It is hard to be an author with a tremendously successful first novel because that is all anyone expects. This was a good book in its own right, definitely different and shows the author's ability to switch it up.

Having not read the author's previous book THE ROSIE PROJECT I had no expectations for this book. The musical references drew me to this novel and are the only aspect of the book that kept me interested.

The book started well but lost me mid way through, I did not embrace the characters or the story; the story follows a young man who falls deeply in love with an actress, years later after not hearing from her for years she sends him an email and he wants to rekindle their romance though they are both currently married.

Nothing happened, characters didn't grow, all very one-dimensional. I will give the author another chance even though this book fell flat for me, mostly because of the musical references.

Adam Sharp is in a ho-hum relationship with Claire, his live-in girlfriend for over a decade. He’s doing okay, but he’s also bored, overweight, and feeling lonely. Life gets a little brighter, though, when Adam’s ex-lover, famous actress Angelina Brown, sends him an email with just one little word: hi. Suddenly Adam doesn’t feel so glum. As Claire works longer hours at her hectic job, Adam finds himself more and more captivated by Angelina. He can’t help but wonder what his life would have been like had he just had the cojones to lock it down with her way back when. Lucky for him, he might get a second chance to see what could have been.

Oh dear Lord, I hated this book. It’s one of the worst books I’ve read in a while. Don’t get me wrong: the writing is fine, and I have to admit that I was always curious to know what was going to happen next. But I loathed the main female character. (MINOR SPOILER ALERT…) I don’t want to give the story away, but Adam’s interactions with this woman later on in the novel are beyond annoying and madonna-whore cliche: “Oh, Adam, I’m just so nervous in front of you…EXCEPT WHEN I’M RIDING YOU REVERSE COWGIRL WHILE MAKING EYE CONTACT WITH THIS OTHER DUDE WHO IS WATCHING US HAVE CRAZY WILD PERFECTO SEX!!!” I mean, what?! And it goes on like this for hundreds of pages.

The shy little sex kitten angle is shallow and lazy. Women are sexual creatures, we are. But we can be sexual creatures who have brains and who also know who we are and what we want. I hated that some of the female characters in this book were so dumb and fake innocent and always TAKEN WITH THEIR MEN, SWOON. Ugh. Just, no.

And the men are ridiculous, too, by the way–always in complete emotional control and quick with the cool one-liners. Even when they’re scoundrels, somehow they come off as saints. It’s nauseating. I think I may have legit pulled my eye muscle after all the involuntary eye-rolls I experienced.

I’ve never read any of this author’s other books, but I know that The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect were bestsellers. I can accept that maybe Graeme Simsion has a huge following by a target audience who loves his work…but yikes, I am not a part of that group. My two cents: do yourself a solid, and skip the hell out of this one.

This book was not at all what I was expecting, though it was an interesting look at the choices we make and how they change our lives and the lives of those around us. Simsion questions whether we can go back or not, and while the journey to that answer is sometimes uncomfortable and sometimes heartbreaking, I think I was satisfied with the ultimate answer. I'm not a huge music person, but I can definitely see how a music buff of a certain time period would especially appreciate this novel. Adam Sharp is definitely not a character as captivating and lovable as Don Tillman, but Simsion's engaging writing style still pulled me along in a story about a person I wouldn't normally relate to (basically a man with a midlife crisis). So bravo for that.

Adam Sharp is an IT consultant approaching his 50th birthday. He earns decent money, has a house, as much work as he needs and is a fixture on the local pub-quiz scene (specialist subject probably pre-eighties music). But he has worries, he’s not as fit as once was, his mother is getting frail in her old age and his marriage could be described as amicable at best. This situation could have been enough for Adam if, out of the blue, an email from an old flame hadn’t reminded him of the heady days of his youth when he fell in love with an Australian actress, played piano in a bar for tips but turned his back on that life when his IT job demanded he move on.

