Book Review ‘You Again’ by Kate Goldbeck

First Bit of the Blurb:
Ari – a free-spirited struggling comedian, likes to keep things casual, and never sleeps over after hooking up. Josh, born-and-bread Manhattanite, has ambitious plans to take the culinary world by storm, to find The One and live happily-ever-after.
Me hurrying up the wordy blurb: They meet a series of times and grow from dislike to friends keeping each other company while drowning in the same sea (an analogy used a little in the book.)

My thoughts:
Em, I liked it. It was different to the style I typically read. It was funny (Ari’s a comedian after all) and it does include romantic relationships but it didn’t feel like a typical romcom. The 3^rd act breakup was definitely predictable as it is across 90% of romance books (that’s not a spoiler) but by then you care about their relationship. I was sad at that bit but not totally gutted because I didn’t connect to the characters. It had a sort of Sally Rooney character vibe but without the intentional awkwardness. I found the struggle with their careers refreshing and it doesn’t end with them both being wildly successful which feels comfortable and realistic. Do you know what it is? I like books where the main characters are hot or feel that way or the way the characters are described by the other sounds hot. And these characters are supposed to be non traditionally good looking but there’s a bit that mentions that she doesn’t know if Josh is ‘ugly cute or just ugly’ and swayed by the people illustrations on the front cover, I just don’t fancy him. He’s not supposed to be my type anyway but I usually don’t just feel ‘blah’ about him. The characters are good but I dunno, I like a hot couple or ones that at least describe each other as hot to read about. Spice wise Ari speaks about sex in a sort of comedic laddy way which I did find funny. Then there’s 2 or 3 scenes of full s*x and I’d say that there isn’t even a whole lot of tension. Its fully described but not filthy. I didn’t feel too much for Ari’s friends, I liked Josh’s sister though. As I’m typing this it feels like I’m being a bit unfair, it’s a great book but its not in my top 3 of the year so far I don’t think.

The audiobook was good, not jarring, easy to follow, the voices fit the characters. Happy with it.

‘This is your Reputation phase: messy as fuck, but more interesting than just being successful.’

Recommend for: Those that like less cheesy, more realistic rom coms, that are heading to New York and would love to read more Manhattan based books, are in to the comedy industry or are foodies. If you’d connect with someone who’s life is a bit all over the place but is totally endearing. A lot of people do and would love this.

‘I’m not going to argue with someone who’s great culinary achievement is microwaving a corn dog.’

Let me know if you’ve read it and what you think and DEFINITELY let me know if you’re going to read it and then what you thought of it afterwards.

As mentioned, I want to celebrate books with themed book club nights. I have ideas on the next post of what we can do to celebrate ‘You Again’ with our book club friends.