Scan barcode
justme856's review against another edition
3.0
Actual rating is 2 1/2 stars. Not a total waste of time, but not great. Just OK.
cidaumer's review against another edition
2.0
Cute story but just didn't move along fast enough. I'd like to know how it ends but not willing to put the time.
sksrenninger's review against another edition
3.0
I liked Harriet and her characters, but I felt like the story was too chopped up. Events interspersed over ten years make it hard to get to know a character; every time you see them, it's years later and they've changed again. I wanted to know how the character gets her happy ending, but there isn't much how to be found here. Still, a nice, not unintelligent story.
nikki93's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
whatkatiemariereads's review against another edition
2.0
I really couldn't empathise with the main character; I thought she changed so much to someone I didn't like at all and there were some time skips which I just felt bemused by. There was also some major events that happened in her life and I felt like the character didn't deal with them at all. I usually love Harriet Evan's books but this one just didn't cut it for me and that was a shame.
karapoo's review against another edition
3.0
I received this book through Goodreads giveaways.
I had a really hard time getting through this book and I didn’t realize why until close to the end. The storyline feels too close to the stress of everyday life. I feel like Eleanor is too intelligent for a majority of the things that occurred during the book to happen to her. However in the end I’m glad I finished the book.
I had a really hard time getting through this book and I didn’t realize why until close to the end. The storyline feels too close to the stress of everyday life. I feel like Eleanor is too intelligent for a majority of the things that occurred during the book to happen to her. However in the end I’m glad I finished the book.
laeliz85's review against another edition
4.0
This book initially appealed to me because Elle and I have the same dream job and because I thought it would be a light, funny read. While I did enjoy reading about Elle's career pursuits and the book does have it's funny moments, its tone was not overall light. Her parents' relationship, her mother's alcoholism, and the suggestion of Elle following in her mother's footsteps are all on the heavy side for a read I had expected to be a little more Bridget Jones-esque in nature. Overall, I did enjoy the book and would recommend it.
lm_henderson's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book....took awhile to get into the characters but once I did,found it hard to put down.Just a really good read.
alicer718's review against another edition
2.0
It’s was okay, very long and slow, didn’t really have a plot, just not my cup of tea
annebrooke's review against another edition
2.0
I started off actually liking this well enough, as the set-up was very powerful. I particularly enjoyed Elle’s difficult relationship with her brother – that scene at the start when they’re children is simply brilliant. Sadly, we don’t stay in this childhood moment as we’re quickly tumbled into Elle as a young woman trying to make her way in the publishing world.
Entirely due to the great start, I was prepared to give Elle the benefit of the doubt and kept my determination going for a good 100 pages or so. Gradually it dawned on me that, no matter how much I tried to deny it as a reader, Elle is simply a doormat, and a dull one to boot. Sorry, but she just is. Yes, I know she’s a borderline alcoholic with an alcoholic mother, and surely medically depressed, but every time there’s a crisis she simply just keels over and agrees with whoever the strongest person in any particular scene is. I have to say it’s never her. If you want interesting depressive and/or alcoholic women in your fiction, you’re better off with Marian Keyes. However, there was one moment when I got rather excited because Elle was about to launch into a very justified row with her bitchy boss, but the moment said boss challenges her, Ellie gives in and just agrees. Sigh …
There’s also an allegedly torrid affair between her and another boss, Rory, whom she’s obsessive about but really I just didn’t believe anyone would be interested enough in her to bother. That goes for the on-off relationship with an ex-colleague too – and the moment when she realises (no serious spoilers here) that he’s fathered a child by someone else has to be one of the great clichés of romantic fiction – so clichéd that I couldn’t help but laugh uproariously. Sorry …
Then the storyline jumps again and we’re a few years on and she’s living and working in New York. Sadly she’s not any more interesting than she was in the UK and for the rest of the book, I did even more sighing. The relationships she has with the two possible men she’s supposed to be with are worryingly unrealistic, and indeed neither man is very nice or even interesting. As a result, the ending is nonsensical. Or would have been if I’d cared enough about what happens to her. If the novel had lost 150 pages or so, it might have been better as Elle wouldn’t have been so intensely boring and irritating. That said, the book covers she’s responsible for in her publishing job sound nice – maybe these pictures should have been included in the novel as they would certainly have been more riveting than our heroine. Oh well.
Verdict: 2 stars. Decent enough plot, but a too dim and unlikeable heroine
Entirely due to the great start, I was prepared to give Elle the benefit of the doubt and kept my determination going for a good 100 pages or so. Gradually it dawned on me that, no matter how much I tried to deny it as a reader, Elle is simply a doormat, and a dull one to boot. Sorry, but she just is. Yes, I know she’s a borderline alcoholic with an alcoholic mother, and surely medically depressed, but every time there’s a crisis she simply just keels over and agrees with whoever the strongest person in any particular scene is. I have to say it’s never her. If you want interesting depressive and/or alcoholic women in your fiction, you’re better off with Marian Keyes. However, there was one moment when I got rather excited because Elle was about to launch into a very justified row with her bitchy boss, but the moment said boss challenges her, Ellie gives in and just agrees. Sigh …
There’s also an allegedly torrid affair between her and another boss, Rory, whom she’s obsessive about but really I just didn’t believe anyone would be interested enough in her to bother. That goes for the on-off relationship with an ex-colleague too – and the moment when she realises (no serious spoilers here) that he’s fathered a child by someone else has to be one of the great clichés of romantic fiction – so clichéd that I couldn’t help but laugh uproariously. Sorry …
Then the storyline jumps again and we’re a few years on and she’s living and working in New York. Sadly she’s not any more interesting than she was in the UK and for the rest of the book, I did even more sighing. The relationships she has with the two possible men she’s supposed to be with are worryingly unrealistic, and indeed neither man is very nice or even interesting. As a result, the ending is nonsensical. Or would have been if I’d cared enough about what happens to her. If the novel had lost 150 pages or so, it might have been better as Elle wouldn’t have been so intensely boring and irritating. That said, the book covers she’s responsible for in her publishing job sound nice – maybe these pictures should have been included in the novel as they would certainly have been more riveting than our heroine. Oh well.
Verdict: 2 stars. Decent enough plot, but a too dim and unlikeable heroine