Annie Lord isn't (yet) very well known on this side of the Atlantic. In the UK, though, she's already gained a reputation as a go-to source for advice (and commiseration) on love, dating and relationships. 

Lord’s memoir, NOTES ON HEARTBREAK, grew out of a viral online post and related a breakup in painful honesty. She's also a regular columnist on sex, dating and relationships for British Vogue --- sort of a Carrie Bradshaw for younger millennials and older Gen Zers. Now she's taken all that fodder (informed by plenty of personal experience, both her own and her friends') and put it into a most unusual romantic comedy.

"THE PROJECT is at times quite funny, but it's also both emotionally and politically very honest.... Here's hoping that this book introduces more people to this smart, forthright writer with a lot of important things to say about love."

At the center of THE PROJECT is its narrator, Daisy, a somewhat recent university grad working in a job she doesn't care about and gradually realizing that at least some people her age are already grownups: “…it makes me acutely aware of my age, that my peers look like this now, like people who have got a credit card so they can improve their credit score, who discuss traffic on the M6.” 

Daisy and her friend, Maya, seem stuck in the patterns they established at university: getting stressed and overwhelmed during the work week and then cutting loose with too much booze and casual hookups on the weekend. Daisy not-so-secretly wants to be part of something more stable, a real relationship with a man who adores her, not just more of an endless series of guys who sleep with her twice before getting distracted and moving on. The proverbial final straw? When Daisy's best guy friend (and secret crush), Fin, strings her along for months, hinting that he's harboring feelings for her before abruptly dating someone who is her total opposite.

So Daisy and Maya hatch a plan. If finding the right man is a hopeless cause, what if they tried to make one? Don't get the wrong idea; this isn't some kind of gender-swapped Mannequin remake. They would like to give their friend (and Daisy's occasional friend with benefits), James Stanley, more of an emotional makeover, with an eye toward documenting the “project” in a way that can benefit other women and men alike: “…maybe it would be more like AA? Like, we'll establish twelve steps of reforming manhood into something beautiful until they're comfortable wearing skirts and know what enthusiastic consent is.” 

James is some raw material indeed. He's good-looking enough, but he's also the kind of guy who casually rates the ladies he's slept with, has been known to humiliate women as a joke, and couldn't have an emotionally open conversation if his life depended on it. In short, he's perfect.

Maya, an avid protester, has no shortage of things to march against, so the day-to-day work of the project falls primarily on Daisy. But as she takes James to feminist art exhibits, a conversation called “Clit Chat,” and a party of left-wing activists, something strange happens. The two begin opening up to one another. Not only does James begin to realize that he has some things to work on, Daisy comes to discover that she might be a work in progress as well. 

THE PROJECT is at times quite funny, but it's also both emotionally and politically very honest. The characters' conversations about everything from consent to family relationships to learned behaviors are the kind of in-depth talks that might have readers turning to those in their own lives and starting similar hard but important discussions. This is technically a romantic comedy but is hardly a typical one. That makes it feel refreshing, as do the many Britishisms that will keep American readers on their toes. 

Here's hoping that this book introduces more people to this smart, forthright writer with a lot of important things to say about love.