Summer Book Review: TechBitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza

AMAZON| GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You’ve taken a ‘sabbatical’—which everyone in fashion knows is a term used when you’re recovering from going under a blade—from your job as Editor-In-Chief of one of the most popular fashion magazines. Only to come back to work to find your assistant twirling around in your office chair—in clothes that do not look like they are from the supply closet.

Turns out, she’s fired all your editors, replaced them with twenty-somethings who do not acknowledge your presence when you walk into the conference room because they are too busy on their phones, she’s banging on about organic traffic, referral traffic and other kinds of traffic you have no idea about. And most importantly, she’s turning your magazine into an app. An idea you’d later find out your publishing executive is on board with.

As Editor-in-Chief of your magazine (now becoming an app), it’s obvious you are supposed to call the shots. But what do you do when you have no idea about tech stuff, when you used to have your assistant print out your all emails, when you’ve updated your status on Facebook three times since you created it (a long time ago).

It’s no news your assistant, now Editorial Director, wants to prove you redundant enough to get you to lose your job. But you wouldn’t let that happen. Not if you could tell the difference between an instagram and a tweet before your magazine turns into an app.

But watch out, your assistant wouldn’t wait around for you to catch up. No. Not if she has anything to do with it.

Imogen Tate’s life summed up for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Go buy this book before I can afford a Louboutin in time to hurl one at you! I loved, loved this book!

Fantastic storyline! Woman survives breast cancer only to come back to work battling a force that might be so powerful than cancer: a back-stabbing assistant. Woman tries all she can to get with the times or find herself with no job in the cutthroat world of fashion. Woman needs to stand her assistant who has now become a version of Anna Wintour with everyone in the office tiptoeing around her. Beautiful! A star to the storyline.── ★

It’s so nice when a book transcends the vision a reader has for it! This was more than a book about fashion, to my surprise! It’s more of the handbook every woman in business must own to stay on top of things. It talks about a new age where twenty-somethings (like me!) are getting all the jobs at high places because they have all the knowledge about using technology to boost sales and you, like our main character, might be trying to wrap your head around Facebook only to find out now everyone is popularizing a new app called ‘Instagram’ more. Mothers dealing with the negative effects of technology on their children! So much more lessons for the contemporary woman! You can be sure this book is a book of the times and would never be irrelevant for thousands of years to come. Consider it a classic! A star!── ★★

You would love the main character Imogen. An epitome of class and style! You’d expect her to eat off her assistant’s head right when the latter is being a bitch, but she handles it with a dismissive nonchalant manner that makes her assistant more pissed off. Like I am calling this woman an old mare that has to be put out to pasture, why isn’t she reacting?! She’s not your stereotypical fashion bitchy boss—she listens(!), she’s the mother who’s always sneaking out of the office in time to go read her children to sleep. I loved her!── ★★★

Other characters made this book fab! There’s Eve, the assistant now Editorial Director who is such a bitch you’d find yourself plotting Imogen’s revenge and asking yourself why they hell isn’t Imogen taking your advice to end her. There’s Alex, Imogen’s adorable husband who’s so supportive and kind of the husband you ladies would dream of having if you have high-powered jobs—one who works like crazy and finds time for his family like crazy. There’s Annabel, Imogen’s adorable daughter who’s a Youtube sensation in some circles and posts videos of herself making smoothies—aww! There’s Rashid, the multi-million tech geek who’s Imogen’s go-to person for anything she doesn’t understand in tech. There’s Addison Cao the fashion journalist who always wants to get scoop of something juicy. There’s so much characters yoi wouldn’t find redundant including real-life stars making appearances. A star!── ★★★★

Reading this book is like watching a candle dissolve into wax (do I even get my analogies??), you do it slowly because you are scared it would end leaving you with the worst book hangover (not that watching candle wax could gives you any hangover). You are so enamoured by the world of fashion and its (the book’s) setting you are in no rush to finish it. You can trust that if I wasn’t a book blogger I would have read it a page a day! A star.── ★★★★★

My rating: I could give this book eighty-eight out of five stars (88/5) if my math teacher wouldn’t come clubbing me to death.

