Jenni from the book

I know you're already waiting on 2 holiday blog posts from me, but in the absence of those, I thought I'd give you my latest Jenni from the book post! Well, with so many holidays lately, it's not surprising that I've finally managed to get through 5 more books. While you wait for the holiday blog posts which are definitely on the way, here's how the latest batch of books measured up (beware of spoilers)...

We've all played the 'what would you do if you won the lottery' game, right? But what if you actually did? Well, Lexi and Jake really do. Nearly £18 million. But all isn't as simple as it seems. For the past 15 years, the couple have played the same numbers as part of a lottery pool with the Pearson's and the Heathcote's; a sixsome who have been through everything together from children to jobs to houses. But timing is a funny old thing and one night, there's a rift in the group. Secrets, betrayal, lies. And the following week, the lottery numbers come up. And unsurprisingly the two other couples set out to get a slice of the £18 million fortune Lexi and Jake find themselves holding. However, I can guarantee when you've played the 'what would you do if you won the lottery' game, you'd never imagine it'd turn out like this. This book was something a little different for me, but I really, really enjoyed it. Because it was so twisty and shocked me a lot, I'm reluctant to give as many spoilers as I normally would because it'd ruin it! From the beginning, Lexi was a really likeable character and I liked the thread of a secondary story about a character called Toma that was woven in. You really felt like she was the kind of person who would deserve to win the lottery. On the other hand, you felt like her husband Jake was exactly the kind of person who didn't. Straight off the bat, he was completely loathsome and I felt a burning kind of anger at the wayward way he acted from the second the lottery numbers came up. You may think that made the book less enjoyable but I actually think it can be a sign of a good author to invoke that kind of emotion, that kind of hate for a character. The story was so well thought out and put together, with the Pearson's and Heathcote's weaving in in more ways than one, from affairs to evil plots. There were plenty of twists and turns, yet nothing could've prepared me for the twists in the last 50 pages or so. It was a book that had me wide eyed until the very last page. It also raised some interesting questions about value, greed and morality; it really made you question what you yourself would do with that kind of money. But it also had more real-life themes too like the intricacies of marriage and parenthood and the dynamic of friendships. The only part I didn't really enjoy about the book were the chapters from the perspective of Lexi and Jake's 16 year old daughter. They held interesting plot points and I totally get why they were woven in, but they were written in very simplistic, almost babyish language which made it a bit of a chore to read. But overall, I think the author wrote a fascinating cautionary tale about what it might really mean to have your dreams come true, and the dark side of having everything you want. It might make you careful what you wish for.

This book was more my usual speed and yet I have to say, it still surpassed all expectations. To write a truly great rom-com is rare, but this was certainly up there with the best. Olive Smith is quietly enjoying grad school as a third year PhD candidate, and definitely isn't bothered about romantic relationships. Her one true love in life so far is her best friend Anh. So when she notices that Anh has a great connection with a guy but refuses to date him because Olive previously went on like 3 dates with him, she tells a teeny tiny white lie in order to give her best friend a push in the right direction. But white lies never remain that teeny tiny in rom-coms and soon, Olive finds herself kissing the first man she finds in order to prove she's moved on. A man who turns out to be Adam Carlsen, a world renowned scientist and professor, who is known throughout grad school for being an arsehole to his students. And yet shockingly, he's pretty happy to go along with the whole fake relationship plot. It's a win-win; Olive gets to see her best friend get her happy ever after and Adam gets to seem settled down to the powers that be who won't currently release his experiment funding. But as a long line of fake-relationship rom-coms should've taught you (and them), there's a very thin line between fake and real, And with Olive realising she might've unwittingly put her heart under the microscope, it soon feels as though this particular experiment might blow up in their faces. I mean, was it a predictable storyline? Yes. Did I love it to the point my heart was going to explode? Also yes. The quiet chemistry between upbeat Olive and moody Adam was so heartwarming and it really felt like a slow burner (or should that be slow bunsen burner eyyy). Adam's character was so great and the way you could tell he was crazy in love but she couldn't, made for a great read. In true rom-com style, a miscommunication (or total lack of) was one of the main plot points for conflict, but it was done in a way that wasn't totally lazy. I loved the secondary storylines too, about Olive's burgeoning career and the difficulties that women in STEM face. The only plot point I hated was right towards the end. Essentially, Olive suffers from sexual harassment and her friends encourage her to tell Adam and get justice. But she worries about being believed and shies away from it, until rock solid proof conveniently turns up. As much as I was glad with the way the whole thing played out in the end, I hated that it kind of showed that sexual harassment victims need proof before being able to speak out; I would've preferred a version of the story where Olive told Adam and he reacted in exactly the same way as if she'd presented cold hard proof. But overall it was a minor sticking point in an otherwise beautiful story about love, believing in yourself, being an underdog, trauma, sharing, biology, and of course, undeniable chemistry.

