JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Remind Me How This Ends by Gabrielle Tozer

It’s the summer after high school ends and everyone is moving on. Winning scholarships. Heading to uni. Travelling the world. Everyone except Milo Dark. Milo feels his life is stuck on pause.

His girlfriend is 200km away, his mates have bailed for bigger things and he is convinced he’s missed the memo reminding him to plan the rest of his life. Then Layla Montgomery barrels back into his world after five years without so much as a text message. As kids, Milo and Layla were family friends who shared everything. But they haven’t spoken since her mum’s funeral.

What begins as innocent banter between Milo and Layla soon draws them into a tangled mess with a guarantee that someone will get hurt. While it’s a summer they’ll never forget, is it one they want to remember?

I once read an article about how most people go one of two ways after school or university. They either take off, travel, see the world and disappear for a while, eventually returning home to settle down. Or they immediately settle into a career and a relationship and they leave the nomad travelling life until a lot later down the track. In this article, the writer argues that no matter which path you take, there’ll be some point in your life where you wonder if that’s what you were supposed to do. What would my life have been like if I did X instead? What if I went travelling? What if I went to uni straight away and didn’t travel and then got a job a lot sooner?

Life is full of what if questions. And when you’re 17/18 and finishing school, it can be impossible to know what you want to do for the rest of your life. Some people know straight away, diving headfirst into a uni degree or a job and they’re content that they’ve picked the right thing. But some don’t know, and some people take a lot longer to figure it out than others.

Remind Me How This Ends illustrates that there’s nothing wrong with waiting — taking some time to figure out your next move. Milo grew up in Durnan, a small town six hours away from Sydney. He’s graduated high school but he’s not sure yet what he wants to do in life. Does he want to study? Does he want to travel? His father is pressuring him to sort his life out, but he’s not entirely sure how to do that. His high school girlfriend, Sal, has moved away to university in Canberra and is having the time of her life. Sal knows what she wants to do, and the longer she’s away, the more it seems like Milo doesn’t fit into that life.

“That’s the thing. Everyone else is doing stuff. Real stuff. The sort of stuff you can brag about. Studying law and accounting and nursing and actuarial science. I don’t even what that is, but it sounds hard core.”
-MILO

On the other hand, we have Layla, who grew up in Durnan too but who hasn’t been back for a few years. Five years earlier, her mother died suddenly and Layla and her father left town. They moved from place to place and Layla never really had the opportunity to mourn her mother’s death or confront her feelings about the loss. And when she returns home to Durnan, she runs into Milo and their lives intersect.

They reconnect their friendship, building it back up again with trust and respect and understanding. There’s also plenty of banter and hilarity and adventure. For both of them, they are no longer alone. And together, they overcome the doubts and worries that have been plaguing them for some time now.

“We left most of our belongings behind for removalists to move into storage later, only taking what fitted into the car. Turns out there’s only so much of a life you can fit in the car. As we left town, Dad told me he couldn’t stand one more night in the house where she’d lived. There were too many memories trapped within those walls.”
-LAYLA

This book is beautiful. It’s sweet and funny, but also heartbreaking and wonderful. The writing is effortless, lyrical and poetic, and the characters are fully fleshed out and so very real. For anyone who has approached the end of school and thought, ‘well what am I supposed to do now?’ then this book is for you. For anyone who is working in a professional environment and suddenly realises that they don’t like what they do and they need a change, then you’ll love this book. That’s the great thing about Remind Me How This Ends. It may be a young adult novel, but the experiences in the book are universal. People can feel lost at any age, not just in those teenage years.

There is also another element to this novel worth mentioning. Remind Me How This Ends explores grief, with Layla struggling to even visit her mother’s grave, let alone talk about her. She’s lost the connection with her father, and she’s avoiding the fact that he has a new woman in his life. For many readers, they might understand what Layla is going through.

“I close my eyes and try to pinpoint what Mum would want me to do. If I can’t be with her, then I have to think like her.”
-LAYLA

There are a lot of teenagers in society who have a really tough life. They might have had a tough childhood, or their parents might be split up. Perhaps they’re an orphan or one of their parents have died. It’s nice to read a young adult novel that allows those readers to feel like they’re not alone. They can read this and feel okay that perhaps they haven’t yet dealt with their emotions or feelings. It takes time, and Milo and Layla are both in need of a little time.

Remind Me How This Ends
Gabrielle Tozer
April 2017
HarperCollins Publishers

It’s Not Me, It’s You by Mhairi McFarlane

It’s Not Me, It’s You is a hilarious romance/chick lit novel from Mhairi McFarlane, author of Who’s That Girl?

Delia Moss isn’t quite sure what went wrong. She proposes to her boyfriend, he says yes and then he accidentally sends a message to Delia that he intended to send to his mistress. So, their relationship ends, and she needs a change. She moves to Newcastle for a PR job and lives with her best friend in the meantime. And of course, there’s a handsome journalist on the prowl threatening to expose her new boss and Delia tries to singlehandedly fend him off. All in all, this book is a jam-packed, hilarious recipe for a great romance read.

“Uncovering an affair wasn’t a one big fact headline story. It was like Metroyshka dolls, lies inside lies inside lies.”

This book is smart and funny, with characters you fall in love with and hilarious mishaps that you want to relive. Mhairi McFarlane has written another novel with comic romance and a dreamy love interest. The dialogue is witty and sarcastic and the book is laugh-out-loud funny.