TechBitch by Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza is available on amazon! Go get it! These kind of books come out a few times in a millennium—revolutionary books that would be made into movies five years (or sooner!) later. I wouldn’t be surprised if this book is the next biggest fashion motion picture since The Devil Wears Prada.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their chick-lit oh-so-true! Anyone who wants a book that fits with the times! Anyone who wants a book they could do over and over again—like when we book geeks say ‘I read  that book like five times and I still love it!’. Anyone who wants a chick-lit title that’s two words made into one… fan-frigging-tastic!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads and (shitty) amazon (that would make me edit a chunk of this review! L)

Summer Book Review: The Day We Disappeared by Lucy Robinson

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are the best masseuse the Massage Industry(??) could ever get. Except lately, you’ve been so tired. It’s really not easy relieving people of the toughest kinks that ever existed. As if that is all, you are running all over London because of financial problems massaging in rented rooms all over the place. You really have no time for yourself.

Your friends keep telling you, you need a boyfriend, you need to get laid, what has it been like thirty-years since you ever had sex? Pressure is mounted on you at every angle. And you really could do with some massage yourself.

Then a Knight In Shining Armour walks into your life. (Only he’s not in real Armour, but I’ve always hated when people exchange a classic phrase for one that has ‘Armani’ in it!)

Anyway, he’s the guy of your dreams. He’s all you’ve ever dreamt of and more. He’s rich, he’s changing every part of your professional life. You two have the best chemistry, he’s making all those thirty years of waiting worth it.

But of late, you are worrying he’s been cheating. And let’s face it, you are a tad too possessive thanks to a childhood event that marred your life. What’s more annoying, your friends find something iffy about him too.

You need help! You need real help! But your one best friend has disappeared from the face of the earth? Where is Kate? And why isn’t she here to help you out of this dilemma?

Except Kate has a secret too. And she’s running away.

Annie Mulholland’s mysterious, romantic love-life summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

Oh, no! Do not read this book! Do not read this book if you cannot stand the MOTHER of OMG MOMENTS! I’d say this outright before I start this review! You would never see the twist and hits you like, um, a punch! Boom! And you are so surprised an author could ever have that effect on you. Obviously this title is finding its way into my Greatest Chick-Lit OMG Moments list! Fantastic! A star to OMG-moments.── ★

I loved, loved the storyline. Kate is running away! But what from? Annie is running away! But why can’t she make up her mind and just leave already! So beautiful. Kate’s storyline laden with secrets is so fascinating than Annie’s I must admit. Plus the fast-developing romantic interests in Annie’s life than Katie’s make this book all-so-worth reading! Fabulous storyline. A star!── ★★

You would love the two main characters. This book is told in first-person perspective of two different characters. Kate and Annie. You would love Annie for being… a great masseuse, for being, um, other things I am not sure I can admire of her: soft, needing guidance. But you’d definitely fall for her for following her heart! And the amazing OMG moment she pulls at the end which would get you rooting for more for her than you would Kate. OK, so let’s face it, it’s really hard not to take sides in this book. So Kate is my favourite! She’s funny, she’s daring, she’s IRISH!!! What’s not to love? And escaping to an eventing farm where she has no idea about horses? It’s just plain lovable and room for lots of comic scenes! A star!── ★★★

You would also adore other characters! There’s Becca, the bullshit-talking groom (of horses) in Kate’s life who’s teaching her to get the grips of horse-life in order to keep her job and stay in hiding at the farm. There’s Joe, the man-ho groom (also of horses) who’s just so funny and horny you can’t help but adore! There’s Mark, the brooding owner of the eventing company and Olympic star who is so good at pushing everyone away… but not so with the (persistent) Kate. There’s Claudine a friend of Anna’s who’s French, and well, hard. There’s Lizzie, the sister juggling loads of boyfriends. There’s Tim, the shrink who’s rumoured to secretly have the hots for Annie. There’s also Stephen the boyfriend who would be really much adored. So much other characters I loved I cannot make the review lengthy by mentioning. But really, you would find none of them redundant. A star!── ★★★★

