JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Pretending by Holly Bourne

He said he was looking for a ‘partner in crime’ which everyone knows is shorthand for ‘a woman who isn’t real’.

April is kind, pretty, and relatively normal – yet she can’t seem to get past date five. Every time she thinks she’s found someone to trust, they reveal themselves to be awful, leaving her heartbroken. And angry.

If only April could be more like Gretel.

Gretel is exactly what men want – she’s a Regular Everyday Manic Pixie Dream Girl Next Door With No Problems. The problem is, Gretel isn’t real. And April is now claiming to be her.

As soon as April starts ‘being’ Gretel, dating becomes much more fun – especially once she reels in the unsuspecting Joshua.

Finally, April is the one in control, but can she control her own feelings? And as she and Joshua grow closer, how long will she be able to keep pretending?

Holly Bourne’s Pretending is contemporary fiction about online dating and the risks you take when you pursue a new relationship with someone — the book explores themes of identity, self-worth, but also trauma and grief.

April struggles with who she has to ‘be’ in order for a guy to like her and want to progress past date number five. Being herself certainly isn’t working, so she takes on this fake ‘Gretel’ persona to see if new guy Joshua will last longer than the guys before him.

Pretending explores online dating for women, and illustrates the truth can be twisted when you meet someone digitally. There are certainly some heavy moments throughout the book, but Holly also weaves in a lot of humour and heart — Pretending is an emotional rollercoaster worth reading.

“Joshua wants me there at seven. So Gretel should turn up at around seven fifteen. I wonder if he wants us to have sex before, or after, dinner. I’d rather before, if I’m being honest with you. I still don’t understand how anyone can be in the mood with a full, swollen stomach digesting a hunk of beef or whatever it is he’s going to cook to impress me.”

Pretending explores sexual violence within relationships, and how boundaries can be blurred in the midst of a loving relationship. Boyfriends can cross a line when it comes to sex, leaving their girlfriend hurt and confused and unsure of what has happened.

Rape and the unprocessed trauma of sexual assault is a major thread in the book; I’m surprised how the blurb of the book completely hides this. April previously dated a guy who raped her twice, and she is still finding it difficult to process it. She didn’t realise it was sexual assault until some time after the incidents, and now she works at a charity organisation where she comes into contact with women all the time who have gone through the same thing she has and are incredibly confused about what they’ve experienced.

April feels like her role at the charity helps women who have experienced what she experienced, but at the same time, it means she is constantly reminded about what happened to her and she feels anxious and uneasy most of the time.

When April is with men, memories from those nights will come back to her and she finds it difficult to confide in other people about how she’s feeling. Under the surface, she has a lot of anger and rage about men that threatens to come to the surface at any moment.

This book may encourage female readers to acknowledge if they’ve ever had an experience like April’s that perhaps they haven’t really processed yet. It’s a really confronting experience, but moulded within a contemporary romance novel.

“What if revenge is good? Do we ever allow ourselves to ask that question? What if turning the other cheek is not the answer? Because I’ll tell you what. I’ve lived my whole life as a girl and I’ve turned so many goddamned cheeks I’m surprised I have any skin left on my face. And yet it’s never once made me feel better. Not like how I feel when I think about Gretel.”

April and her roommate Meghan have pretty solid characterisation — I feel like we’ve all known someone with their personalities in our lives. Their ‘voices’ are also incredibly different, and Holly is able to craft such vivid characters but also portray them to be completely seperate from one another.

April and Meghan are both vulnerable in different ways, and female readers will sympathise. Joshua doesn’t always feel believable or ‘real’ as a man on the dating scene, but he’s a welcome addition to the core cast of characters.

“We launch into mutually drunken conversation, becoming one of those pissed couples you see, standing outside a pub on a summer’s evening, leaning in a bit too much to hear what the other is saying. He asks me about my plans for the summer, and I say I’m saving up for Africa.”

Admittedly, the premise of the book is a little absurd and predictable. How is she going to weave her way out of this relationship when she’s been telling the guy a fake name? How will he explain it to his friends? How awkward is this entire situation!

Readers will find similarities in April — some more than others — but she can also be quite insufferable. She can be a bit tiresome and she doesn’t really think ahead. For example, she spends the majority of the book dating a guy who thinks she’s called Gretel. She invites him to be her +1 at a wedding, and naturally, it left me wondering how she could possibly go the entire evening without something calling her April and giving away her secret? Spoiler alert: many people call her April and her secret is ruined.

Additionally, I did find the book to be a bit ‘preachy’ at times. The messages in the book are already very clear, and I think readers will take a lot away from the story. But there were times where it felt like April was ‘teaching’ the reader and it wasn’t necessary. It made me feel like I was ‘supposed’ to feel a certain way, and I wanted to come to my own conclusions about the situation. I don’t think this is a book for reluctant readers.

Recommended for contemporary romance readers. At over 400 pages, it’s an unexpectedly emotional and heavy novel, but at its core it holds some really valuable messages for readers.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Pretending
Holly Bourne
April 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

The Bad Mothers’ Book Club by Keris Stainton

Meet Emma, the new Mum on the block. Since moving to the Liverpudlian seaside after her husband’s career change, her life consists of the following: long walks on the beach (with the dog), early nights (with the kids) and Netflix (no chill).

