Published 4th August 2022 by Hodder and Stoughton.
From the cover of the book:
An unforgettable story about love in all its chaotic glory from the author of Last One At The Party."A book synopsis is fundamentally ridiculous. How can I possibly convey, in only 100 words, the events of the past year and their impact on my perfectly ordered existence?
It is insufficient space to accurately detail how I was blackmailed into demonstrating my flawless algorithm to find a soulmate, despite having no desire for one.
In my former life I avoided trivial human connections. I was alone, accomplished and brilliant.
Unfortunately, that solitary and driven woman no longer exists.
My name is Indiana Dylan and this is the extraordinary account of how I fell in love.
There: 100 words exactly."
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Indiana Dylan believes she has the perfect solution to help people to find their 'soulmate', with her ground-breaking TRU algorithm and DataLet tech, even if she has absolutely no need for one herself. She is dedicated to her work and thinks a partner would just mess up her ordered life, in fact she prefers to keep other people as far away as possible. However, Indiana does need to make some money to fund her true computing passion, a quantum computer like no other, so she has to venture out into the real world to acquire some funding by selling TRU.
When JaneDoe Technology, led by the devious Dr Cameron Gardner, wants to buy her product, Indiana finds herself railroaded into a deal that requires far more input from her that she would like, including working with the extremely messy Lina Galaz and intensely annoying Jack Harper. Worst of all, Dr Gardener wants Indiana to prove her algorithm works by testing TRU on herself...
Having loved Bethany Clift's cracking debut novel Last One At The Party, which beautifully explores connection through the experience of a single character (and her dog), I could not wait to see what she could do with an ensemble piece in her second book, Love and Other Human Errors.
Clift paints the picture of a near future that is so real you can taste it, and populates it with a wonderful cast to capture your imagination. The story is told from the points of view of three quite different characters, who though completely incompatible at the start of the story, come to be mightily important to each other - Indiana Dylan, the closed off computing genius, who is sure she neither wants, nor needs, friends or romantic entanglements of any kind; Lina Galaz, struggling with being pulled in different directions by her professional and personal lives, gradually realising she increasingly wants to be at home with her wife Connie and baby son Bruce, rather than at the job she loves; and handsome Jack Harper, who seems to be everyone's happy, smiling friend, but is hiding his own, very private, sorrow.
Clift throws them together in pursuit of the realisation of Indiana's soulmate locating TRU application, and this is where the fun begins. Indiana is forced to work closely with colleagues for the first time in her career, but her rigid life, ruled by mathematical constructs, means she does not play well with others. and she is wrenched further from her comfort zone by actually having to try out TRU on herself - which leads to unexpected, life-changing consequences for them all. The interactions between Indiana, Lina, and Jack, are filled with misunderstandings and frustrations that develop into warmth and companionship, and as their relationships transform over the course of the story, the wider effect this has on each of their lives is deliciously poignant. I loved every one of the caring and wise characters Clift creates around them, especially Connie, Frank and his enchanting dog Alan, Indiana's very helpful assistant Peggy, the lovely cake-baking Doris, and Biscuit the cat. There are great baddies too, in the form of the reprehensible Dr Gardner, and the uber-competitive Emily, who you long to see taken down a peg or two.
As the threads of Indiana, Lina, and Jack's stories become increasingly intertwined, Clift has a ball playing up the total chaos that ensues when love enters the fray, and shows how difficult it is to reduce down the mystery of romantic attraction to a computer algorithm. There is so much here about the many facets of love and friendship, particularly how they can complicate and enrich your lives, and I adored each and every golden moment. I really enjoyed how Clift so beautifully sums up the essence of the march of time, how lives carry on even when we wish the clock would stop, and how people change as the years go by too. As in Last One at the Party, Clift shows she knows how to write about connection with perfection, and it makes your heart ache in all the right places. She also knows how to give you a good old chuckle with her excellent sense of humour.
Clift touches on some very thought-provoking stuff here around the use and misuse of technonolgy, and the isolation a lack of human contact brings; the role of women in STEM subjects; and the challenges of combining personal and professional lives. There is a tenderness to the way she examines grief, the barriers that people put up to stop themselves getting pummelled by those darned pesky emotions, and what it means to be human. And, I have to say that I very much enjoyed how she waves the flag for romance novels and films in this book - it made me punch the air with glee!
I gulped this magnificent book down in one delectable bite, completely enamoured with the way Clift combines all the best elements of a romantic tale with a rollicking, dystopian sci-fi adventure. I laughed, I cried, I lapped up the will-they-won't-they suspense. I have read a lot of books this year, and many of them have completely bowled me over for a variety of reasons, but none of them has hit the I-don't-want-this-book-to-end sweet-spot that this one has. This is a serious contender for my book of 2022 - and it has the best blurb!
Love and Other Human Errors is available to buynow in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to take part in this blog tour.
About the author:
Bethany suffers from itchy feet. She travelled extensively when she was younger and once drove round America for a year, camping and living in her car because she couldn’t afford motels. Her itchy feet mean that, since leaving her childhood home, she has moved house a lot. She once moved house four times in a year. Bethany has now settled in Milton Keynes with her husband and two children and, luckily, she is a big fan of roundabouts.
Bethany has enjoyed many different careers including hairdresser, florist, karaoke bar singer, pork pie maker, barman, jeweller, fruit and veg seller, librarian and a season as an Elf. Bethany has spent the last eleven years working for the NHS and is a huge advocate for the organisation and the world-renowned service it provides.
Bethany loves reading and watching sci-fi; listening to American country and blues music; dancing to Northern Soul or old-school Hip-Hop and eating, well, pretty much anything. The movie WALL-E makes her cry, and her family and friends make her happy.
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