Oh how I love Taylor Jenkins Reid. She’s never let me down. My least favourite book of hers so far was still a solid 4 out of 5, and this latest in her long line of successes made a nice change from the romance-centred books I’ve read a lot of so far. Instead, this one was all about family. The Riva family in particular, who were essentially the 1980s answer to the Kardashians. That family who captures the attention of the world - who everyone has their eyes firmly on at all times. And at the centre of all the attention, drama and chaos was superstar singer, Mick Riva. In a parallel storytelling set-up, the author introduces us to a young Mick, and the way in which he met and fell in love with June while rising to fame. At the same time, we’re also introduced to his 4 children (who are all now in their twenties) on the night of the infamous annual Riva Malibu beach party. There’s the oldest daughter Nina, a pin-up star in her own right, who is measured and cautious and lives her life for other people. There’s surfing star, Jay, and his surfing photographer companion, Hud, who have been thick as thieves their whole lives. And there's the youngest and most defiant Riva, Kit, who has always been opinionated and bolshy where her siblings haven't. But even outspoken people like her are often afraid to say what's truly on their mind. And she's not the only one keeping secrets. The most interesting part about this book for me was how much I loved it, despite it not having that much of a storyline. Yes, there's the whole chaotic party that one half of the narrative is building up to, filled with sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and secret spilling, before the house eventually goes up in flames. But those scenes are not nearly as dramatic as I perhaps expected from the blurb. It's actually rather quiet in terms of plot, but blaringly loud in terms of a tragic back story and a piercing social commentary. Ensemble casts of any kind (books, films etc) are tricky because normally there's atleast one or two characters that lack real depth or pull. But Taylor Jenkins Reid manages to create a whole family of fascinating characters that you're desperate to know more about. Their story and the way in which Mick and June got together (and ultimately fell apart) is a beautifully tragic one that really pulls on the heart strings. Even when you think you've found yourself a villain, you still find yourself intrigued rather than angered. I also really loved that the book was filled with spoiler alerts for its own plot. So rather than telling you about things first in the 'past' chapters and then later referencing it in the 'present' chapters, it does it the other way round. So you learn things in the 'present' chapters first and then get the full explanation of them and how they came to be in the 'past' chapters afterwards. My only criticism if I had to make one, was that Mick Riva, after like 17 years of not contacting his children, (spoiler alert) randomly turns up to the party. I mean, it served for a good plot point and a way for the author to explore the mind of a parent who would abandon his children, but ultimately I think in real life once he was gone, he'd stay gone. I did really enjoy the 1980s setting though and the retro sense that I got from it all. I also really enjoyed the catharsis of the chapters that cover the party. All 4 Riva siblings find themselves with secrets to spill or decisions to make, and by the end of the night, they all find their own unique kind of closure. I suppose the central ocean theme of the book (Malibu beach setting, the Riva's obsession with surfing) was a perfect metaphor for the book itself. Calm and ebbing on the surface, but with vast depth and a million things you don't yet understand, hidden below.