The novel shows us how that relationship played out twenty odd years ago, and how it ended. We also see Adam’s rather staid relationship with his wife, Claire, and the rather more unusual one, in the present day, between the actress, Angelina, and her husband Charlie. Although these relationships are at the heart of the story for me the main point of the book was Adam’s gradual acceptance of the fact that he was a real adult. As a young man of 26 he was torn between what appeared to be the love of his life and the need to establish himself in his chosen career. At 50 his decisions will affect more people than just himself – he has to be the grown-up he thought he already was twenty years ago.

There is a lot of music in the book – like all ‘best of…’ albums it highlights moments of the characters lives with songs – mostly from the 60s and 70s. I was good with most of the pop and rock songs although I’ll admit to not knowing quite a few of the more jazzy tracks. So as well as giving me a story I enjoyed Simsion is adding to my ongoing musical education…

Nostalgia, middle-aged crisis, boredom with the status quo - - and a longing for the passion of youth. All these factors were present in this very enjoyably readable book. Adam has never quite gotten over 'the one who got away'. Most everyone has one of those, right? But how many people have the chance to perhaps rewrite history and recapture that magic? This is the premise of the book and the results are up for grabs throughout. I especially enjoyed the songs that were sprinkled throughout - - had me humming and singing along as I read.

THE BEST OF ADAM SHARP by Graeme Simsion was not quite as funny or engaging as his earlier works, The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect. If you have not yet read those titles, do so. Sadly, this latest offering lacks humor and charm, focusing instead on adultery and marital infidelity.

Earlier review of Simsion's work: http://treviansbookit.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-rosie-effect-by-graeme-simsion.html

For reasons unknown this book wasn't on my radar when it was released in Australia in 2016. Like many I'd loved Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project, but was not quite as enamoured with the sequel, The Rosie Effect.

It wasn't until I mentioned I had an electronic copy of this book that a friend commented that she'd read it last year. And she wasn't a fan, which made me a tad reticent. As it happens, I can understand her antipathy but enjoyed elements of the book nonetheless...

There's something I really enjoy about Simsion's writing. He's able to invoke a warmth or sense of familiarity which reels me in. And it's not just the tone, but something about his conversational first-person prose that make us stop and listen. (Well, read.)

And I very much enjoyed the first half of this book which mostly unfolds 22 years earlier but is written in the present.

I know the old 'lost love' or 'unrequited love' thing can be a bit cliched.... and Simsion, through Adam talks about reconnecting with school friends at a reunion and the fact these girls who once thought they were too good for him at school, are divorcees / again-single women who (now) seem enough to start something, which is something I hear about quite often.

So I kinda got the whole 'what if' element of this book - although it's interesting that we're later reminded that our memories can be very selective. And I have experience with someone I'd hyped up in my memories who wasn't the person I'd thought when we caught up at a later date.

I could also relate to Adam... who in the now, is living the dream: working part-time, supporting his mum, spending time with his partner and listening to music. "I had asked myself what I wanted from life, what sort of lifestyle," he says. Until something (or someone) forces us to question that.

For me this book turned a little once Adam heads to France to spend time with Angelina and her husband Charlie which was all a little far-fetched. The book moved from something offering a message, to something a bit farcical. And it annoyed me.

However... the book was not a total disappointment as I was reminded of Simsion's talent as a storyteller and writer.

Music lovers will adore the constant references to music and bands throughout the book (which includes 3-4 pages of musical references at the end). Adam's passion - one inherited from his father - is a love of music (and piano) and interestingly he doesn't see it as a vocation. (Something this wanna-be writer found interesting.)

The young Angelina suggested Adam not pursuing music (as a profession) was a sign of his inability to take risks. He didn't.

"I don't want to be a full-time musician. I get to play piano all I want. If I played piano all the time I'd probably get bored with it. The way it is now, I love it. Is there a problem with that?" pp 72-73

Although I was reeled in by our characters, the plot and Simsion's writing in the early stages of this book, I was really left with only the latter by the time it reached its conclusion... it was still - however - worth the read for that and some of the underlying reminders of the way we look upon our earlier years as middle and old age come upon us.

"These days I was taking more from my bank of memories than I was putting in.

The day might come when I had nothing but memories, and the choice of whether to indulge my romantic side and wallow in them, or my cynical side and reflect on their reliability." p 2

Started flat and stayed that way for the next one hundred pages where I eventually gave up and put the book down.