There’s really lots of humour in this book. You’d laugh a lot. Suspense as well. Hell, suspense for most part of it. I really still cannot get the whole reason this author would just make me lose grips on my power to predict how a novel would turn out. God, the writing is so light and airy, you do not see the OMG-moment really coming at all! I still have nightmares of this author forcefully pulling the rag from under my feet and making me second-guess my ability to tell a book to the end after reading the first fifty pages (sometimes ten, sometimes five or just by reading the blurb). This shows if you are a reader who wants to put a finger on this book from the start, you’d be badly misled by your (poor) prediction ability.── ★★★★★

MY rating is definitely a six out of five stars! (6/5 stars!)

Lucy Robison’s amazing latest is available on amazon! Go grab it!

I recommend this book for anyone who loves their chick-lit romantic! Anyone who loves their chick-lit suspenseful! Anyone who wants something that would make them stay glued to the sun-lounger for hours! Anyone who simply loves Lucy Robinson should go get this book as she really never disappoints in this title as well!

My work not done here! Off to post my review on Goodreads as well as (shitty) 

Amazon (who would make me cut a chunk of this review!)

Summer Book Review: The Vintage Guide To Love and Romance by Kirsty Greenwoood

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Your life has been teetering from one party to another, one tequila shot to another. And off late, you are finding it hard to show up at work in clean clothes and without a hangover. This means, not even your boss can yell at you.

So when you are given the boot by your friend-boss for being ‘less serious in life’, you have nowhere and no one to turn to except for your long-enstranged grandmother.

Your grandmother was quite a famous personality in the mid-twentieth century, charming the whole of London and New York bachelors and being the toast of all functions with her Good Woman Guides that teach women ways to hook a Good Bloke. But these days, your grandmother is kinda broke, even though she’d die before she admits it, and she is relying on reprinting her Good Woman Guides to be able to fend off the bailiffs.

Except the publishers have other plans. They think your gran’s Good Woman Guides happened in the fifties and should stay in the fifties as there’s no modern woman who would hook a man using the ways suggested in her guides.

But your grandmother is resilient, and using you, a modern girl at heart who’s anything but a Good Woman as an experiment to prove whoever uses her guides would end up hooking the bachelor of their dreams.

And your grandmother isn’t helping picking the man of a lot of girls’ dreams and your nightmares, as target of this project.

Jessica Beam’s adventure to prove her grandmother’s Good Woman Guides should be stacked in a corner gathering dust, summarised for your delight.

MY REVIEW

This book was good.

I loved the storyline. It was downright funky. Something you except a classic chick-lit title to entail. Girl loses the best thing in life, her mum, and numbs her pain with parties and casual one-night stands—fab! Girl gets sacked out of her job and bounces back to her grandmother who’s suddenly on a mission to groom her into being the Good Woman—fab! A star to the storyline.── ★

You would love the main character, Jess. Very juvenile at the beginning, if you’d ask me. But her change throughout the novel and her maturity is stunning. She develops from a character you’d wrinkle your nose at from the start, to a character that you could understand and—if not relate to—enjoy reading about. A star to her.── ★★

Other characters make this read lovely as well. There is the Granny, who begins every chapter dropping quotes from her Good Woman Guide you’d mostly always nod in agreement to. There’s Peach, the housekeeper for granny who’s shy and hasn’t ever had sex despite pushing towards thirty. There’s Summer, the jealous bitchy friend you’d hate so much. There’s Leo Frost, the demigod every female seems to have the hots for except our lead who finds him too much of a man-ho and arrogant. There’s one doctor down Granny’s apartment building who functions as a shoulder to cry on, and a shoulder to throw your leg over for a good fuck. A star to all these characters!── ★★★

There’s so much humour in this book you can’t help but keep rubbing your hind head in pain for throwing it back against the wooden head rest of your chair for a good laugh!── ★★★★

I really wished I loved, loved, this book. I wish it wasn’t that predictable. But either way, it was a good read. Not the kind you’d throw out your window and regret buying because it is too predictable you couldn’t take it anymore.

My rating: Four/Five stars (4/5 stars).

