Sunday 26 August 2012

Review - Yours Truly by Kirsty Greenwood


Wow!!!  What an amazing, brilliant debut novel from this wonderful author.

Natalie is the daughter of a neurotic mother who doesn't like being left alone, sister of Dionne who is a very attention seeking young lady who loves diamantes and bling and fiancee of handsome and prim and proper Olly who says she is almost perfect.  Need I say more!

Natalie's dream has always been to run a restaurant, but she had to cut short her catering classes to look after her mother.  The wedding has been booked rather quickly so mom and Dionne take charge and book all the things that she would never have chosen herself.  However, because she is so worried about hurting people's feelings she goes through her whole life putting up with things.  

That is until she is dragged along to a night out with her friend Meg, to see Amazing Brian the hypnotist and Meg is really keen to be chosen yet Brian has different plans and actually hypnotises Natalie instead to always tell the truth. 

Now this doesn't sound like it would be a massive problem, but I can assure you it is!  This new way of life of being really honest is causing havoc in her life so she traipses off with Meg to Little Trooley in search of Amazing Brian to get him to stop this charade and return her life to normal.  What she doesn't bargain for is that Brian isn't at home and also the new friends she makes at the village pub and one in particular - a big handsome hunk called Riley! 

I can honestly say that this book was a complete and utter pleasure to read.  Hilarious throughout with moments where I laughed out really loud and snorted at the same time.  Not a pretty picture I can tell you but some bits still make me laugh even later in the day.  Kirsty Greenwood appears to have the same sense of humour as I have, so it fitted really well with me and I read the whole book with a great big smile on my face. 

The character of Natalie was brilliant, really likeable and genuine, and she really didn't want to hurt people's feelings but just couldn't help it!  The chemistry between her and Riley was excellent and sizzled between the pages and they also had such fantastic fun. All the other characters were also wonderfully created, and I found the story line hilarious when she had to tell people the utmost truth when they asked her questions, which became even funnier the more personal the question, so it was a seriously funny plot. The places were fabulously described so that your imagination conjured up vivid pictures of the actual places that were written about.

It ended exactly as I wanted it to and I was really sad not to follow these wonderful characters for longer and would be ecstatic to read a sequel.  It was a book that finished far too soon for my liking as I really could have continued to read it for many more hours and I read it in one sitting because I could not bear to put it down.

I found it incredible that this is Kirsty's first book and I'm sure that in the not too distant future, she will be up at the top of the book charts with people such as Milly Johnson and Carole Matthews.   Wow, what a debut novel to create.  I cannot wait to read more of Kirsty's work and am delighted to hear that she's working on book number two. 

Kirsty Greenwood is a 30 year old writer from Greater Manchester. She's the founding editor of Female Fiction website NOVELICIOUS.COM and drinks far too much tea.

Likes: American telly, flittery book covers, green clothes, roasting potatoes, typography, 60s R&B, singing, Sunday afternoon baths, wine, Beat Sheets, reading in bed, whimsical jewellery and smiley people.

Could Do Without: The Ironside theme tune, the word Drinkie-Poos, things that are frilly, bad coffee.

Kirsty is represented by Hannah Ferguson at The Marsh Agency and is working on her second novel. 


You can like and find out more about Kirsty on facebook

You can follow her on twitter

Her website can be found at www.kirstygreenwood.com
You can buy this book via Amazon UK by clicking this link

NOVELICIOUS.COM

NOVELICIOUS ON FACEBOOK

NOVELICIOUS ON TWITTER

1 comment:

Chris Stovell said...

I loved this feel-good, funny read by one of my faves.