I read this in a matter of hours, but I didn't think it was as good as The Rosie Project, the author's debut.

I did, however, like how music and characters singing together was such a constant theme in this book. Several of the songs mentioned were familiar to me - "Someone Like You"; "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You"; "Uptown Girl"; "Both Sides Now"; etc. - and some were not.

This is the story of Adam Sharp and his lost love, an actress named Angelina Brown with whom he had a passionate affair about 20 years ago. After Angelina sends him a one-word email out of the blue - a mysterious and simple "Hi" - Adam goes to visit her - and her husband! - his first time seeing her since their split. That's when things start to get a little weird...

Nothing special here, lackluster and maybe a bit bizarre. Probably a novel that I will easily forget. Read The Rosie Project/The Rosie Effect instead.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

I am a huge fan of The Rosie series, however if you are expecting a light, fun and flirty book like those two books, you will be disappointed. However, you might like the something different that is The Best Of Adam Sharp.

This is a book about love, loss, the one that got away. However it is also a story that has you wondering, is the one that got away really the one you want?

Adam and Angelina's story is told in 2 parts 22 years apart. I am not going to lie, it felt like it was 2 different stories at times, and that I really don't think I liked the second part of the story (the present day) that much.

I really enjoyed the first half set in 1989, with Adam and Angelina finding each other and falling in love. However the second half of the story, I don't know. I just didn't feel it. I particularly disliked Angelina in the present day, tome she felt selfish and narcissistic and I am not sure if I liked her at all. But this could just be me.

To me, Adam felt more real. His feelings and actions were more realistic, and there was so much more growth in his character than Angelina.

That being said though, I did struggle to feel the connection between A & A as well. We were told they were in love, but I just couldn't see it. It felt more like lust than love.

Ugh, this makes it sound like I didn't like the story at all, however this is far from the case - if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have finished it! It just lacked something to me that I just can't put my finger on exactly what it is.

Whilst this book did lack for me, it will not stop me reading this author in the future.

I tried to read Graeme Simsion's first book, The Rosie Project, I just could not get into it. So when this one came out, I thought I would give it a chance. While I did finish the whole book this time, I have to say that this one I did not really care for.

I think the hardest part for me, what was done in regards to the premise. I know in the blurb they say that Adam thinks about Angela all the time and that they do get back in touch. Actually, I did not need the details, especially the details that are written in this book.

Yes this book made me feel an emotion and it was disgust regarding the characters and their exploits in their later life. I also felt sad, very sad for them. I suppose that is, as I usually say, a good thing when a book makes you feel something. I guess I should consider all emotions and not just the good ones. However, this was an okay read after all, I did get through it. I guess Graeme Simsion and me are not quite such a great fit. I did get to see what all the buzz was about.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for allowing me to read and review this book.

NetGalley ARC

I generally like my relationship oriented fiction to have a bit of moral compromise, the the idea of a character who rethinks his life after his long lost love contacts him was appealing. I think all of us have had an emotional short lived relationship in our pasts. This aspect of the book was very relatable. Adam's 20 year relationship with Claire has moved from lovers to roommates. When Angelina, an old girlfriend, contacts him, it throws his life into disarray.

While I liked the idea of the book, especially Adam's male perspective, I had hard time caring about the characters or their relationships. We only really see the later years of Adam and Claire's relationship when things have waned, and snippets of other issues in the past. I didn't feel any attachment to them as a couple, so I didn't really care when Adam takes off. Also, Angelina and her husband do not come off well. Clearly they have a very complicated relationship, but pulling a third party unwittingly into their drama was just wrong.

While I enjoyed reading this book, I would have enjoyed it more with a little more character development.

This story just wasn't for me. I liked the concept of a middle age guy who's got a huge love for music connecting with a lost love but the story itself didn't work for me. I found that I couldn't connect with Adam and I wasn't really sure why he was so willing to get involved with Angela when his life seemed pretty happy to start with. The musical references began to get on my nerves somewhat and then the scenes with Adam, Angela and Charlie really seemed out there and just kind of ick. The whole story lacked flow and with no characters to like and root for I found myself getting bored and not really caring how it ended. In fact, I was looking forward to it ending which is never a good thing

I was not in love with this book about love. Perhaps this is a way to explain...food was a character. The richness and abundance of it. But as a reader, I did not taste it. The countryside in France was described as beautiful but I did not feel it. The ending made sense but I felt hollow after finishing the book. It was a story about what could have been, about choices, about the quality of life lived in the present. I believe the book could have grabbed me, could have transported me. Could have sung to me but in real life, I read it to find out what would happen in the end.

I was confused by the beginning. So many references to music. I wondered what the book was going to be about. I had to press on until the music began to weave more harmoniously into the plot. And one character seemed to just fall off into the abyss at the end. What happened to her? Someone who had been important. (Spoiler alert...the mother)

I hoped to sing along with this book but I did not. Am I tone-deaf or was it the tune?

