The Happiest Ever After - Milly Johnson

 

Description

What if you could write your own perfect storyline...?

The heartwarming, feelgood novel from the much-loved Sunday Times bestselling author, Milly Johnson

Polly Potter is surviving, not thriving. She used to love her job as a business consultant, turning around businesses that were on their uppers – until her mentor died and her new boss decided to make her life hell. She used to love her partner Chris – until he cheated on her, and now she can’t forget. The only place where her life is working is on the pages of the novel she is writing – there she can recreate herself as a feistier, bolder, more successful version of herself – as the fictional Sabrina Anderson.

But what if it was possible to start over again? To leave everything behind, forget all that went before, and live the life you’d always dreamed of?

That’s how Polly finds herself as Sabrina, living at the heart of a noisy Italian family restaurant by the sea. Run by Teddy, the charming son of her new landlady Marielle, it has potential, if only a rival restaurant is stopped from moving in next door. Sabrina can’t remember her life as Polly, but she knows she is living a different life from the one she used to live.

But what if her new life could give her her happiest ever after…?

Review

A wonderful read, the pages just flew by.

Polly Potter is not happy in her home life and she certainly is no longer happy at work. As a business consultant she still has great ideas that work, but all the credit is taken from her, and the new boss loves to ask Polly to put the kettle on too!

With a great plot device of Polly becoming her alter ego Sabrina from a book she is writing, she gets a second chance at life. Although even in her new life things go against her.  I was willing everyone to see through what was happening to Sabrina. Bringing her business acumen to her new life was a great touch and so interesting to read. But will Sabrina win out or will Polly's old life come calling for her?

I loved the characters in this book, getting to know them was wonderful. I should say I loved all the nice characters, certainly not Jeremy and some of the other unsavoury people Sabrina meets. With Milly's humorous touch to the proceedings and interspersed with snippets from the Daily Trumpet this was a joy to read. 

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review. This book will be published on 15 February 2024.

Fourteen Days - Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston

 

Description

A BBC, Financial Times and Cosmopolitan What to Read in 2024 pick

Set in a New York apartment building, Fourteen Days is an irresistibly propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of neighbours has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice - from Margaret Atwood and John Grisham to Emma Donoghue and Celeste Ng.

One week into lockdown, the tenants of a run-down apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop each evening and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbours gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants – some of whom have barely spoken to each other before now – become real neighbours.

A dazzling, heartwarming and ultimately surprising narrative, Fourteen Days is an ode to the power of storytelling and human connection.

Includes writing from: Charlie Jane Anders, Margaret Atwood, Jennine Capo Crucet, Pat Cummings, Joseph Cassara, Angie Cruz, Sylvia Day, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Maria Hinojosa, Mira Jacob, Erica Jong, CJ Lyons, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Mary Pope Osborne, Doug Preston, Alice Randall, Caroline Randall, Ishmael Reed, Roxana Robinson, Nelly Rosario, James Shapiro, Hampton Sides, R.L. Stine, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Monique Truong, Scott Turow, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rachel Vail, Weike Wang, DeShawn Charles Winslow, Meg Wolitzer

Review

I came to read Margaret Atwood, but really I never knew which author I was reading, and I loved it.


This is about a group of New Yorkers during the Covid pandemic of 2020. Each night they meet on the roof top to share stories to pass the time, and begin to really know their neighbours.


This isn't a collection of short stories. There are no chapters as such, just the date of each of the 14 days in the title. Each day those on the roof just begin to share whatever they want to say. Some of them are tales, some are experiences, and they differ in length. Brilliantly written by everyone, I really felt I was there each evening. A few of the voices I loved more than others, but the ones (in the minority) I didn't care for I just scan read. It could have been the subject matter or the character, not everyone was for me.


I thought that was it, nothing more to say. However, unexpectedly at the end there was a twist - which I never saw coming, but it did explain some of my doubts. I read through this like a novel, but you could pick it up as and when you felt like it. There are a lot of characters and sometimes I felt like they had a slightly different voice, but I just went with it. I didn't get too hung up on which author wrote what. At the end of the book there are credits to each of the authors, explaining which of them wrote which tale.


I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review. This book is published on 6 February 2024.