Bored and lonely, when Emma is cordially invited to the exclusive cool school-mums’ book club, she thinks her luck may finally be about to change. But she soon finds the women of the club aren’t quite what they seem – and after an unfortunate incident involving red wine and a white carpet, she finds herself unceremoniously kicked out.

The answer? Start her own book club – for bad mothers who just want to drink wine and share stories. But will this town let two book clubs exist? Or is there only room for one queen of the school gates…?

The Bad Mothers’ Book Club is a fun, contemporary fiction by Keris Stainton — it’s about struggling mothers, failing relationships, well-kept secrets, and the difficulties that women face on a day-to-day basis.

Emma is bored and lonely. She’s just moved to a new town, her husband is at a new job and is working really long hours. Emma is left to take care of the kids and the home, and all that comes with it. She doesn’t feel like she belongs in Liverpudlian yet, and on her kids’ first day, she makes an enemy out of the glamorous and popular Jools.

“Emma was early for pick up. She’d walked and made sure to set off in plenty of time; she really didn’t want a repeat of the morning’s chaos. She’d taken Buddy for such a long run that morning that he’d spent the entire afternoon asleep on the sofa in the kitchen.”

The chapters move between different women. There’s Emma, who’s struggling with how different her life has become since moving. There’s Maggie, whose husband Jim is keeping secrets from her and is staying out late each night. And there’s Jools, who is keeping a secret of her own because she wants to feel in control of her life.

All of the women have something to prove, someone or something they’re either fighting for or trying to understand. Readers will be able to relate to all of the women, and even though this is a fun read, there are moments in the book that are emotional and turbulent, and challenging.

“She’d been looking forward to him coming home too. Thought maybe they could have had a glass of wine together and sat at the kitchen table talking about their day, the way they used to in London.”

I’m not sure what to make of the positioning of the book — in particular, the blurb and the overall plot of the story. The bad mothers’ book club? That group is only formed towards the very end of the book, so the entire story doesn’t really have anything to do with that.

I couldn’t help but feel that the story started in the wrong place, that perhaps we spend too much time reading about these women before they form their own book club. I think there could’ve been more tension and conflict built from the bad mothers book club, but it would’ve needed to have been created earlier in the story.

“Maggie drank more tea. It actually was what she’d imagined for herself. Growing up, she’d pictured adulthood as a house and a car and a family that looked exactly like this — almost exactly, there would actually be two kids — and she hadn’t really thought beyond that.”

I recommend this book to readers of romance fiction, and contemporary fiction. It’s light and quick to read — quirky and fun. There’s plenty of heart and humour, and fantastic characters.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Bad Mothers’ Book Club
Keris Stainton
May 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

Louis and Louise by Julie Cohen

ONE LIFE. LIVED TWICE.

Louis and Louise are the same person born in two different lives. They are separated only by the sex announced by the doctor and a final ‘e’.

They have the same best friends, the same red hair, the same dream of being a writer, the same excellent whistle. They both suffer one catastrophic night, with life-changing consequences.

Thirteen years later, they are both coming home.

Louis and Louise by Julie Cohen is a novel about gender and identity, and how a child’s gender can — in some instances — predetermine a life and the path a person will take.

Stylistically, this book will remind you of Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow. In 1978 Casablanca, Maine, Peggy and Irving Alder are getting ready for the birth of their first and only child. In the first chapter, that baby is born a girl and they call her Louise. In the second chapter, that baby is born a boy and they call him Louis. The book then alternates between Louis and Louise and in 2010, they return home to care for their dying mother.

They’re both hiding something. Their lives turned out very different — Louise is a teacher and a single mum who has grown estranged from her mother, and Louis is a successful author whose getting a divorced from his wife. Both of them have unfinished business in Casablanca, and being home is forcing them to confront what they’ve both been running from.

“Lou, driving the rental car, shakes his head. He tries not to think about Benny. Tries not to think about the Casablanca he grew up in, except in dreams where he can’t wake up in time, but the scent of sulphur is enough to set it off again.”

The book is a little confusing at times because the author shortens both characters’ names to ‘Lou’ so when a new chapter starts, it can take a few paragraphs to work out which Lou we’re reading about.

There are lessons to be learnt here, about the expectations of men and career. About family owned businesses and sons taking over the business, even if they don’t want to. It’s about ‘boys will be boys’ and fathers passing on horrible behaviour to their sons.

But the book is also about fate and destiny, and whether we’re destined to make the same mistakes regardless of what gender we are or what job we have, or where we’ve ended up as an adult. Louis and Louise leaves a lot for the reader to ponder.

“Allie’s twin Benny had a grace to him — he was all tanned limbs and muscles — and he was crude, sometimes, but also funny and sharp and unexpectedly kind. He was good-looking, with dark hair and grey eyes like his sister’s. And Benny on the baseball field was something else. Lou went to the games just to watch him.”

This novel is sentimental and at times, and incredibly moving. It shows us how small decisions can have a consequential effect on our lives. The novel also explores forgiveness and mistakes, as Lou is forced to confront people who hurt her/him and never acknowledged their mistakes.

Louis and Louise is about what someone’s life would be like if they’d been born a different gender. It’s entertaining and evocative, perfect for fans of Julie Cohen’s writing. I’d recommend this to contemporary fiction readers, and anyone who is a fan of the dual POV narrative style.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Louis and Louise
Julie Cohen
February 2019
Hachette Book Publishers