West Side Honey (Claire Christian, Text)

Claire Christian’s novel West Side Honey serves up everything you’d want from a bingeable, indulgent rom-com, all the while remaining original and exciting. When she and her ex-husband start a new week-on-week-off custody schedule, single mum Cleo gets the opportunity to embrace the worlds of casual dating and ethical non-monogamy, while growing her business. Cleo lives with her supportive, lively best friend Jude and their respective children, and runs a flower shop called West Side Honey with her friend Farida. Bolstered by her thriving relationships with Jude and Farida, who push Cleo to delve into her desires and embrace adventure, pleasure and self-compassion, Cleo sets off on a romantic journey in which classic romance tropes are revitalised by warm, open and self-aware characters. The romantic plot in the novel is playful and gratifying, but the love that Christian centres the novel around is platonic love, with the most moving and tender moments often taking place between Cleo and Jude. While the novel, set in an unnamed Australian city, lacks a specific sense of place and the characterisation of the protagonist at times veers towards generic, West Side Honey thrives on challenging set expectations. By making space for the characters and readers to question the norms of dating, the story is bound to win over many romance fans.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Shivani Prabhu is a freelance writer and a nonfiction editor for Voiceworks. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews