‘Delightfully romantic’ ISABELLE BROOM ‘A compelling, quirky love story’ MIRANDA DICKINSON ‘An unconventional romance – real and raw’ ANNA BELL Effie’s not perfect. Neither is Theo. But together, they’re pretty close. Matilda ‘Effie’ Heaton has always felt like she’s swimming against the tide. Everyone around her has life sorted, but Effie’s living with her parents and crying into a wine … with her parents and crying into a wine bottle at night. The only thing she loves is her job at a bookshop, where she can lose herself in other people’s stories.
But then she meets Theo, who knows only too well that life isn’t something to take for granted.
Because Theo has a life-changing secret, and as Effie starts to realise that she’s falling in love instead of falling apart, fate steps in and deals her a new hand. And this time, the stakes are high.
A gorgeous, heart-breaking read for fans of Jojo Moyes and Gail Honeyman.
What readers are saying about Very Nearly Normal…
‘I haven’t been able to put it down …a rollercoaster of emotions’ ***** Reader Review
‘I loved it from page one and every page after that I loved it more’ ***** Reader Review
‘Made me laugh and smile, but also cry for the real struggles Effie and Theo faced’ ***** Reader Review
‘Life-affirming, funny and relatable. A twist I didn’t see coming’ ***** Reader Review
more
Intriguing. Effie is a major alcoholic cry baby and complainer Wanna be writer who knows the universe is out to make Her life absolutely miserable. She knows this so completely that she is like a viper waiting to strike anyone who comes near her orbit.
Enter Theo who is immune to Effie’s bite and venom. She finally starts to see the misery is her own doing, not everyone else’s when tragedy strikes.
I love the growth of Effie’s character and her self doubts are on point. Well done Hannah Sunderland. Please keep writing
This book made me laugh out loud and gasp with heart break. Such wonderful characters and so much love between them. I felt so sorry for Effie in the beginning but cheered for her as she pulled herself up. A great book to read!
Just to relax and read – it is perfect. Great literature, not really; but who doesn’t just need to escape sometimes? : )
Effie Heaton is barely getting through life. In her late 20’s, preferring wine over almost anything else, and still living at home with a mom who doesn’t understand her it seems like everyone else’s life is just fantastic, Instagram perfect. When a Tinder date goes terribly wrong before it’s even really gotten started she meets Theo. He seems too good to be real, handsome, charming and for some reason, despite all of her flaws, attracted to her, but Theo has a huge secret.
What a rollercoaster. Very Nearly Normal is a beautiful tale of growth and discovery, while we do spend a good amount of time with Theo and Effie, it’s more about Effie learning to take control of her life, making it what she wants and finding happiness. I loved watching Effie grow and learn to stand on her own, I felt like she was relatable on some levels, and that the mental health aspects of the story were accurately portrayed. This is a great book, it has humor, compassion, forgiveness, and a small twist at the end. Definitely recommend.
3.5
This is the first book that I’ve read by this author and I didn’t know what to expect.
Matilda or Effie as she likes to be called. She feels like she is lagging behind everyone else. That everyone else has there life sorted and she doesn’t. Effie still lives at home with her parents at the moment and really loves her job in the bookstore. The bookstore is the only place she feels like she can connect with people and there lives. She feels like she is abit I’d a failure at times to.
Theo comes into her life it seems at just the right time and is just what she needs it seems. He helps her alot and is a real great guy who really cares and supports her when she needs it.
However Theo has a secret and he desperately doesn’t want her to know about it.
Effie stars to have really strong feelings for Theo and seems to need to rely on him alot when they are together, she does have alot of negativity inside of her though to.
Can there two broken souls help and heal each other?
(NO SPOILERS).
This book has humour in parts and has heart break and pain and some emotional parts inside to. This book does deal with some big issues and I feel like this author written those parts awesome.
This character goes on a journey of self discovery and growth and throughout this book you can see how this author has written this journey through.
This book is quite relatable in parts and written in away the reader can relate to.
I felt like the story was alittle slow in parts and a tad predictable like I knew exactly what was going to happen. But this author has written great and I really liked the side characters in this book to.
Thank you to the author and publishers for allowing me to read an early copy of this book.
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
This book is expected to be released 14th May 2020.
Very Nearly Normal by Hannah Sunderland a fulfilling five-star read. Just because its two broken people doesn’t make it right, this was a great story and I gave it five-stars but it didn’t always deserve it, there were bits that didn’t feel authentic and did drag a little but honestly overall it was very good. One main thing I will say about this story is when you start it if you find Effie to be someone that you cant abide keep reading, as she may not become someone you care about, but she will become someone that you can get behind. This is a story that will make you smile, it has some of the best one liners I have read for a long time.