Kirsty Greenwood’s The Vintage Guide To Love and Romance is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants something light and quick and enjoying this summer. Anyone who loves their chick-lit laden with character makeovers should pick this. Any woman who wants something that could be a modern-take on a fairytale should rush for it. And anyone who wants a book to keep them laughing and smiling all through.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Summer Book Review: The Missing One by Lucy Atkins

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Your relationship with your mother hasn’t been all braiding each other’s hair and slagging your father when he’s away for work (—normal daughters and mothers do this! Please review your relationships.). Growing up, both of you fought like crazy, made up like crazy, then within a few seconds were drawing battle lines again.

So when your mother dies, you are the least person to feel sorrow. You are the least person to rethink the happy moments with your mum. You are the last person to jet away to your mother’s past—which she has shut out to you all her life—to go find out why she was the woman you could never get on with. But you do.

Moments later, you are hightailing it to Canada in search of a best friend of your mum who’s been sending her cards a particular day every one of these thirty-eight years they split up without a reply. With your adorable toddler on your back, and a chance to ditch your husband who you’ve suddenly found out might be having extra-marital affairs, you get away from England.

Now your mother’s best friend is rather peculiar, never revealing much, withholding things about your mother’s past from you. Of course, you could consider the journey here all to be a waste and leave, but you feel this woman is hiding something about your mother’s past she doesn’t want to pass on, you have so many unanswered questions you want to see if you could use your skills as an interviewer to goad her into revealing.

Before you realize it’s really a waste to have come, and when you make a decision to leave, this woman has become preoccupied with your little son and has shocking extraordinary plans for him. Plans that would flare up all the maternal instincts in you such that you would do anything to protect your son from this bitch. Even if nothing helps.

Kali’s life-treacherous, suspenseful journey towards uncovering the secrets of her mother’s past summarised for your delight.

My REVIEW

This book is great. One that would consume your time this summer and totally-worth losing the hours for. So well-researched, so well-written, so highly thrilling!

First of all, I loved the storyline. I love the whole mother riding shotgun with her adorable infant to uncover the secrets of her mother’s past. Absolutely fab! You would never underestimate the lengths a mother would go to protect her own child after reading this. And you would adore the weaving of info about captured Killer Whales in parks that would struck an emotional nerve. A star to the storyline.

The main character, Kali, is damn right superb. I loved her to bits. You would also love Kali for worrying about essential details about parenting and mothering that most parents and mothers ignore, her constant eyes on her son, the little mistakes she berates herself daily for like feeding him with fries or not washing a sippy-cup before pouring warm milk in it. She’s the embodiment of a mother constantly looking out for her child even though she admits sometimes she does a shitty job at it. Plus her constant curiosity, making speculations and conclusions with the little info she has about the purpose of her ‘adventure’ makes this title suspenseful.── ★

Speaking on the element of suspense, mystery and the fear of the unknown, I can vouch that this book has all the above. Laden with so much suspense even when the main issue of the plot hasn’t kicked in yet (that is, mother’s best friend endangering her son) you would still find yourself sitting at the edge of your seat and mumbling to yourself, “What the hell.”── ★★

Other characters also make this book a plus as well. There’s Elena, the mother whose backstory is presented in third-person narrative during intervals of Kali’s first-person narrative. There’s Susannah, the once best friend of Elena who’s highly secretive and not giving much away… should I mention deranged too? Alice, the sister who always has a firm perspective of things with her job as a lawyer. There’s also Graham, Kali’s dad who’s also secretive as hell and hiding a chunk of his wife’s past from her daughter—a man who’s (in)actions gutted me so much. A star to these characters.── ★★★

There’s no denying I loved this book. But I found some back-story on Elena’s part unnecessary detail that slowed the pace of this book—some parts were intriguing and important to understand the psyche of a mother who never really showed that much love to her oldest daughter, others were just dragging the story and made me want to quickly get over with it so I could get into the current day life of Kali. Of course, if this book was less suspenseful, I’m not sure I would have been feeling this way, because there would be no eagerness to get on with Kali’s present.── ★★★★

So my rating is a four-point-five stars out of five (4.5 stars).

