Skip to main content

Must Love Books - Shauna Robinson

 

Description

‘A heartfelt and exciting debut . . . a wise and honest story of how it feels to be a young woman in search of yourself’

Taylor Jenkins Reid, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Meet Nora Hughes – the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now.

When Nora landed an editorial assistant role at Parsons Press she thought it would be The Dream Job. But after five years of admin and taking lunch orders, Nora has come to the conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist.

With her life spiralling and unable to afford her rent, Nora does the only thing she can think of and starts freelancing for a rival publisher.

But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling author (who also happens to be quite attractive), is thrown into Nora’s life, she must decide where her loyalties lie, and whether she’s ready to choose herself and her future over her job…

Your next book club read touching on mental health, happiness and the ups and downs of being a young woman trying to figure it all out.

Review

I've really enjoyed being a part of the #MustLoveBooksReadalong with @onemorechapter this week, thanks for the invite.

This is not your usual romcom read. It's so very down to earth - in the main - and has some very real and relatable characters, especially in the office.

We join Nora recruiting a new member of staff. This gets her thinking about her own journey into publishing, and the not so rapid ascent within it. She's been at the publishing house for 5 years and is still taking lunch orders while all around her people are being laid off and she's lumbered with some of their work. She has an idea to get her ahead and stay afloat by working for two publishers at the same time. This had the makings of a disaster written all over it and I could hardly bare to read, waiting for a car crash. Actually it worked pretty well until it didn't! Can't say more on that one.

With witty repartee between Nora and one of the authors and some great friends (if only she realised) the book bounces along nicely in between the fractious thoughts of how Nora is going to get promoted, find her life purpose and pay the rent.

Nora has a lot going on in her head and part of that is a reoccurring thought that she might not need to live anymore. I was really willing Nora to hang on in and find someone who she could really connect to and help her through all her issues. The ending wasn't one I was expecting, but it's maybe the right one considering how complicated Nora and her life choices are.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley and onemorechapter for the ARC to review.

Comments

Post a Comment

Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog and by providing their comment they have published their own personal details on this blog and also consented to our use of that personal information for that specific purpose.

Popular posts from this blog

The C Word - An anthology of murder, mystery, death & destruction

  Great to be on the book tour today for this book today especially as 100% of all royalties from The C Word will be donated to NHS Together Charities. Description So, what do writers do during Lockdown? They create murder, mystery, death and destruction of course! The C Word is a collection of short stories collated during the COVID-19 pandemic to raise money for NHS Charities Together. A plethora of wonderful stories created by a wide variety of writers, each with their own unique style. Some you will know already and some we’ve yet to introduce you to. However, we’re sure you’ll want to hear from each and every one of them again as we leave 2020 behind us. With contributions from Steve Mosby, Sophie Hannah, Elly Griffiths, Sarah Hilary, Rob Scragg, Trevor Wood and many more. Review A great collection of short stories and certainly written for our times. Some of these stories were a little too dark for my usual reading tastes, but as they were short I stuck with them. There could...
1 comment
Read more

The Ghost Cat - Alex Howard

  Description Early morning, 1902. In a gloomy Edinburgh tenement, Eilidh the charlady tips coal into a fire grate and sets it alight. Overhearing, a cat ambles over to curl up against the welcome heat. This is to be the cat's last day on earth. But he is going to return... as The Ghost Cat, a spirit-feline destined to live out his ghostly existence according to the medieval proverb of "The Cat with Nine Lives" - For Three He Plays, For Three He Strays, For Three He Stays. Follow The Ghost Cat as he witnesses the changes of the next two centuries as he purrs, shuffles and sniffs his way through the fashion, politics and technological advances of the modern era alongside the ever-changing inhabitants of an Edinburgh tenement. As we follow our new spirit-feline friend, this unique story unearths some startling revelations about the mystery of existence and the human condition and provides a feel-good read full of charm for any fan of history, humour and fur-ridden fun. Revi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

Description THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. YOU DON'T KNOW HER. BUT SHE KNOWS YOU. Rear Window  meets  Gone Girl , in this exceptional and startling psychological thriller Review I must be one of the last people to read this book. I did apply for a review copy but unfortunately wasn't successful. I then waited for the book to come down in price which it didn't - so I decided I would buy it and read it straight away! I'm sure it will be a film and before anyone gives away what happens I felt I really needed to get it read, so it jumped the TBR queue. There is not much plot outline from the publisher as you can see in the description above, so there wasn't a lot to go on when I began to read the book. First of all the book jumps around date wise - past and present and also between the main characters. I did have a little trouble remembering who was who and which time frame we were in - but that soon settled down. I also had to re-read the beginning because I th...
3 comments
Read more