Good afternoon readers, lunchtime here at work and I am feeling less than happy. I seem to have acquired a rather vicious bout of freshers flu despite no longer being a student and despite giving up alcohol for the month for ‘Go Sober for October.’ I decided to take the Go Sober challenge as part of my 101 things to do in 1001 days as part of a detox that I am taking in my life at the moment. (As a side note if you fancy donating or giving me a golden ticket at the weekend so I can have a couple of bevvies then click here, it would be most appreciated!) Despite this I have been reading and reading and there will be a host of reviews coming out in the next week so keep your eyes peeled! For now though, I bring you Jenny Foster and Counterfeit Super girl.

Do you ever get the feeling that your life needs a little pick me up, but you just don’t know where to start? You may feel alone with these thoughts, but the truth is most people are having a little life crisis on a daily basis. This book is designed to make your re-evaluate what you want out of life, but most importantly it shows you the changes you will need to make in order to turn your daydreams into reality. So embrace all your problems, laugh at your many issues, and turn your back on everything that no longer makes you smile. Just sit back and join me on this ride where together we will slowly tear our old lives apart and rebuild them, brick by happy brick.

On paper this book should have been my cup of tea down to the letter but it fell flat almost from the first page. The writing is bitty and lacks precision; it’s all just a little bit slap dash and hurried. It hurts me to say that the writing style takes the same style my diaries took at the tender age of fifteen. For example ‘Well the exam results are in! 80%…that’s not just a pass, it’s a merit, the highest that one can get. Not that I’m trying to show off, but I literally could not be more proud of myself!!!’ It all is a little immature and it becomes tiresome very quickly. It also makes the main character exceedingly unlikeable as she comes off as ditsy and dim-witted. Maybe a little cruel, but I’ve read a number of books that think that they can take a mindless female with a broken heart looking for the next perfect man to sweep her off her feet and turn it into a storyline. It doesn’t work unless you know where the plot is going and what the character is going to convey to the reader. If you don’t create the strong likeable character with a strong understanding of the emotions you ultimately want the reader to feel then you lose the book into a boggy swamp of clichés and that’s what this book ultimately becomes. I think the main problem that arises is the difficulty of making the reader re-evaluate their life with such a menial character. I understand what the author is attempting to do, but it doesn’t work because of the writing style and the word choices used throughout.

When reading further into the book I wondered whether I had just started the book on the wrong foot and gave it another go from the beginning. It didn’t help but it did help me to write the review. I think the book is hit and miss because the character lacks depth. She needs be strong and determined to pull of the events that are happening without them becoming tedious. I found her incredibly difficult to relate to despite going through a re-evaluation of my life currently and I think it’s because she’s so blase about the state of her life and that we should pick ourselves up and just move on, find a new date and have another go. This left a sour taste in my mouth and I found myself just putting the book down. The book lacked a sense of warmth, and the writing style leads to a very cold read. It didn’t stir my emotions or make me feel anything it just left me feeling rather sorry for myself. Additionally the book needs another edit; the paragraphs are studded with ellipses throughout and it’s just bad grammar, which left me annoyed. Additionally the book didn’t go anywhere really, it kinds of bogs down in her new job and an exhausting number of dates coupled with bouts of ‘sexting.’ This potentially could be funny and heartwarming but because of the lack of strong writing, description, character build up etc etc it falls even flatter.

Overall I really couldn’t find anything to sing about this book, it’s tiring and it left me feeling a little upset. I wonder often whether one day I will give up on the ‘chick-lit’ genre as I cannot remember the last one that really moved me or gave me something to sing about. I think the author needs to sit down and really plan out what they’re trying to do because the only self help it taught me is to not pick up this book again.