“Ann’s policing of the office fridge was frightening. Despite being post-menopausal, she decanted her semi-skimmed into a plain container and labelled it ‘BREAST MILK’ to ward off thieves.”

There’s something in this book that I’m sure all readers can relate to – what do you do when the rug gets pulled out from under you? This is for all readers who’ve been suddenly dumped, or fired, or evicted. It’s for those of us who may need a little escape from the world right now – something to laugh at and giggle over. The characters are three dimensional and real, and the situations realistic.

“One night with you and he’s turned into a love-letter writer. You must have an incredible pelvic floor.”

I found my attention dropping off in the middle of the book. I felt like the book was about 100 pages too long and I couldn’t see where the story was going. The romance interested me and I persevered in order to find out what happens, but the storyline with Delia’s PR job and its complications are perhaps not strong enough to keep the ‘occasional reader’ interested. I soldiered on because it’s Mhairi McFarlane and I knew it’d have a satisfying conclusion, but I it was a real effort during those middle chapters.

It’s Not Me, It’s You is about picking yourself up after some hardships. It’s about taking that necessary time out to figure out what you really want and what you really need, and then going for it. It may take Delia a while to figure that out, but she does, and it’s uplifting and enjoyable for the reader.

I recommend this book to romantic fiction lovers, and to fans of chick lit. This is a feel-good book full of hilarity and heart. It’s one of those stories where you know it’s going to end up alright, like a Disney movie or a Hollywood rom-com.

It’s Not Me, It’s You
Mhairi McFarlane
November 2014
HarperCollins Publishers

Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane

What’s the one thing you DON’T do at a wedding? Kiss the groom!

What a gloriously enjoyable story with a dash of Bridget Jones and a pinch of a Hugh Grant rom com.

Edie is secretly in love with her colleague Jack, and they’re caught kissing at his wedding. She’s distraught, confused, humiliated, and she escapes back home to Nottingham to escape all of the online hatred towards her. She can’t go back to work because Jack’s wife – who has forgiven Jack – also works there, and Edie is in the minority. She’s shunned and her boss forces her to work out of the office.

Jack keeps on going with his life claiming innocence, because Edie is apparently the only person to blame for the kiss. To take her mind off the situation, Edie takes a job as a ghost-writer on an autobiography for hot new acting talent, Elliot Owen.

This book is witty, creative, unique and hilarious. The dialogue between Edie and her family is thoroughly enjoyable, and the budding romance between her and Elliot is wonderful. It is only after Edie spends time bonding with her family and overcoming any issues they have that Edie comes to understand who she is and what she wants. She grows a backbone, understands what her feelings for her colleague are, and she begins to stand up for herself. Edie comes to know what she is worth and evolves over the course of the novel.

Mhairi illustrates the effects of gossip and social media and how it affects people, but she also uses Edie’s mistakes to illustrate her need to discover her own identity. Edie needs to return to her roots to pull herself together and grow and mature. She is vulnerable, kind, bold and hilarious, and she is a fantastic protagonist. The romance between her and Elliot was subtle but also enjoyable.

Who’s that Girl is a long novel, but a rewarding one. It’s light-hearted but has moments of heartbreak and seriousness, but those moments are reprieved with a quick pace and unique plot points and sarcastic remarks between characters.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes


Me Before You is a heartbreaking novel and the cause of devastated readers everywhere. There’s no doubt that the film adaptation, which is being released this month, will leave viewers feeling the same way.

The protagonist of this novel is Lou Clark, who is confident, sassy, bold and very knowledgeable. She has lived in the same small town her whole life and has rarely travelled, and that has worked out well for her. But when she loses her job and when it becomes increasingly obvious to her that she is no longer in love with her boyfriend Patrick, she becomes a little lost. And then she takes up a new job caring for Will Traynor, a paraplegic whose motorcycle accident took away his desire to live.

This book is devastating, not just because of Will’s accident and the difficult time that he’s having with his disability, but because of how Will’s accident has affected his family and his friends and how his disability affects his relationship with Lou.

Me Before You is a slow burner. You get snippets of Will Traynor for the first half of the book but you are overloaded with Lou’s life – her boyfriend, her parents, her sister, her career, and the expectations that her family put on her to help them survive with the little money that they are all earning. She’s lost but she doesn’t realise it. She’s unhappy but she masks it.

And then, halfway through the novel, Lou and Will’s characters start to blend. Their characters begin to understand more about themselves. They both grow and adapt to their situation. Lou distracts herself by being determined to turn Will’s life around, but the reader becomes increasingly aware that Will won’t change. He won’t make the most of his situation and that’s not because he doesn’t want to, but because he can’t. It’s not who he is. He used to love adventure and travel – the opposite of Lou – and she can’t convince him that he still has a life worth living.

They both learn from each other and they both grow as characters. And chapter by chapter, the reader comes to understand their motivations, fears, worries and their doubts simply by how they interact. And the closer Lou and Will get, the clearer it becomes that even though they’re well suited for each other, Will’s permanent disability will stop anything from eventuating.

I highly recommend this book. Yes, it’s sad. But Lou is a wonderful character and she propels the story forward with her wit and her charm and her light. She makes for a great story, and during those brief moments in the story where there is hope and optimism, it’s enjoyable and rewarding for the reader.