When I found out that Graeme Simsion had written another book that was not one of his ‘Rosie books’ (The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect) I wanted to see what it was about! The description of The Best of Adam Sharp had me interested in reading it. I found out that music is mentioned throughout the novel. That was a plus as well!

The book begins in present day where Adam Sharp is living with his partner Claire for twenty years. They are just going through the ‘swing of things’ with nothing much going on in their lives or with each other. Then out of the blue Adam gets an email from his old flame Angelina that is just one word: “Hi”. He decides to return the email and they begin to correspond. It eventually leads to Skype and then Angelina suggests that they meet up for a week; yes, she is married and her husband will be there too.

The novel goes back in time to the 1980s when Adam and Angelina first meet. We get to experience their affair back then which is necessary with the course of the novel.

This is all I will mention about the plot. The Best of Adam Sharp is about life, relationships, and music. Should the past be left in the past or is the chance to see ‘the one that got away’ again going to be worth it? What or who does Adam want?

I loved all the music that was referenced in the novel. I did not know all of the music as it goes as far back as the 1960s. For reference there is a play list of the songs at the end of the novel.

Unfortunately, there was a lot I did not like about the novel. I did not like the fact that Adam kept conversing with Angelina without telling Claire and there was a lot of flirtation going on. As I was reading I wanted to tell him to stop temptation. The characters were also not that likeable for me. I was curious what was going to happen so I kept reading. Then at 60% into the novel it went in a direction that I was not expecting and certainly did not want to read. It became a little bit risqué and controversial for me. I kept reading to see how it would end, and around 90% it got better for me. Though I felt indifferent with the characters, I could ultimately agree with the ending.

The novel is well written, but overall it was not for me.

The Best of Adam Sharp is very different from The Rosie Project. Do not go into Adam Sharp expecting the same kind of book or you will be very disappointed.

**I received an e-arc from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley. Thank you for my copy!

I wanted to read The Best of Adam Sharp for a few reasons. The biggest was because of how much I loved The Rosie Project, by the same author. The other reason was the description. The music aspect of this book intrigued me. Music is a big part of my life, and I am the type of person where many memories are associated with certain songs.

When we meet Adam Sharp, he’s in a bit of a funk. He and his wife are more friends than lovers, and he has lost his motivation for his work and his music. One day he gets an unexpected (one-word) email from Angelina, who he hasn’t seen or spoken to in over twenty years. Hi. This simple email from his old girlfriend gets Adam wondering – did he make the right decision all those years ago? If he didn’t, can he fix things now?

The book looks at an interesting question – can you reclaim what you’ve lost? Twenty years later, can you go back? Do you want to go back? Did things end the way they were supposed to? If not, can you fix it? Or do you like where your life ended up? (I guess that is a lot of questions. But all part of the same theme.)

I have mixed feelings on this book. I wanted to like both Adam and Angelina, but honestly by the end I found them unlikeable. Having said that, I still did enjoy the story. I especially liked the way Mr. Simsion wrote the first part, weaving Adam’s recollection of his long-lost summer romance into the drudge of his current everyday life. And I enjoyed the piece that music played. Mr. Simsion even includes a playlist at the end listing the songs featured in the story.

Overall it was a good read; funny at times with an interesting premise and full of great music.

The book tells in first person the love dilemmas of Adam, a 49 year old English man who is experiencing a crisis in his marriage and thanks to this crisis and an email he received with a simple Hi, he begins to remember the best three months of his life when he met in Australia what he calls The Great Love of his Life, the young actress Angelina. They lived a passion overwhelming in their youth and Adam never recovered nor move on cause this girl.

So far it seems okay, plus a love of youth that did not work, but following with his narrrative Adam reveals to me a weak man who decidedly did not know how to fight for whom he loved and I still say he took advantage of the vulnerability and fragility of Angelina. He loved her but believed that he was not enough for her and he kept waiting for her to take the initiative of something more serious and concrete, since she had just gotten out of a relationship with a guy who only diminished and despised her.

