Two ladies realise their self-destructive behaviour has to stop. Annie is owner of a bar and lately she's been putting away ten cocktails and driving home. Her best friend Sophie walked out on her boyfriend after finding he was cheating with someone younger, but she keeps texting him wanting to get back together. Annie somehow ends up driving a police car to Sophie's house and next morning the police are not amused, but the judge imposes rehab instead of a sentence. Annie's furious, declaring that she doesn't need rehab, but her licence is suspended. Sophie drives her home, and realises that she needs help just as much as Annie.

LOVE REHAB starts when the ladies bravely attend the New Jersey town's AA meeting and since Annie won't talk, Sophie stands up and tells everyone why she feels so bad, but instead of the man's name she says he's whisky. Everyone cheers and she's amazed to feel an awful lot better - better than she has done for months. Afterwards the ladies talk to the counsellor, Joe, privately and Sophie tells him the truth, explaining that it has really helped her to talk. Annie however says that she's ashamed to be there with so many former customers of her bar. Joe suggests they form a support group of their own.

Thirty women show up to the first meeting of Love Rehab. I found that these women were as much obsessed with the trappings of relationships as with love. Social media contributed to many problems as some had online-dated, some were cyber-stalking their ex's new girlfriend and others thought that the most vital thing to do after a breakup was to change their Facebook status. As Sophie says, the girls don't even know what good communication with men looks like any more. Strangely all the women admitted they were desperate to marry. Not one was the commitment-phobe that would equal the men, only dating bad boys or married men because she doesn't want to be tied down, yet such women exist. For balance, we have Annie who is out of the closet and who helps some of the Love Rehab girls find the AA meeting. One motivational speaker is a man who explains that men are not complicated and do not over-think messages, but they do sometimes manipulate girls. He ends up joining the group.

With whimsical resolutions such as 'Stop making drunken calls' and 'Take an inventory of yourself' this book by Jo Piazza could be good advice for many of us, for who has not had her heart broken? If you realise that romantic comedy movies are just that, and need encouragement to stop phoning and texting a guy, LOVE REHAB could be the answer. It's a sad and a funny read all at once, and contains a lot of truths about modern life. I enjoyed this lively read.

Book Summary

For anyone who has ever overdosed on love—or planned the wedding before the second date—Jo Piazza’s dazzling debut novel is a must-read

Cyber-stalking, drive-bys, drunken text messaging, creating fake email accounts—you’re gonna have to face it, you’re addicted to love. Sophie isn’t dealing with her breakup well. Dumped by her boyfriend, Eric, for his sexting, D-cupped, young Floozy McSecretary, Sophie leaves Manhattan and lands back in her hometown, crushed and pajama-clad, blaming herself and begging her ex for a second chance. But when her best friend, Annie, gets in trouble for driving drunk and is forced to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, something clicks in Sophie’s strung-out mind. Women need love rehab, she realizes, to help fix the craziness that comes along with falling for someone. If you start it, they will come. When she opens up her home to the obsessed and lovelorn, Sophie finds a way to help women out there who have overdosed on the wrong men—and she saves herself in the process. Love is a drug and the only things that can save us are the steps, rules, and one another. Step one: Admit you have a problem, and keep the hell away from Facebook.