This was a novel that I got for Christmas from my Auntie, who I had asked for books as I have borrowed them from her before and she has a similar taste to me. Unfortunately, this one wasn't up to the same standard as usual, despite it being 'The Sunday Times Bestseller'.
Welcome to my World probably would have been an average read for me a couple of years ago, but now that I have expanded my literary scope it just didn't cut it. It is a story about Harri, a twenty-something year old woman, recently orphaned, who works in a travel agency in a little village but dreams of exploring the world. She is very happy in a long-term relationship, and has lots of close friends and family where she lives. After going away travelling, Alex, the son of a family friend, moves back to Stone Yardley and him and Harri become best friends, bonding over their love of culture. Harri enters him into a magazine competition to try to find the girl of his dreams, but it sadly backfires when he becomes smitten with a Jordan-esque girl called Chelsea.
The plot doesn't sound too bad (maybe...), but it was highly predictable (it turns out the long term boyfriend has been cheating, and Harri and Alex shack up) and it isn't even compensated for by being particularly well-written or innovative. Another thing that was rather annoying was that each chapter started with a paragraph depicting Harri locked in a toilet cubicle crying, but we don't know why. This was intriguing to begin with, but baring in mind there are twenty-two chapters, you can see why it may become a little frustrating. A great deal of the characters were hugely stereotyped and/or unrealistic, and the story as a whole was just far too twee for my liking.
Needless to say, I won't be reading another Miranda Dickinson, that is presuming she gets published again. Probably the best thing about this book is that it came with a free lipgloss. Sorry.
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