The book switches to the present and past til half of it and then staying in the present at the moment Adam needs to define his life and demonstrate for the first time what he wants from the future.
I confess that if I knew that the book would be about impossible love, I would not have taken to reading because I always get very shaken with this type of reading so much that in 47% of the book I already had a strong hangover. Worse still was to realize at the end that the book was inspired in a sort of way in Casablanca, film that left me devastated for months.

Lucky me that the writer knew how to create the suspense of how this love story would end and also put together a beautiful plot between Angelina and Adam all dialogued by beautiful and great songs, because otherwise I really do not know if I would have risked reading it until the end.

I reached the end without knowing why the two could not be together at present either in the past and I got confused enough in some moments .
Conclusion ..... the book is an adult-themed book that shows how well the human mind is complex and consequently how relationships are complicated.

3/5 stars.

The Best of Adam Sharp is a look at the past and present of a young man who meets the love of his life while on an around the world work assignment. It is the classic romanticizing of one's youth and the what if's of a first love. The writing is witty and intelligent. Mr. Simsion heavily sprinkles songs throughout the entire book that illustrate the emotions in the story. Luckily, he has a deft hand and the treatment comes across as clever but not overbearing. I got most of the song references and spent the time while reading the book with one mentioned tune or another winding its way through my head. In contrast, there was a good chunk of wine talk and that all went over my head. For a majority of the book, I would have happily given the story 5 stars, but at one point the story seems to go off on an uncomfortable kilter and I started shaking my head in confusion at the characters' behaviour. Mr. Simsion tries to explain/justify it but I was unable to come to terms with it. However, this wasn't enough to put me off the book.

I received this ARC, with thanks, from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Those looking for a reprisal of the Rosie story are not going to find it here. But, they will find the writing style familiar and might be intrigued by the subject matter.

This opens with Adam and Claire living a very comfortable life until Adam gets an email from an ex-lover. The first part of the story brings the reader up to speed on the significance of the past relationship, juxtaposed against the current state of Adam and Claire relationship. The opening third of this book moves along quite well with many, many musical references that will make you want to read with your computer nearby to pause and listen to the songs mentioned. Then, the story slows a bit and if it hadn't been for this slowdown, I might have given the full 4-stars.

The second part introduces another key character, Charlie, and a new dynamic to the story. Charlie's introduction breathes new life to the story and from that point forward, I was an interested reader again.

This story deals with lost loves, second chances, mistakes, forgiveness, guilt, love triangles, infidelity and surprise, a risqué sex scene. I'm glad that I took the chance with this and I've grown to appreciate the author more with the reading.

Adam Sharp is just an ordinary man turning fifty with a relatively ordinary life when a blast from the past makes him question everything. Angelina Brown will always be the one that got away for Adam all those years ago, so when he receives an email from her almost twenty years later, he is shocked and very interested in how her life has turned out for her. With an unexpected invitation to visit Angelina and her family, Adam starts down a dangerous path as the memories from their past flare back to life. And all of this action is set alongside a musical backdrop that will make music lovers everywhere smile.

THE BEST OF ADAM SHARP by Graeme Simsion is a hard one for me to review as I did enjoy the pace, the plot, and the overall novel, but yet there was something just missing for me. I liked the characters and their story but I didn't really connect with them on any deep or emotional level. At times when I felt I should be in tears, it just didn't evoke that level of feeling from me, and I want to feel that when I read a book. I want to care about what is happening. Overall I found it an entertaining read but it just missed the mark for me.

This one was okay, but not even in the same ballpark as the Rosie books. Adam is a man who is almost fifty, in a romantic relationship that is leaving him somewhat wanting, and reminiscing about the girl he feels was his true love. This lost love, Angelina, gets in touch with Adam out of the blue after twenty-two years and invites him to stay with she and her husband at their French vacation home. What follows is a very strange few days where Adam and Angelina spend time together and have a chance to decide if they have followed the right paths for the last twenty-two years, and where they go from here.

I thought the characters in this one were kind of, "meh," as well as the storyline. It wasn't bad, just not anything special.

Can this book be appreciated without a knowledge of pop music from the last 6 decades? I’m guessing no, as this book mentions so many songs it's like it has its own background music constantly playing along. I knew every song but one, so it wasn’t a problem for me.