Not only because of the title, but I was really ready to love this book. Newly divorced and waiting to find the perfect house for herself and her 7 year old daughter, Laura takes a short-term lease as a lodger at The Close. Her studio apartment may be tiny, but the rest of the mansions on the street are anything but. A place filled with money and glamour and drama queens, Laura finds herself thrown into a slightly different world than she's used to. Especially when queen bee Stella, believes Laura is after her fiancé Al, and she finds herself in social purgatory. Desperate to clear her name and make her time on The Close enjoyable, Laura digs into what Al is really hiding. But finding it may be more trouble than it's worth, and with her own stake in this drama on the line, and Stella's perfect world threatened, the unlikely pair fast find themselves actually becoming friends. But can you ever really trust a queen bee? I mean, from the synopsis, it sounded like it was going to be a murder-in-a-quiet-neighbourhood kind of book to me. All this talk about revenge having a sting in its tail and Laura's future being threatened, made me think that something really juicy was lying between these pages. The complete opposite of that was true. And I will be giving a fair few spoilers for this one because I basically wouldn't recommend reading it and therefore it doesn't matter. I'll start with a few positives. I found myself hooked quite early on. The description of this glamourous neighbourhood and the various people in it, along with the promise of secrets had me desperate to know what would happen next. So I was really enjoying it until about a third of the way in, which is when you found out what Al was hiding. The problem was that it didn't match the hype. The "massive" secret was that he was planning to leave Stella, and shack up with his much younger bit on the side. And since he and Stella were engaged but not yet married, it meant she would lose everything. Laura felt a moral woman-to-woman obligation to not only pass on the information, but also for some reason, take Stella under her wing and do everything humanly possible to get her ready to be an independent woman. This is for the same woman who was essentially bullying her 50 pages earlier btw. I think even the author realised her motivations for getting involved would be slim because she kept reiterating that she felt bad for their children etc. The whole thing just lacked drive really. And as for Laura's personal stake in the whole thing, she owned a cleaning business of which Al was a client. So if she was busted for snooping on him, she'd lose a client. Not exactly the end of the world, you might say. So again, why would she get so involved? I'm talking involved to the point of taking Stella food shopping to learn how to bargain hunt, teaching her to make mac and cheese and showing her how to sell old clothes on ebay. I'd say atleast 100 pages of the book could've been condensed into a Rocky-style training montage, rather than explicitly detailing every little thing she was teaching her. I also found it very hard to believe that a woman in her late thirties would be so obtuse. I understand lazy or unwilling, if she's always lived the kind of life where things get done for you (housekeeper, nanny etc), but there was one bit where she didn't realise you needed to take the plastic off of a frozen pizza before putting it in the oven. I mean, come on! That was another big whole in the plot for me though. Women who live a certain kind of life don't change themselves if they get left by their husbands (or fiancés in this case); they change the husband. In real life, Stella would've set about finding her next husband to keep her in the life she was accustomed to, not learn how to collect Morrisons coupons. Which kind of left the whole book as a bit of a moot point. I mean, that's basically how I felt about it anyway; it left no impact, the characters were forgettable, there was no one to root for, no shocks, no twists. It all just felt like I might as well not have read it. Plus, the author was clearly not very talented to begin with. For example, there's a baby who's called Andrei the first time we meet him, then his name changes to Alexei, and then he's back to Andrei by the end! And there's lots of references to women having 'trout pouts' and too much botox and not being able to move their faces. I get it, it's a stereotype and I'm not a lover of cosmetic surgery personally, but this book felt quite derogatory, both of women's looks and of their choices. For a woman who was recently left by her husband and who ran a small cleaning business, Laura had a much bigger superiority complex than any of the women on The Close. She made for quite an unlikeable main character, which is ultimately the Achilles heel of any book. I gave it 2 stars since I was enjoying the build-up in the beginning, but overall, I wouldn't bother with this one.

I've loved Mhairi McFarlane before and I loved her again! Just Last Night (or Last Night, it seems to have two different titles) is the story of Eve and her 3 best friends. There's Susie, her lifelong bestie and the person who's more herself than she is. There's Ed, who she's been not-so-secretly in love with ever since their missed chance with each other just before university. And there's Justin, the larger than life fourth member of the group with a sardonic wit and wicked sense of humour. Bonding immediately upon meeting in college, the four of them are still just as close nearly twenty years later. But then their lives are changed forever, when Susie is hit by a car and tragically dies. Just like that, Eve's world is turned upside down and at a time when the 3 of them should be able to rely on each other more than ever, secrets start to come out that makes Eve question everything. But sometimes an ending is only just the beginning. Okay so I loved this book! It didn't really go how I expected at first. I was thinking it would turn out that Susie and Ed were in love with each other one way or the other but it wasn't nearly as poetic as that; they'd had sex ten years earlier and kept it a secret. So then I started to think maybe it was heading towards Eve and Ed ending up together afterall. But it was so much more beautiful than that. It was a story of moving on. Of Eve realising she deserved better than to carry a torch for someone who may have loved her back, but not nearly enough. It was very The Holiday ("I'm miraculously done being in love with you!"). Before she got there though, she met someone who helped her to see life in a different way. Who helped to ignite her sense of adventure. So I guess it was a love story of sorts. But that one came third in line as love stories in this book go; second was Eve and Susie's platonic, sisterly love for each other and first was Eve's love story with herself. I thought it was really well written and all of the characters were fabulous; all of their dialogue and one-liners were so witty and funny. I also really enjoyed that it was set in Nottingham and briefly in Edinburgh, as I could really relate to it and picture the places being described. Some of the death parts were not so enjoyable. Not in the way that they were gruesome or sad, but they were kind of boring? Lots of focus on the administrative parts of death (lots of funeral planning, speech writing, etc) and then at one point, there was a whole chapter just with Eve talking about what grief meant and how to deal with it. I get that the author was trying to articulate a wider point, but it got to the stage where she wasn't half waffling on. Luckily, soon after this, the plot took an interesting turn so it saved itself there. The only other niggle I had with it, which is one I have with a lot of books, is how self-aware all of the characters were. One of the characters was a psychologist so his character observations made sense, but for all the others, it was weird that they were so in-tune with themselves and their actions and taking accountability. Generally speaking, people aren't actually very self-aware at all, and at the end when Eve finally spilled her truth to Ed, in real life he likely would've reacted with a shrug or a defensive comment or two, rather than the poignant monologue he came back with in the book. Overall though, I really enjoyed it and it just goes to show that even in the darkest of times, you can find some light; even the sourest of lemons can make something resembling lemonade.