Lucy Atkins’ highly suspenseful debut (—yes! You heard right!—) which would keep you awake late in the night and wondering when sleep would ever claim you is available on amazon. I totally wouldn’t recommend this book if it didn’t give me headaches for lack of sleep.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants something laden with suspense, anyone who wants something to steal away the hours on a lounger and make tanning for hours seem endurable should get this. It’s the perfect summer read for anyone who wants to feel chilly in these burning hot temperatures.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Watch out for giveaway and questions and answers on this book with the author.

Book Review: The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartlin

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Life has been so good to you. With a lovely family, mother to your amazing precocious daughter and indulging in the heart-swelling romance of your life with the man who you never quite let go. Except the cancer is back, spread all through your body now, threatening to take away all the people you’ve loved your entire life.

But you would overcome! You know you would. You beat it the first time so, stage IV cancer can go screw with someone else who isn’t that strong enough!

Except when you are really determined to fight, a hospice isn’t the ideal not-giving-up solution, your dad thinks. He’s troubled, worried your mum, a born-fighter has given up on you. Worried he cannot do anything to take you out of this death prison.

Your daughter is quite unaware of this dire turning state of your health. Your sister relieves her tension by throwing mugs at her husband and making her children go on a diet. Your brother is contemplating on the what-happens-to-your-daughter-when-you-are-dead even though he’s scared to give much thought to this. Your closest friend has taken up shopping more frequently than ever. Everyone has a way of dealing with their pain towards your impending doom.

And you, through all the breakthrough pain, the bloating body parts, and the funny nurses who think they’d be better appreciated if they auditioned for the X-Factor, the only way to deal with this predicament is to sleep. Sleep and dream of the one very love in your big, dissipating heart.

You are not giving up yet, cancer!

MY REVIEW

OMG! Stop whatever you are doing and go get this book the moment you are done reading this line! (I’m not continuing if you don’t…).

The storyline isn’t fresh. Dying girl in her forties, battling cancer. Haven’t we heard of this so many times? Yawn. But no one said anything about the dying girl having the craziest family who are willing to stay by her side through thick and thin, no one said anything about the nurses who fancy themselves as Ireland’s biggest talents and actresses in a CBS-styled drama, no one said anything about a dreamy boy with the voice of [INSERT NAME OF KING OF ROCK AND ROLL AS MY VIEWS MAY CONFLICT WITH YOURS] who brought so much joy to Dying Girl’s life, no one also said anything about Dying Girl’s addiction to the principles of atheism. Lovely. A star to the storyline.── ★

You would adore Rabbit Hayes! OMG! Even strapped to a hospice bed, she could still gain your attention than heroines with all their boobs intact running around aimlessly (—this bring any heroine to mind?). You would love the way she tries to put humour in every situation, how she’d want to laugh her heart out at times despite dealing with bloated body parts (—but could you blame her when it’s hard to locate your ribs?), how she sometimes cusses at her doctors when she’s dealing with heart-wrenching pain. As if all the above is not enough, you would admire her life as a teen—when the only thing she could think about was her big, rock and roll sweetheart; her funny cancer column about when she was first diagnosed with mild breast cancer. Brilliant.── ★★

The presentation of this work is also one of its stunning features. The switch between the present and the past, the use of lots of flashbacks to provide engaging backstory throughout the whole novel. The story is told in third-person perspective of all the major characters in this title. And every character’s narration is distinct to their personalities as well as enjoyable. A star.── ★★★

The supporting cast… breathtaking! You would love Molly Hayes, the matriarch of the Hayes family who tries to hold it together even though she could do with learning to say the right things at the right time and not threatening to murder, kill or drown her family right at the presence of her dying daughter. You would love Jack Hayes, the father who relies so much on the strength of his wife he wouldn’t take an initiative if she doesn’t(——you know his type?) You would also love Davey Hayes, the superstar drummer who still lives in a tour bus despite approaching mid-forties. You would love Juliet, the charming daughter. You would love Grace Hayes, the sister who finds hospices more appealing than hospitals. The nurses, the priest, the band members of Kitchen Sink… Christ, I really do realize I could go on and on! Every single character delivered and there was no moment you would doubt the relevance of a character. Anna McPartlin demonstrates, in finding joy through life’s treacherous moments, you need a whole bunch of friends, family and health workers to help! A star to all the characters. Most of all, to Rabbit Haye’s one truest love, Johnny Faye.── ★★★★