I really wanted to like this book -Loved the Don Tillman story. I will recommend to baby boomers that love music. It bounced around too much for me and I could not get all the way through. There was nothing grammatically wrong with it. It may just be not my kind of book :(

I was so excited to receive an advanced reader copy of The Best of Adam Sharp via NetGalley after reading The Rosie Project series by this author. Graeme's ability to paint a complete and complex character in his leads carries over to this novel - but in a completely different way. I got immediately sucked into the story and, as a music nerd, was excited to see that there was already a youtube playlist to accentuate the reading with the pertinent songs to the story line.

Personally, the storyline of the "one lost love" struck home. The idea of living out a fanatasy life with the one who got away is as intriguing as it is detrimental to any future relationships. The way that it played out in this story, however, got weird (thus the loss of a star). I'm not even sure what to say about the last quarter of the book...

If you are looking for something akin to The Rosie Project - this is not it. It goes into the complexity of relationships and is compulsively readable but in a completely different way.

I'm not really sure where to go with this book. Adam spends more than half of the book remembering a three month relationship with a flighty married actress. He's not an emotional person and the story goes back and forth between current time, then something causes him to go back to the time with Angelina. I had an ARC copy and sometimes the books have odd editing quirks, this one did not visually separate current from past and it would have made it easier to read. I found the references to music exhausting and not very relevant to the moment. There were times that I wanted to stop reading but the author has such high marks for the Rosie Effect books that I wanted to finish. I'm pleased that I finished because Adam turned out not to be the douche I thought. As a fair warning though, there is cheating but it works for the story. My review was written voluntarily after reading an advanced copy through Netgalley.

Read this because I enjoyed the Rosie books by this author. Although this book is in a very different vein, I still loved the writing style and the unique characters. Very true-to-life, the author touches on what it feels like to re-discover past relationships and feelings. It definitely struck a chord with me, and I appreciate an emotional exploration of what it means to experience this at an older age.

This book is a super far departure from the light and witty "Rosie Project". This story is a bit heavy with topics: love, lost love, can lost love be rekindled, adultery and filled with a lot of alcohol. The book was interesting and well written but a bit dark at times for me.

A Compositional Score on Romantic Relationships

Adam Sharp is talented piano playing musician who works as an IT consultant. At the age of twenty six, he meets Angelina, an actress and novice singer. Angelina quickly becomes “the love of his life.” Every song reminds him of her.

Though there is a separation, fast forward twenty two years and Adam has built a 20 year relationship with Claire. He still works as a consultant and still sporadically plays the piano. He is a musical encyclopedia of song living in England. Angelina’s second marriage produces three children.

As Adam approaches fifty his relationship with Claire has grown stale. Out of the blue, he receives an opportunity to reconnect with Angelina. Will he accept?

This is where things really get weird.

Adam is thrust into the inner workings of a marriage on the rocks at the same time as he is trying to figure out his own relationship and where it stands. He tries to draw from others’ experiences but falls short again and again.

Music is the vehicle that drives Adam’s and Angelina’s convoluted love story and the lifeblood of their union acting as an intensifier for emotions that become so entangled they are impossible to decipher. Watching Adam struggle with truly understanding not only his own culpabilities but the innermost dynamics of another relationship makes for a satisfying story.

Simsion dives deep into the analysis of a marriage at risk as he simultaneously moves the players in this love triangle until it all makes sense.

After reading and loving both The Rosie Effect and The Rosie Project, Simsion is cemented as a gifted storyteller with a book that totally stands on its own merit.

BRB Rating: Read It

It's a bit challenging for me to rate this book, because I didn't *really* like it much but I did read it in two sittings, so there's that. Overall, I found the characters a little bit flaky and the whole plot to be a bit unrealistic/unbelievable, although maybe it's just not something I can ever picture in everyday life, or maybe it's cultural. I'm not sure. The musical references and the main character's love of music was great. In no way does this rate near to The Rosie Project for me which was much more funny and endearing, in my opinion.

The book is written in quite a fast pace and the character development is spot-on. Also, I liked that there weren't too MANY characters to really keep track of. It really just focused on 3-4 main characters and that was nice. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. I will likely still pursue future works from this author and I know a lot of people will definitely really like this book but it fell a little bit flat for me personally.

I generally love books with heavy music influence and references, so I was excited to combine that style with the writing of an author I'd previously enjoyed. Unfortunately, this felt like I was just reading the musings of a man who was experiencing an agonizing, juvenile, and poorly handled midlife crisis. I don't expect an author to constantly write the same kind of story over and over, but, the writing in this book just lacks all the quirk and charm that made The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect endearing and memorable is completely absent, leaving instead a melancholy and somewhat creepy story of loss and supposed love. Perhaps if Angelique and Adam were more understandable characters, or if their relationship felt more real, the story would have been more understandable and had more heart. Instead, it just felt sad throughout, and like getting a front seat to someone's odd fantasy times.

On the cusp of turning fifty, Adam Sharp likes his life. He’s happy with his partner Claire, he excels in music trivia at quiz night at the local pub, he looks after his mother, and he does the occasional consulting job in IT.