Adam Sharp had a three month romance with a crime story actress 22 years ago when in Australia on a consulting gig. Now, out of the blue, he receives an email from her. Just one word “hi”. From there, we go on to flashbacks of the romance.

There are some fun scenes, like Christmas with Angelina’s parents. But mostly, this is a sad sort of book, especially as it moves to the present. There are some deep thoughts here, like what constitutes an affair or a happy relationship. My initial impression was that Adam seems to never be willing to try very hard for either of his relationships. He just sort of drifts along; so he wasn't the sort of character I could relate to or even particularly like. In fact, I couldn't figure out what to make of any of the characters. Things happen in this book that I can’t see many people accepting or going along with.

Anyone expecting the lightheartedness of The Rosie novels will be disappointed here. This is a very different book from those two.

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this novel.

Wonderfully unique with Music playing every part a character as the protagonist himself. Simsion has done it again bringing us a flawed and desperately likeable man, almost as memorable as Don Tillman. You will read this one in as close to one setting as you can manage, trying to keep your heart from commanding what should, (or perhaps certainly shouldn't!) happen next. Enjoy.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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If my life prior to February 15, 2012, had been a song, it might have been “Hey Jude,” a simple piano tune, taking my sad and sorry adolescence and making it better. In the middle, it would pick up—better and better— for a few moments foreshadowing something extraordinary. And then: just na-na-na-na, over and over, pleasant enough, but mainly because it evoked what had gone before.


That's the first paragraph, and I'm betting 80% of reviewers will be quoting that -- how can you not? You get a sense of Adam, his musical taste, how much music means to him/the way he thinks -- and you get the novel's mood. In the next few pages, you get an idea what Adam's life is like in February 2012 -- his relationship, his relationship with his mother, the nostalgia (and maybe more) he feels towards a country he lived in while he was young and his first great (greatest?) love.

Then we end the introduction with this paragraph that pushes us into the novel:

No matter now. I would soon have more immediate matters to occupy my mind. Later that day, as I continued my engagement with the past, scouring the Internet for music trivia in the hope of a moment of appreciation at the pub quiz, a cosmic DJ—perhaps the ghost of my father—would lift the needle on the na-na-na-nas of “Hey Jude,”say, “Nothing new happening here,”and turn it to the flip side.

“Revolution.”


On the flip side is an email from The One Who Got Away ("got" isn't necessarily the best term -- "slipped away", "blindly walked away from", "made the greatest mistake of your life with" -- come closer). Angelina was a night-time soap actress that Adam had an affair with while he lived in Australia while working on a contract job in 1989. Over the next couple of chapters Adam reminisces about his time with Angelina -- it's a heckuva love story. It's an even better doomed-love story since we all know it's coming to an end, and he's able to tell it that way.

This email is the first communication she's attempted since she informed Adam that she was getting married before he had a chance to come back.

We also get a compressed history of Adam and Claire (his might-as-well-be wife), their 15+ year relationship -- the ups, downs, and obvious commitment. Even if the romance is largely gone, there's something strong under-girding their bond. Right? Maybe? Probably? And I do mean compressed -- their decade and change is given less space than the few months Angelina and Adam have. We also see what's going on in the Spring of 2012 with their relationship, and how this new email correspondence fits in with Adam's life.

Part II of the book is focused on what happens when Adam and Angelina reconnect in person for a few days months later. Which is really all I can say about that. Well, it takes almost the same amount of space as the first part (ecopy, so I can't do page counts, so these are just estimates) -- so it's obviously a lot more detailed.

I loved Part I -- totally. The feel of it, seeing the changes for the better that Adam goes through thanks to the confidence boost that emailing Angelina gives him. Watching his relationship with Claire improve at the same time. All the while enjoying the 1989 story, too, sharing that feeling of nostalgia and more with him. It's just so well done.

But Part II? I had serious problems with. I cannot detail them without ruining the book for you all. But people just don't act the way most (if not all) of our primary characters do here. There are just too many psychological, emotional, spiritual and moral problems with what happens, how people react (both in the heat of the moment and in the cool light of day) -- people, real people, just can't do this and survive in any meaningful fashion.

