Love by the Book by Jessica George

Love by the Book by Jessica George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Remy is lucky. Her debut novel, based on her three best friends, became an instant bestseller when it was released, and her agent and publisher are clamoring for a follow-up. But just as Remy’s creative inspiration seems to leave her, so too do her friends: one moves to New York, one gets pregnant, and one gets back together with her (awful) boyfriend. After an ill-advised one-night stand complicates matters further, Remy is left deeply alone—and unable to find her next book idea.

Simone is successful. A Kindergarten teacher with a passion for kids, and a well-paying side hustle that affords her all the material comforts she desires, she doesn't have time for a robust social life. All Simone needs is her close-knit family—but after the true nature of her work is revealed, they cut her off, and she realizes for the first time just how isolated she is.

When Simone and Remy bump into each other (literally) in a bookstore, it isn’t exactly soulmates at first sight. Simone is guarded and prickly, Remy is insecure and heartbroken, and each woman is harboring a secret. And yet they might just be the missing piece the other has been searching for—if only they can let each other in.

Can Simone help Remy make one of the most important decisions of her life—and can Remy help Simone recover all that she’s lost? In Jessica George’s heartwarming, funny, and soulful second novel, she explores the restorative nature of female friendship and the life-changing power of platonic love.
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I missed out on Jessica George's first novel Maame (but I will certainly be remedying that!), so I was going into this novel blind. However, the description of it - exploring "the restorative nature of female friendship and the life-changing power of platonic love" - spoke so deeply to me because I have not been in a romantic relationship for many years. However, I am not someone who lives without love in her life. Those of us who live outside of romantic relationships sometimes are a forgotten demographic in popular fiction storytelling, so the thought of reading a novel not centered around this was interesting to me.

I immediately loved Remy, both her light parts and her dark parts. George writes her as such a well-rounded character, and we are able to see her for all her positive attributes, but she is never presented as perfect. In fact, throughout, I felt a low level of tension? anxiety? due to some of her actions and what their outcome might be, which is one of the elements of the book that had me grabbing every spare moment I had to read "just one more chapter." Simone, once she is introduced into the main plot and we get know her, is fascinating, in that she is so much more than she seems to be, and witnessing the way she and Remy dance around each other as they settle into their relationship is so real. The last third of the book flew by faster than I wanted it to, as I didn't want to say goodbye to these women who had come to feel like friends. However, I can say that I loved how we left those friends, and I will definitely read whatever comes next from Jessica George.

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The Name Game by Beth O'Leary

The Name Game by Beth O'Leary
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Charlie couldn’t be happier to take the job of farm-shop manager on the remote, wild Isle of Ormer. She’s grieving, a little lost, and in desperate need of a fresh start.

Jones has come out of a difficult breakup and is looking forward to some peace away from the noise of his city life. Moving to Ormer couldn’t have come at a better time.

But when Charlie Jones and, ahem, Charlie Jones both turn up at Ormer’s one and only farm shop, claiming to have been offered the role of manager, everyone is baffled. How could this have happened? And just who is the real Charlie Jones?
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I think it was between The Switch and The Road Trip that I decided that I would be reading every book that Beth O'Leary wrote for the rest of her career and that I hoped that career would be good and long. First of all, her characters are always so enjoyable. Getting to know them through the pages of her books is always a fun time. The banter between her MMC and FMC in all of her novels have always been delightful to read. She does forced proximity so well, but it is always with a little bit of a surprising take, not in a repetitive or predictable way that makes it seem to be too trope-y. And the portions of this book that are made up of an epistolary format are woven seamlessly into the other more narrative timelines that eventually come together to bring us a twisty surprise (I did not know quite how she was going to pull everything together at the end, but I loved where we ended up!). There are some serious topics that are tackled in this one, including grief and early stages of recovery from alcoholism, and they are handled with sensitivity. I think the fact that I started and finished in one day speaks for itself!

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