The Nothing Girl

Name: The Nothing Girl
Author: Jodi Taylor
ISBN: 9781472264343

Frogmorton Farm · Novel 1 · 2014

Jenny Dove has been overlooked so consistently that even her family call her the Nothing Girl.

AI-generated illustration inspired by The Nothing Girl; not a book cover.

What it’s about

When her isolation reaches a crisis, Thomas intervenes: he is an enormous golden horse visible only to Jenny. His encouragement helps her consider a different future. Russell Checkland brings another possibility, proposing a marriage intended to help them both and drawing Jenny towards his dilapidated farmhouse.

Life at Frogmorton Farm comes with unpaid bills, a leaking roof and practical demands that no fairy-tale promise can remove. A succession of apparent accidents adds unease to the new start.

The Nothing Girl combines Jenny’s search for a life of her own with the disorder and uncertainty of the home she chooses.

Listen or read

Listen on Audible

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Can I start here?

Yes. This series begins here.

Reader questions

Do I need to read the earlier books first?

No. This novel is the opening novel of its own series. Begin here to meet the central characters before following their later adventures. The official chronology lists this book first within its sequence. Explore the other series when you want another fictional world.

Source: joditaylorshop.com

Who narrates the The Nothing Girl audiobook?

Lucy Price-Lewis reads the linked UK edition of this novel. Check the exact recording when choosing an audiobook. The product page identifies its narrator and edition together. The narrator credit belongs to this particular recording. Other editions can have different performers, so compare them before choosing.

Source: audible.co.uk

Where this fits

Start Frogmorton Farm with this first novel, then continue to The Something Girl. Little Donkey is the short story placed between the two novels in the site’s order.

The Farm books have their own cast and premise, so no St Mary’s or Time Police reading is required before meeting Jenny, Russell and Thomas.

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Why readers love it

Our view

Jenny’s move from being disregarded to taking a chance is the central reason to choose this novel. Thomas gives the premise its magical element, while Russell and the farm bring stubbornly ordinary problems into the same story.

We think that mixture should appeal to readers who like a hopeful starting point with complications attached. The farm is not presented as an instant solution to Jenny’s difficulties, and that makes the choice of a new life more interesting than a simple escape.

Expect a personal, domestic direction within Taylor’s catalogue, with an opening that involves serious distress as well as the promise of warmth.

Listening notes

Lucy Price-Lewis narrates the linked unabridged UK audiobook, which runs nine hours and forty-seven minutes. She also reads the listed recording of The Something Girl, making the two novels a consistent audio route.

This novel’s opening includes Jenny in a suicidal crisis; listeners who want to consider that subject before beginning can use the premise here as a brief content note.