We also do meet Angelina's husband, Charlie, and I have so many conflicting opinions about him -- on the one hand he appears to be good guy, generous, gracious (and other positive adjectives that don't start with "g") . . . but he's dishonest with everyone (possibly including himself), manipulative, cold, calculating . . . I want to state that he's not physically or mentally abusive, because my description of him almost sounds like it. Things would be less murky if he was.

Angelina is equally troubling -- both in how she acts toward Charlie, her children and Adam. I'm not incredibly certain that I'm pleased with the way she treats herself (or if she's true to her chosen vocation or character). I can understand a lot of how Adam comports himself, but at some point, I needed him to call the whole thing off (anyone else could've, but it wasn't in their character at the moment).

The whole thing at the point became the car wreck you pass by on the Interstate and try to not gawk at.

I can't find the exact quotation, but Nora Ephron said something about Sleepless in Seattle not being a love story, but a story about movie love (Rosie O'Donnell's character says something similar in the film). About the only way I can handle huge portions of this book is thinking of it in similar terms -- Part II isn't about actual love, romance/commitment between two human beings -- but it's about love in fiction, romance/commitment between two fictional characters. If I think of Adam and Angelina (and Charlie and Claire) as actual people, I feel a mix of pity and repugnance for all involved (well, no repugnance for one of them, but I'll leave it at that) -- along with a strong desire to get a pastor and/or psychologist to their doorsteps. But if I think of them as fictional characters -- which, I guess is what they are, as much as one doesn't like to admit that -- I can feel that revulsion and sympathy and just hope that they're able to have decent lives.

But the writing? Simsion's craft here is what kept me going through my distaste -- and what's going to compel me to give it a higher rating than I initially thought I would. Everything I thought/hoped he was capable of after The Rosie Project is on full display here -- and, honestly, Adam Sharp is probably a better novel than it's predecessors. Yes, there are comic moments, but this isn't as funny as the Rosie books, so don't look for a similar experience. But the emotional palate is richer, more varied -- deeper.

The use of music throughout -- as Adam's refuge and outlet, the way that he bonds with people, and the songs used for various purposes -- is just dynamite. Well, almost dynamite -- Cher's "Walking in Memphis" rather than Marc Cohn's? Really? (both in the playlist and novel) One of the problems with musicians in novels who write their own material (Alex Bledsoe's Tufa, Andy Abramowitz's Tremble, Hornby's Tucker Crowe, etc.) who use other's songs, is that you have to imagine the music, imagine the skill, imagine the feeling. But with Adam (or Doyle's The Commitments) you can take a shortcut through that and know exactly what feelings, sounds, rhythms, and so on are to be conjured up (Simsion gives us the exact album version sometimes so we can't get it wrong). I'm sure there are articles to be written about the music here and how it serves, propels, shapes the plot -- but I don't have that kind of time.

Oh, I can't forget to mention -- the official playlist for this is killer. I wish I'd have had an Internet connection available while I was reading it, I'm sure it'd have been a bonus. It's definitely helping while I write -- but there's some good stuff there for just good listening.

I was genuinely excited to read this book -- while I wasn't especially taken with The Rosie Effect, I loved The Rosie Project -- I'm pretty sure it made my Top 10 that year, and I recommended it to everyone I could think of online and in person. So when a new book by Simsion was announced -- and not another Rosie book -- I preordered it, and jumped on the opportunity when I saw it on NetGalley. And then that Introduction hooked me hard. Part I was wonderful. But man . . . I just couldn't handle Part II. Which leaves me in a pickle when it comes to this post, you know?

I admired this book more than I enjoyed it -- though I need to stress I really enjoyed parts of it. I'd love to heartily recommend this, I wish I could -- but I can only do so with reservations. There's so much I object to going on in these pages that I can't, while I can respect Simsion's work -- and I know this book achieved everything he wanted. I'll give it 4 Stars on merit, not my own enjoyment.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post -- thanks to both for this.
N.B.: As this was an ARC, any quotations above may be changed in the published work -- I will endeavor to verify them as soon as possible.