Pushing 30 Review

PUSHING 30
Whitney Gaskell
ISBN: 0-553-38224-1
September 2003
Bantam Books
Paperback
Chick Lit

New Year’s Eve baby, Ellie Winters, dreads her birthday. Everyone already has a party to attend and she ends up feeling forgotten and neglected. Most friends give her only one gift, telling her it’s for both Christmas and her birthday! Turning the big three-oh this year, she is feeling even more let down, since she happens to be the last of her high school friends to remain single. Time and time again she has broken up with guys her family and friends deem perfect for her. She is not sure what she wants in a man, yet she knows she wants to fall completely in love. Her goal this year is to find the man of her dreams, and to make him realize she is the woman of his dreams.

After botching a break up, during which her current boyfriend proposes to her as she forms the words to tell him their relationship is over, Ellie tries to move onward and upward with a new project at work. She truly hates her career as a lawyer, yet endures in this profession because her father expects her to someday become a judge and follow in his footsteps. After meeting Ted Langston, a newscaster, Ellie falls in love for the first time in her life. Can she convince Ted that despite the difference in their ages, he needs her in his life?

In PUSHING 30, Whitney Gaskell has created wonderful characters and a humorous plot that will delight the most jaded reader. Ellie’s mishaps and adventures kept this reviewer rolling with laughter. The humor intensified the feelings of love that leapt off the pages, and at the same time, made the characters seem clueless about life and love. As a reader, I cheered for Ellie and Ted as they fought their friends and families in order to find out if their match was truly made in heaven.

A first time novelist, Ms. Gaskell has stolen my heart with her novel full of delightfully funny as well as horrifying scenes in which Ellie’s good intentions turn out to be the wrong path to take. This is a must read book! The characters will bring a smile to every reader’s face, and warm hearts with their trials and tribulations of love.

Reviewed by Angie
October 2003