It’s the thing with all cancer books——Oh, no, wait! The good, good cancer books. Too much suspense and sitting at the edge of your seat to find out what would happen to the main character in the end. Oh, and as if all that isn’t enough Anna McPartlin gives you so, so, so much to laugh at. Hell, you’d think a cancer book should be all about MRI scans, mastectomy, diagnoses after diagnoses! Throw that notion away when entering into Rabbit Hayes’ world!── ★★★★★

Something about Irish Chick-lit. The writing is raw. The plot is brilliant. The story is beautiful. Just as Anna McPartlin’s amazing debut!

My rating is definitely a six out of five stars—I’m not dumb, I know this is very possible in math, albeit in rare cases. (6/5stars)

Go buy the hell out of this book on amazon. And if you have any cancer relatives, friends, or even acquaintances—no offense, but you most probably do, go get this book for them all. Because, this is a story about laughing through life’s surprises and finding joy in every [treacherous] moment.

I recommend this book to anyone! Anyone battling cancer or not! Anyone looking for an uplifting book or not! Anyone looking for something to laugh their hearts out to or not! Anyone who wants something to render them all weepy because they have no use for their Kleenex or not! Anyone who wants a fantabuloustastic(——OMG! Did you hear that??) debut author to watch or not!

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Blog Tour: His Other Life by Beth Thomas

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are in perfect bliss. Married to the most adorable guy for over a year. Everyone looks at you two, and think, he’s too perfect for you. Even your family. That one day he might just pack up and leave. But you doubt that. Because of all the women he could pick, he picked you.

So perhaps not all things are going smoothly. But, really, which marriage ever does? What if he’s a tad bit too secretive? And he wouldn’t let you to go through the mail, the bills, and even his unlocked wardrobe.

Then one day, over an Indian-Takeout errand, he never returns.

Police Interrogation makes you aware you never knew anything about him. One moment, you are sad and angry he might have taken off. Then another, you are so worried something terrible might have happened to him and he didn’t run off at all.

Then you stumble upon his Pandora box of secrets, and your life would never be the same again. Who the hell were you calling your husband?

MY REVIEW

Great storyline. I loved the whole Girl gets married to a guy and for over a year he’s too secretive she doesn’t know anything about his past and even his present, Girl thinks she’s landed a gold mine when she doesn’t even really know who her husband is. The blurb and the opening pages piques your curiosity. Brill.── ★

Is Grace someone you could relate to? Well, I do wonder which woman would stay married to a man who doesn’t even allow her peep into his closet, or find out why his mum is such a loose cannon, or why he’d never allow her into his past. I’m sure shit like that does happen sometimes, the world is a big and strange enough place for such occurrences. But I really do wish Grace made much of an effort sometimes and just found out a lot about the man she wanted to spend her life with. If not for her, then for the police if in case, he commits a crime and they need some background information. Though her lack of knowledge into the past sets the background for the story and makes many a curious reader.── ★★

Other characters in this book were great. I loved Ginger, the friend who was always around to get our lead pissed whenever she needed some comfort. I loved Linda, the police handling the investigations who really thought our lead could be a suspect from her unusual reactions to the police’s findings. I loved Melissa, the psychic who looks into the other world for clues where missing people might be. Adam, the husband who’s secretiveness gave his character some form of intrigue.── ★★★

I liked this book. But I really wished I could love, love it. Too many anti-climaxes in lots of pages that you wondered if the book was going anywhere at all. One minute you are on the edge of your seat, then you are not anymore because Police’s findings have been proved wrong. Until the last, about, hundred pages do you begin to discover some really intriguing info to keep you on the edge of your seat till the end. It could have been more fast-paced.

My rating: 3.5 stars/five.

