Open Minded
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Chloe Seager creates a fun yet thought-provoking novel about two very different women, Holly and Fliss, who are grappling with drastic changes in their relationships after Holly’s boyfriend wants to “open” their relationship and Fliss’s boyfriend wants to “close” theirs.
After nine years of dating, Holly is sure her boyfriend Will is going to propose. But instead of popping the question, he shocks her by suggesting they open their relationship to date other people.
For the last three years, Fliss and her boyfriend Ash have been in a happily open relationship. But now that they’re turning thirty, he wants to close it, throwing Fliss’s whole ethos of living life on her terms rather than society’s expectations into question.
When Fliss overhears Holly crying in the toilets during her first date in nine years, they decide to ditch their dates and have dinner together. They strike up an instant friendship with Fliss agreeing to teach Holly everything she knows about being in an open relationship, while Holly, who’s been with one person for almost a decade, can help Fliss try monogamy.
Fliss is willing to give up dating other people if it means staying with Ash, and Holly is willing to try anything if it means she gets her happy ending with Will. But perhaps both Fliss and Holly will learn that there’s no one size fits all when it comes to relationships . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Seager (the Emma Nash novels), a literary agent and YA author, makes her adult debut with an effervescent chronicle of two women's inverse dating lives and their illuminating friendship. Holly, an aspiring fashion designer in London, suspects her boyfriend of nine years, Will, is finally ready to propose. Much to her dismay, he instead suggests they open their relationship. Fliss, a free-spirited translator, has been in a happily open relationship for three years. Then her boyfriend suggests they become exclusive. Holly and Fliss meet in a restaurant bathroom while Holly is on her first date with a carbon copy of Will, and they decide to have dinner together. Holly ditches her date, and Fliss dispenses advice on how to handle seeing new people. Their fledgling friendship is cemented in their subsequent text thread, as Holly dates different types of men and Fliss emotionally cheats on her now-exclusive boyfriend with an ex. Seager creates a natural chemistry between her leads, playing the naive Holly off the wise and witty Fliss ("You don't have to explain yourself to random women in bathrooms," Fliss says to Holly twice, as Holly proceeds to unload on her). As the narrative unfolds, both women confront society's expectations for a "typical" relationship and come to terms with what they need for themselves. Readers will fall in love with this one.
