Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes by Jules Moulin (Twitter, Goodreads)Published by Penguin on August 25th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Contemporary Women, Fiction, Humorous, Romance
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
When a buttoned-up professor and her unbuttoned daughter fall for the same irresistible man, a delightful, subversive comedy begins. . . . Life isn’t easy for single mother Ally Hughes. Teaching at Brown, her class load is huge and her boss is a menace. At home, she contends with a critical mother, a falling-down house, and a daughter who never misses a beat. Between taking care of the people she loves, teaching full time, and making ends meet, Ally doesn't have time for a man. She doesn’t date. She’s not into flings. But then she meets Jake, an eager student, young in years but old in soul, who challenges his favorite professor to open up her life, and her heart, to love. It doesn't work. In fact, his urging backfires.Ten years later, Ally's still single. Jake reappears and surprises her in a brand-new role: He's dating Ally's now-grown daughter. In this hilarious, heartrending tale, Ally is finally forced to concede (not only to herself) that an independent, "liberated" woman can still make room in her life for love.
If someone asked me what exactly is “Chick Lit”, I would hand them this book and say this is a perfect example. It’s not too heavy on drama, yet there is some. It’s not filled with over the top sex scenes, though there are some, and it focuses on a female character who is trying to figure out some aspect of her life.
In Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes you get all of that and a lovely story. Told in alternating timelines, in one we experience a 48 hour period of time where Ally, drowning in responsibility and the stresses of real life leaves it all behind to spend the time with Jake, a former student and someone she has an inexplicable connection with. In the other, it’s 10 years later and Jake reappears in her life unexpectedly, but the stresses of her life haven’t let up in the least.
I thought this was the perfect way to tell this story. The alternating chapters show that while ten years have passed, Ally still struggles to balance the stresses of her life. She’s currently struggling with the loss of her mother, and dealing with the shenanigans that her 20 year old daughter is pulling. Back then, it was the struggles of a single mother and trying to acquire a tenured position at the college she was working.
There is of course a bad guy in this, who you know is a bad guy from the very beginning. Moulin wasn’t sneaky about him in any way at all, and I really disliked that he was even a part of this story, especially after what he introduces Ally’s daughter to.
Ultimately this book really felt almost like the story that all us single women wish could happen to us… That handsome, sexy guy we really fell for comes back years later, suddenly successful and famous and sweeps us off our feet in a whirlwind romance.
If you’re looking for something a little quirky, a little sexy and a little romantic definitely grab this title and dive right in. It’s a quick read that will have you laughing and smiling and cheering these characters on.
Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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