Helllllo readers, hope you’re well. I’m currently going through a quarter-life crisis which my best friend Dan says it utterly normal; he’s on his second. I feel like a real-life Bridget Jones I have no idea what I’m doing in my life or what I want to do or anything. Gah, I feel like a cliché but how do people get to stages in their lives where they know what they’re doing? Or do you just never get there. I loved this book but it fell a little close to home, either way a brilliant book to read over a glass of wine or two.

A smart, irreverent slant on modern dating, Kate Michaels’ sexy, laugh-out-loud debut reimagines the world of Sex And The City with the biting realism of Lena Dunham’s Girls.

Twenty-nine-year-old Jess wakes up on New Year’s Day a touch hungover and a whole lot confused. The man in bed next to her is not her boyfriend, Ben. In fact, she doesn’t even remember Not-Ben’s name. It won’t be the first time she finds herself in a questionable situation in a year that proves her new single-in-the-city lifestyle is far from the glamorous, Sex And The City world she’s been promised on TV. Between hacking through last year’s leg hair, accidentally snogging someone who may well be her cousin, getting hit over the head with a sex toy that isn’t even hers, and ending the night with a walk of shame into her parent’s garage, Jess’s single life is turning out more cockroaches than cocktails.

The Morning After Memoirs is the story of one woman’s search for love, meaning, and a low-calorie alternative to wine. The Morning After Memoirs is a story essentially about Jess and her drunken antics.

I thought this book was a hell of a lot of fun – it’s one of those books that you can just dive into, have a good giggle over and relate so easily to the humour and the comedy feels. As the blurb suggests the book follows Jess as she struggles through a terrifying break-up with Ben. Moving on from the terrible event eating a Chinese for two in front of an exercise DVD we watch Jess in her newly single life and find that it’s not so much fun. Leg hair, fat jeans, a sex toy or two and her new neighbour it’s going to be a little nuts to say the least.

I immediately fell for Jess, probably because she reminds me so much of myself unfortunately; I loved the way that she named the people around her – Not-Ben, Tweedledum and Tweedledumber, Hot Waiter Number Two to name a few.) I wouldn’t say she’s a lot like Carrie Bradshaw, more a Bridget Jones character but that doesn’t make her any less amusing. She’s just like us; she eats, drinks, swears too much and gets herself in some seriously amusing situations. The book starts and ends at consecutive New Years so we get a whole year in the life of Jess. I also thought the fact that every time a new potential suitor is introduced he gets his own mini bio – Chris – 5ft 8″, brown eyes, likes pugs was really lovely. It just added a special touch.

In terms of wobbles it didn’t have a big story line – it is very much a look at the life of a woman working and living in London. For me there wasn’t a hell of a lot more than that to a point. There is a lot of narration but just not quite enough action for me as a completed story and I struggled with that because it feel at times that things were being repeated just to get to a certain length of book. I also thought that relationship with Ben, after four years just kind of stopped. Apart from a couple of weeks where we see her lose herself she kind pulls it back together.

However, the writing is witty and fun, it shows a lot of style and I enjoyed the characters that were well built up throughout; even the supporting character got enough time in the spotlight and that helped to add depth to the book as a whole. For me  I would have enjoyed a more substantial plot line but overall a very fun and interesting read.

Linnnnks

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