Losing It

A Novel

By: Emma Rathbone

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie

"Wise and witty... Losing It is cringingly insightful about sex and dating and all the ways we tie ourselves into knots over both." --The New York Times Book Review

A hilarious novel that Maggie Shipstead calls "charming... witty and insightful," about a woman who still has her virginity at the age of twenty-six, and the summer she's determined to lose it—and find herself.

Julia Greenfield has a problem: she's twenty-six years old and she's still a virgin. Sex ought to be easy. People have it all the time! But, without meaning to, she made it through college and into adulthood with her virginity intact. Something's got to change.

To re-route herself from her stalled life, Julia travels to spend the summer with her mysterious aunt Vivienne in North Carolina. It's not long, however, before she unearths a confounding secret—her 58 year old aunt is a virgin too. In the unrelenting heat of the southern summer, Julia becomes fixated on puzzling out what could have lead to Viv's appalling condition, all while trying to avoid the same fate.

For readers of Rainbow Rowell and Maria Semple, and filled with offbeat characters and subtle, wry humor, Losing It is about the primal fear that you just. might. never. meet. anyone. It's about desiring something with the kind of obsessive fervor that almost guarantees you won't get it. It's about the blurry lines between sex and love, and trying to figure out which one you're going for. And it's about the decisions—and non-decisions—we make that can end up shaping a life.

Mildly Annoying

I found this novel mildly annoying for several reasons: I didn’t like the protagonist, Julia Greenfield, a self-absorbed 26-year-old intent on losing her virginity who makes a series of disastrously bad choices during a summer living with her maiden aunt in Durham, N.C., and I didn’t wholly accept the premise that a reasonably attractive, socially adjusted (if shallow) woman would, four years out of college, still have her virginity to lose. I liked her a little better at the end, after she comes to terms with herself and finally succeeds in achieving her goal (with a somewhat feckless but likable-enough colleague from work).

Conflicted

I'm confused on whether or not I enjoyed this book. it had a good story line but the climax wasn't what I was expecting it to be. I won't give anything away for those who haven't read it yet, but it does take a couple chapters for the book to truly start getting interesting. it wasn't a bad write, but it wasn't something I would read again. overall, I'm glad I took the time to listen to the book.

Could have been so much more...

Great idea for a novel that had so many possibilities but just kind of fell flat. I was hoping for laugh out loud moments that just never came. Very slow, very hard to get through.

Too descriptive, bad story

Couldn't finish this one, the story was super slow and ever single detail was over described which is not what I prefer.

Such a boring story!

The whole time I was waiting for something to happen, something spectacular, funny or sad, anything really...

This book is not a light-hearted read, but also lacks any depth to call it intense or gripping.