Bridget Jones Mad about The Boy
Helen Fielding
Random House

The third instalment of Bridget Jones sees the erstwhile heroine revived as a 51-year-old. *SPOILER* After the second best selling novel in the series, The Edge of Reason, Ms Jones did get happily married to Mark Darcy and had two beautiful children and commenced living a charmed life – till Mr Darcy was killed on a legal mission to Sudan. Mad about The Boy is set five years on from his death, in time for Bridget to re-enter the still treacherous, now online, dating world. There’s Twitter triumph and tragedy, as she meets the “(toy)boy” in question and struggles with the more complex aspects of new technology (how to work the TV). But the question and the quest remains, will Bridget find happiness and love after Mr Darcy? Does she want to?

The New Daily says: There was a quiver of fear opening the pages of Bridget Jones: Mad about The Boy. Would the exaggerated, awkward goofiness of the 30-year-old singleton, carry on into middle age or would her ageing be like a botched botox unable to express real emotion? Thankfully, Helen Fielding’s Bridget is still loveable, yet insane enough to make you feel normal. Despite having read the spoilers, the loss of Mr Darcy is bitter, especially for the reader and there is more sorrow in this story. Yes, there were many tears, yet laughs too. Bridget may be a widowed mother in her 50s, but she’s still got it and so does Helen Fielding. Oh, and don’t worry. Daniel Cleaver is still hanging around.

Booktopia says: “An uproariously funny novel of modern life, Bridget Jones: Mad about The Boy is a triumphant return of our favourite Everywoman.”

The Guardian says: “In reviving Bridget now, Fielding has dared to question the happy ending, and in doing so she holds a mirror up to our changing values.”

The New York Times says: “Fielding has somehow pulled off the neat trick of holding to her initial premise — single woman looks for romance — while allowing her heroine to grow up into someone funnier and more interesting than she was before.”

The Washington Post says: “The difficulties of a well-heeled widow just don’t tap the wells of indulgence that the younger Bridget mined.”

But if you still need a Mark Darcy hit…