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3.18 AVERAGE
3.18 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2.5 stars? This was rather disappointing because the premise was interesting, and the fact that this was a male author writing a romcom intrigued me, and I would want more men's perspectives writing within this genre. Too bad this wasn't amazing for me, but granted this was a debut, and there were some parts I enjoyed... Mostly the Britishness of the setting and characters, the little idiosyncrasies and specificities that make the background of the author known within the story.
Impressions after weeks since reading this book, is that this was entirely forgettable and the writing style I remember being not very well done, the main driving premise of everyday British bloke Josh, being broken up with unexpectedly when he was proposing to his girlfriend, losing his love life, home and job all in one fell swoop, then deciding to base his decisions on the toss of this coin he found for a whole year, where that leads him into rebuilding his life in that time period. This concept was very wasted and I felt it was dropped by the wayside. Instead, this book turned into a sort of grown-up shallow romcom version of Dash and Lily (recently watched the show adaptation on Netflix so this comparison is fresh and came to mind). Where Josh meets this "girl of his dreams" no-personality woman by chance, and spends most of the book searching for her, his friends being backdrop characters to helping him find her.
This adventure clue-finding premise wasn't even executed in a fun whimsical way- it read as very "he goes here, now he goes here" dry way to me, and lacked the spark and magic that such a plot should automatically generate. Here he is going around London's museums, then Amsterdam, and Paris, and I was very *shrugs shoulders* at it all. I found the story wandering and not quite cohesive in what it wanted to be: is this supposed to be a self-discovery message where Josh surrenders his choices to the universe and ends up with a stronger sense of self by the end, or is the main story being about Josh wandering about Europe and finding his manic pixie dream girl to date, replacing his bland girlfriend at the beginning of this book with this magical woman he's created in his mind after a brief romcom encounter? The character work was bland too, with Josh and Sunflower girl Lucy, his group of friends, not getting a strong sense of personality from any of them.
The romance was not even there, it felt nonexistent to me, and the very basis of it was super creepy to me. Josh meets this mysterious stranger woman once for a few minutes, and proceeds to hunt her down across the globe based on scant clues and this is viewed by the story as romantic, and when they meet again against all odds, the "manic pixie dream girl" element isn't even addressed. The plot just goes full steam ahead in making the two kind of "meant to be together" and doesn't bring up the reasonable point that they really have no basis or groundwork to "earn" the romance that would get the reader to root for them as a couple. Josh doesn't even evolve as a character nor does he seem to go through any kind of character arc or learning experience over this year of storyline either.
Impressions after weeks since reading this book, is that this was entirely forgettable and the writing style I remember being not very well done, the main driving premise of everyday British bloke Josh, being broken up with unexpectedly when he was proposing to his girlfriend, losing his love life, home and job all in one fell swoop, then deciding to base his decisions on the toss of this coin he found for a whole year, where that leads him into rebuilding his life in that time period. This concept was very wasted and I felt it was dropped by the wayside. Instead, this book turned into a sort of grown-up shallow romcom version of Dash and Lily (recently watched the show adaptation on Netflix so this comparison is fresh and came to mind). Where Josh meets this "girl of his dreams" no-personality woman by chance, and spends most of the book searching for her, his friends being backdrop characters to helping him find her.
This adventure clue-finding premise wasn't even executed in a fun whimsical way- it read as very "he goes here, now he goes here" dry way to me, and lacked the spark and magic that such a plot should automatically generate. Here he is going around London's museums, then Amsterdam, and Paris, and I was very *shrugs shoulders* at it all. I found the story wandering and not quite cohesive in what it wanted to be: is this supposed to be a self-discovery message where Josh surrenders his choices to the universe and ends up with a stronger sense of self by the end, or is the main story being about Josh wandering about Europe and finding his manic pixie dream girl to date, replacing his bland girlfriend at the beginning of this book with this magical woman he's created in his mind after a brief romcom encounter? The character work was bland too, with Josh and Sunflower girl Lucy, his group of friends, not getting a strong sense of personality from any of them.
The romance was not even there, it felt nonexistent to me, and the very basis of it was super creepy to me. Josh meets this mysterious stranger woman once for a few minutes, and proceeds to hunt her down across the globe based on scant clues and this is viewed by the story as romantic, and when they meet again against all odds, the "manic pixie dream girl" element isn't even addressed. The plot just goes full steam ahead in making the two kind of "meant to be together" and doesn't bring up the reasonable point that they really have no basis or groundwork to "earn" the romance that would get the reader to root for them as a couple. Josh doesn't even evolve as a character nor does he seem to go through any kind of character arc or learning experience over this year of storyline either.
Audiobook - British Narrator.......there was no reason this book needed to be this long.
Well written, a nice feel good with a touch of gloom 3/4 ways through. The ending felt a little rushed but a good book regardless!
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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:
Complicated
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Cute idea, but boring in execution. I skimmed the last several chapters.
What a fun book! I was laughing out loud so many times. This was a great debut by the author.
Josh has pretty much the worst New Years ever. He proposes to his girlfriend, who says NO, then he loses his job and has to move back in with his parents at 28. Not the ideal life he thought he would have at that age. Since he has made so many bad choices he decides to leave all future decision making to the flip of a coin.
A series of unfortunate and embarrassing events take place over the next few months, but he meets “the girl of his dreams” one afternoon and things are looking up. The only issue? She doesn’t live in London and he didn’t get her name.
He has some clues on how to find her and embarks on a journey looking for his “Sunflower girl”. In his quest to find her, he finds himself. This is such a great book about realizing that you are never too old to find yourself and it’s ok to be lost, you will get there in the end.
Josh has pretty much the worst New Years ever. He proposes to his girlfriend, who says NO, then he loses his job and has to move back in with his parents at 28. Not the ideal life he thought he would have at that age. Since he has made so many bad choices he decides to leave all future decision making to the flip of a coin.
A series of unfortunate and embarrassing events take place over the next few months, but he meets “the girl of his dreams” one afternoon and things are looking up. The only issue? She doesn’t live in London and he didn’t get her name.
He has some clues on how to find her and embarks on a journey looking for his “Sunflower girl”. In his quest to find her, he finds himself. This is such a great book about realizing that you are never too old to find yourself and it’s ok to be lost, you will get there in the end.
lighthearted
medium-paced
A little disappointed, as this started off quite strong for me and I found Josh to be a funny character that made me genuinely laugh out loud. Then I became annoyed by him, his family and his friends. A bit too cheesy and predictable, with unoriginal dialogue. I kept wishing the book would finally end about 70% of the way through. Oh well.