Beth Thomas’ latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves some mystery laced with their chick-lit.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Book Review: When I Met You by Jemma Forte

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This:  The two words you could use to describe your life is: Not Perfect. And when you think about the fact that you are living with your parents, sleeping in your old room, and having no dream you’d want to pursue at thirty-one, you realize you are not kidding, and you are what someone would call underachieved——which could even be dolling the situation up a little bit knowing you have never achieved anything in your life.

If only your mum ever focused on you all through your life, if only you haven’t been living in the shadow of your hot, bitchy sister who’s always been driven around to auditions despite her lack of a talented bone in her, if only you had a father-figure to look up to since yours disappeared when you were quite a baby…

But of course, all you blame is yourself for wanting to do nothing but play the violin or wash people’s hair just so you could gather money to travel all around the globe and come back when you need to wash more people’s hair for another vacation around the world.

Then suddenly, on one rainy night, your dad shows up, clamping his hand on your mouth and ordering you not to scream.

That’s the beginning of your life, of you living. But surely you expected a more upbeat start than a holiday fling turned chubby crushing at your parents’ and emptying out the fridge.

Marianne Baker’s quirky, messy life summed up for your delight.

MY REVIEW

I loved, loved this book. So you know in my review I’d be throwing bricks your way till you get fed up and go get it.

God knows how many times I’ve been wanting to read Jemma Forte, so when this book popped up in the mail, you could tell the very absurd victory dance I put up.

The storyline is fab! Thirty-year old girl crushing with her parents because the only job she’s had since being a teenager is a violinist which is not quite lucrative if you decide to lock yourself away and play to the silence as audience. Thirty-year old girl saving up through hairdressing and being clown at kids parties so she could go travel the world. Thirty-year old girl who has to  deal with a family that consisted of nutjobs and a sister who yells at everyone. Thirty-year old girl whose father appears in her life one night and suddenly life might be leaning towards a positive change in the strangest ways. A star to the storyline!── ★

I did enjoy reading about Marianne. A very lovable heroine who has such a funny voice it’s really hard to sympathize with her with you should be sympathizing for her crappy life. You’d love how she puts the light in every situation with a mind and a point of view brimming with jokes. Do we ever feel underachieved? Do we ever feel lost in life with no sense of direction yet cannot admit it to ourselves? Do we ever feel everyone around us is on a different wavelength and we are alone in this world because there’s not anyone who understands us? These are the questions you would ask yourself to find out how relatable Marianne Baker is. But no, not thirty-year old lady still living with her parents and having no job. A star to Marianne.── ★★

One of the other reasons this book was entertaining was its supporting cast. You would find Allison strange, Marianne’s mum who’s never in tune to any music in life and thinks classical music should be performed for people in a Loony bin. You would draw up Hayley, the sister, and stab a knife through the dumpster-piece as revenge for every time she puts our lead (Marianne) down. You would find Andy, the holiday fling now-turned chubby irritating when he still thinks our lead fancies him even though he now has a bigger butt than she. You would find Martin, the stepdad, odd for when he wants to go for bonding trips with his son at IKEA. You would find Pete, the stepbrother who never speaks, um, quiet. There’s Ray, the MIA dad who’s showed up and is determined to make it all right. Maisie, the little annoying devilish kid who keeps getting on our lead’s nerves during her clown parties. Lots of other fun characters you would adore. A star. ── ★★★

A feature that makes this book beautiful is the themes of life, loss and family portrayed by Jemma Forte to make this title radiate with warmth.── ★★★★

Humor, check.── ★★★★

I loved, loved this book. But then I had a hate-love relationship with it because of its unstable pace. One moment, I was gripped, the other I was not. One moment it was fast-paced and the other it was slow. But for most part, it was engaging, so…

My rating: Four-point-five stars. (4.5/5 stars)

Jemma Forte's latest, When I Met You is available on amazon 

I recommend this book to anyone who loves their chick-lit funny, warm, quirky and inspiring. Anyone who knows someone still living with their parents at thirty should pick this for them in an indirect way of telling them to get a place of their own and get their life together. Anyone who has had to deal with an MIA relative appearing after so long could also pick this. And just about anyone who wants to read something about a holiday fling gone awry should grab this. 

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.