Piper Nuelle

You ever heard of the ‘Catch Flights, Not Feelings’, meme? I had, but I didn’t know where from or why, until my daughter found this book for me in ‘The Works’, and a suitcase tag fell out of it and said the exact words! It was like a sign! Me and my little family were due to all go on holiday to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and of course I wanted a couple of books to take with me to read by the pool, and well, this one became my holiday book this time around.

The weather in Lanzarote was gorgeous. A brilliant wave of heat that was very much holiday weather and nothing like the weird heat we get and experience in the UK. I began reading this book as soon as my butt hit a lounge chair and my feet dipped in the cooling waters of the bright blue, sea water filled pool.

The story is about Andie, a senior book publicist who takes on a job promoting an author, an author who she happens to have history with, an author who broke her heart and trust a few years prior. The only thing is, this book promotion is not just a quick interview and online campaign, oh no, this is a full book tour for a whole month!!! A whole month with her ex who broke her heart!!!

The story starts with Andie finding out that she has a new author to promote, and she’s pretty much on edge right off the batt when she finds out who the author is, Jack Carlson… Her ex from university. At first she feels like not doing the job, but it could impact her career to not, so she decides to go ahead with it.

The tension in the air between the two of them at first is very hostile, especially from Andie who treats Jack like absolute crap. Weirdly as the story goes on, it seems to come across that Jack is not the big meanie that Andie is making him out to be, he seems shy, calm and collected, not the boogey man.

Andie on the other hand comes across as very hot headed, hostile, and actually very dismissive, and not just with Jack but also her mum and her best friend. Andie seems to be very self-centred and only seems to worry about her own problems, and is not paying close enough attention to the lives of her loved ones around her that actually need her help, support and guidance.

Her life takes a drastic turn when one night she ends up sleeping with Jack again as their emotions cannot be kept under control. This mounds up to be very unprofessional for her career, but as she tries to cry about it to her friends and family they all take a step back and she is left reeling alone.

It is then she gets a giant wakeup call about how she has been treating others and also, herself. And after a heart to heart with Jack it turns out things were not all what they seemed to her when he ‘broke’ her heart at university. This leads her to realise that she needs to spend more time with her mum and getting to know her again, looking after her friend who has had troubles in her relationship but felt she couldn’t talk to Andie as she was pre-occupied with Andie things. That Jack wasn’t the complete asshole she believed and that also her job doesn’t mean everything to her like she thought it did.

As she steps back and re-discovers herself, she opens her heart to those around her and let’s them back in, and ultimately becomes a better person and allows love to enter her heart once more.

I’m going to be honest here, this book is not one of my favourites, but and it’s a big butt… It’s not a bad book. It just didn’t resonate with me and the main character grated on me something rotten, but just because I didn’t find the book overly appealing in the end, doesn’t mean that other people won’t like it and love it.

I found the main character Andie to be unbearable and I found myself getting annoyed and angry with her, especially as you could see and read between the lines when she dismissed her mum and or her friend that they needed her, but she was too selfish to see it. Now, actually if you think about it, that’s probably a good thing, it means the author has done her job, she has portrayed a believable character, and not just your basic everyone loves them character, but one that has flaws, and can be just like a real life annoying friend. But for me I really did find Andie to just be too annoying, especially when you find out what happened between her and Jack at Uni, really if she had listened to him and stepped back to see the bigger picture she may have realised what was going on and that he was also being bullied and his degree threatened, not just her pride. Whilst she done what she did for a good reason, she didn’t consider all the consequences of her actions and what it could mean for her and others involved. Which, just annoyed me to no end.

By the end of the book I was happy to be done with it, and to be done with Andie. The other characters I liked, Jack was sweet, her best friend Sara was so supportive, her mum just wanted some happiness after her husband passing away and her daughter moved across the world and left her alone. I just found her so selfish, it made me mad!!! LOL!!!

I would recommend this book if you like Rom Coms, lovey dovey stories, and so on. But if you want a likeable character… Steer clear of Andie… But the other characters may win your heart, and so for them the book is worth it, but it’s not one I would read again, but its nothing the author has done wrong, I just didn’t like Andie!

I actually like Bianca’s writing style, and I guess I even like how she managed to make me dislike a character and I would read another one of her books in the future. Just because Andie got on my nerves doesn’t mean I wouldn’t read something else by her. And the front cover was very eye catching and colourful, very pink. I liked the cute animations of the characters Andie and Jack on the front and the plane zooming past. I also liked this edition where the pages on the outside, the Fore-Edge had been coloured yellow with a cute plane and a smoke swirl from the plane on it. Very cute and perfect for holiday book snaps! Overall, the author is great, but the book was just ok for me… But you can blame Andie for that!

I hope you liked my review, and let me know have you read this book and what did you think? Take care… xo Piper xo