to be rejected? This role reversal was also continued in the make over section before the Moon Landing Party, a brilliant stereotype to break and funny to read. Whilst there were strong females, the males in the book were treated equally fairly. It would have been so easy to turn David (Gemma's boyfriend) in to a baddie yet Kincaid steered away from this and David remained with pride intact. 

As well as reading about the background to the Loch Ness Monster it was interesting reading about the Moon Landing (what a fascinating time that must have been) at the same time as the Referendum. I found this gave the two parts a strong sense of setting and realism as let's face it, who wouldn't have been talking about the Moon in 1969?

I really liked the ending with Kincaid veering away from sickly sweet. I found he stayed away from cliches of this genre in general resulting in the book not being predictable and being all the more better for it. It was funny, it had warmth and even had a pine martin, what's not to like!

In return for an honest review my copy of The Continuity Girl was provided by Unbound Digital courtesy of Anne Cater's Random Things Through My Letter Box. My thanks to them both.




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