Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

I preordered Mad About the Boy long before I heard the tragic news about Mark Darcy.  When the book came, I devoured it over the course of the first weekend it was in my possession.  I enjoyed it immensely.

Bridget is now a 51 year old widow.  After the tragic death of her beloved husband, Mark Darcy, Bridget is left alone to raise her two very young children.  Bridget is flustered as only Bridget could be, but she makes the best of it.  The novel starts five years after this tragic death with Bridget’s posse of friends (Tom, Jude, and Shaz) trying to get her out and about in the dating world again.  Bridget goes on a weight loss regime and also tries to learn about the world of social media by starting a twitter account.  She goes back to work by writing a novel as she has always wanted to do.

Before Bridget knows it, she is dating Roxster, an attractive man twelve years her junior.  Bridget’s friends can’t believe her good luck and he is a nice guy, but is he the right man for her?

I’ll admit, I was as shell shocked as everyone learning before the novel came out that it was going to be about a widowed Bridget.  Mark Darcy dead, it can’t be!  I thought the novel was great though.  It respected the love and time that the two had together and was more about the journey of Bridget trying to find her self-confidence and way in a world without Mark.  While Bridget has matured and is now a mother, she is still the same old Bridget with her foibles and keen observations on modern life.  It made me laugh out loud several times.  I enjoyed the novel and really hope that they make a movie out of it.

I must say I also enjoyed it so much more than the Bridget Jones addition that Helen Fielding had published in a British newspaper a few years ago.  I really disliked this piece that had Bridget still trying to decide between Mark Darcy and Daniel and ultimately having a baby with . . . Daniel.  Ugh.  I loved how in Mad About the Boy, Bridget did chose Darcy; and she has moved on with life and grown as a person.  It is so much more realistic as compared to other series of books where the heroine is caught forever in a love triangle never changing.  Bridget may be older than me (She’s 51 and I’m 35), but with her small children (late in life babies) she still has a lot in common with me on the parenting front.

Overall Mad About the Boy is a great addition to the Bridget Jones series and highly enjoyable.  I hope that Fielding writes about Bridget again five or ten years in the future!

Book Source:  I preordered this book on Amazon.com