Book ~ "The Drought" (2011) Steven Scaffardi

From Goodreads ~ Dan Hilles is a pretty regular kind of guy - regular job, regular bunch of mates, regular male aversion to shopping. But following his break-up with long-term girlfriend, Stacey, he finds himself single again. He's been out of the game for a while and is a little out of practice. Soon, the very irregular and increasingly worrying issue in Dan's life is the extended drought he finds himself suffering. And we're not talking the climate change, scorched earth, God I'm parched variety.

You've got to hand it to Dan though - it certainly isn't from a lack of trying. With stalwart mates Ollie, Jack and Rob on hand to lend their collective pearls of male wisdom and arrange the odd road trip, you'd think Dan's days of languishing in a sexual wilderness would be numbered. Even best friends can't help prevent the kind of surreal holes Dan just can't seem to help digging himself into. And with each failed attempt, his self-esteem plummets to the point where he wonders if 'little Dan' will ever work again.

Good job he has Kelly, his reliable and sympathetic colleague, to confide in. As a woman, she can perhaps shed some female light on why he's failing so miserably with the opposite sex, balancing out the testosterone-fuelled 'advice' from the lads. Surely Dan can't go wrong with Kelly teaching him the various intricacies of a woman's mind.

Steven Scaffardi's first novel will have every guy laughing out loud in recognition and every girl secretly worrying - is this how men really think? A new talent to watch out for on the 'lad-lit' scene.

When the book starts, it's September 13 and Dan has just gotten tossed out of a bar, where he was drowning his sorrows, by a female bartender.

Then Dan takes us back nine months earlier, to January 1, to fill us in on how he ended up in this predicament.   He and his girlfriend of three years, Stacey, had just broken up.  They had grown apart since they graduated from university last year ... she'd gotten nasty and clingy.

It's been a while since he's been single and his friends, Rob (the funny one), Jack (the cheating one) and Ollie (the big slow one), are more than happy to give him advice and get him back out there.  As the months go by, Dan isn't looking for a girlfriend, he just wants some action and this becomes their mission. We go on many dates with Dan, all ending in various kinds of disasters.  Poor Dan!

Dan has a sales job and he suspects his boss ("please call me Dick") has a crush on him.  What gets Dan  through the day plus giving him a woman's perspective is the platonic friendship he has with his colleague, Kelly.

I really enjoyed this book and liked the humorous writing style.  It is hilarious!  This is lad-lit (chick-lit for men) so it was interesting reading about a break-up from a male perspective.  The story is based in the London area and the author is English.  As such, there are phrases and expressions that are specific to being English and some I wasn't familiar with (but it wasn't hard to figure it out).  The language and actions are for a mature reader.

I hope Steven writes many more books like this because I'll be reading them!