Rambling About.. Jenny Colgan's The Good, The Bad and the Dumped

Now, you obviously, would never look up your exes on Facebook. And even if you did, you most certainly wouldn't run off trying to track them down, risking your job, family and happiness in the process. Posy Sutherland, on the other hand…Posy is delighted when Matt proposes – on top of a mountain, in romantic mode. But a few days later disaster strikes: he backs out of the engagement. Crushed and humiliated, Posy starts thinking. Why has her love life always ended in total disaster? Determined to discover how she got to this point, Posy resolves to track down her exes. Can she learn from her past mistakes? And what if she has let Mr Right slip through her fingers on the way? [Amazon Description]

The Good, The Bad and the Dumped is a 2010 release from Jenny Colgan. Unfortunately, it appears that it was never published here in the U.S. Fortunately, we have the wonderful Internet that allows us to easily buy books from elsewhere.

So, Posy has been proposed to by Matt and said yes. While she says that she's happy about the idea of it all, her sister Fleur and best friend Leah help her realize that maybe she isn't really so much completely over her ex from three years ago. To further complicate matters she runs into a friend of an ex from nine years ago. And then her first serious boyfriend from way back in university pops up on Facebook which leads to memories of meeting the ex from nine years ago.

Posy takes all of these memories flooding in as a sign and she seems to think it's a good idea to actually see her ex-es ... without telling Matt about it.

'This,' said Leah, 'is the worst idea you have ever had.'

'Can't you be more supportive?'

'I can!' said Fleur. The she took on a concentrated look. 'Oh no, hang on, I've just thought about it and it turns out I can't. Sorry. This is a stupid idea. Maybe it isn't a sign after all.' (p 68)

She's a bit of a hot mess. (I'm sure her psychotherapist mother would agree with me on this.)

Posy is such a fantastic trainwreck and her friends and family add to it tomake sure that you can't look away for fear of missing something hilarious. Even moreso when she kind of gets one more ex to add to the list -- Matt. I seriously couldn't blame him one bit. I likely would have kind of dumped her, too. At the same time, though, don't we all have the right to be trainwrecks once in a while? (And if I ever have the need to do so, I hope that I can do it half as fabulously as Posy!)

The aftermath is sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking and incredibly believable. Watching Posy attempt to get her train back on track was definitely worthwhile and Colgan has moved up another notch on my "must read" list of authors.