But he can never quite shake off his nostalgia for what might have been: his blazing affair more than twenty years ago with an intelligent and strong-willed actress named Angelina Brown who taught him for the first time what it means to find—and then lose—love. How different might his life have been if he hadn’t let her walk away?

And then, out of nowhere, from the other side of the world, Angelina gets in touch. What does she want? Does Adam dare to live dangerously? -Goodreads

If you haven't noticed, I love reading Graeme Simsion books. There is something about his writing that is honest and reliable even from a male's perspective. This is still the case with The Best of Adam Sharp, however, I didn't really enjoy this book.

Firstly, this book was different and I can see the author taking a risk. I don't mind the risque scenes; they were surprising but I don't mind them. What bothered me about this book was Adam and how boring he was even when his past was discussed. His tone never changes... not even once throughout the book. Because of that it made it extremely difficult to read this book (took me a week).

The book was slow and it dragged. There was no real life or passion within this book. It was hard to tell if Adam was actually in love or if it was more infatuation. It didn't feel real at the beginning nor at the end. Overall that is what the book was lacking; deep emotion, real heartbreak, real anger etc..

Another issue I had was Adam is selfish and the love of his life was just as selfish and became even a worst person as she got older. This told a lot about Adam. He wasn't the hero you want to love and I was disappointed in him and the weak characters around him. I say weak characters because no one really fought for what they wanted. I can't even say Adam did because he went with whatever was allowed.

The music element was cute. It added some character to the book but the music didn't define Adam nor was it as important as I thought it would be. The music was defined based on his relationship. Yeah, he did trivia at the pub but he music wasn't his life nor was he missing it.

I wanted better from this book. I wanted to be moved because it was different from The Roise Project. I didn't feel this was a bad book but it wasn't something I would read or recommend unfortunately.

2 Pickles

The Best of Adam Sharp contains some important messages about the folly of pining after a "lost love" and also the importance of recognizing and appreciating what you have now. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to deliver the message.

Adam Sharp works in IT in England and is an amateur musician. In the late 1980s, he's sent to Australia for a temporary work project. While there, he is playing piano and singing in a bar one night when a young woman comes up and begins singing with him. It seems she is an actress who is currently appearing on a soap opera, so she's well-known to everyone in the room -- except Adam. He eventually begins an affair with the woman, Angelina, even though she is currently married (although unhappily).

When Adam's job assignment is up, he moves on to the next assignment in Singapore, and feels like he is in no position to ask Angelina to leave her job and marriage to follow him. Nor is he willing to give up his job and move across the world to be with her. Eventually he begins a long-term relationship with a woman in England, Claire, and they settle down into domesticity. But of course, he never forgets Angelina and always wonders "what could have been."

Fast forward 20 years. He and Claire have become rather bored with each other. He works now and then on temporary IT contracts, but it's really Claire who brings in the money. They tried to have children, but were unsuccessful and didn't want to to the IFV route. Now Claire's company is possibly going to be purchased by a larger company, and if that happens, she will have to move to the USA, at least for a few years, to complete the transition. Once again, Adam is unwilling to uproot himself (although there doesn't seem much to give up) and so he pretty much decides that if Claire goes to the USA, that will be the end of their relationship.

At the same time, out of the blue, he begins receiving messages online from Angelina. In the years since their relationship she has divorced, remarried, had 3 children, and become a lawyer. With his own relationship in something of a decline, Adam again begins to fantasize about having a relationship with Angelina. It just so happens that she and her husband are coming to France for a vacation, and she proposes that Adam might like to join them -- for old time's sake.

The second half of the book, when Adam and Angelina reconnect, is quite long and drawn out, and veers into very unlikely territory. Both Adam and Angelina's husband, Charlie, fall all over themselves to wait on her hand and foot. What is really going on in Angelina's marriage is also a question that takes a long, long time to resolve.

All in all, I found the book to be quite annoying. Not only the complicated relationships, but the fact that Adam, wherever he goes, finds a piano and immediately sits down and starts to play and sing is quite far-fetched. Not only that, but whoever happens to be around (friends, significant others, general strangers) beg him to continue playing and shout out requests. Also, he knows just the right song and just the right lyrics to sing (while giving significant and meaningful glances) for any situation. If I knew this person I would be MORTIFIED and refuse to go anywhere with him. And why are there pianos at every bar, house and airport he visits???

While the book may contain some important messages, it takes so long to get there, with so many musical asides, that at the end I was just grateful it was over, rather than enlightened!

I thought this book was “meh” at best. The two main characters, Adam Sharp and Angelina Brown, are incredibly self-centered. Twenty-two years ago, they fell in love in Melbourne where Angelina was in an unhappy marriage and Adam, working on contract, was in the area. They mutually agreed that when it was time for him to return to Manchester, England, they would break it off.

They seem to have fallen in love based on a shared love of the same music, about which the author writes at length. The problem with music is that it does not evoke the same reaction in all people; so much is dependent on when you hear it, or whom you are with, or what your life is about at that moment. Thus, for example, Adam going on and on about the Dylan song “Farewell Angelina” clearly would be relevant for him but does absolutely nothing for me. Analogously, eating a madeleine only makes me think of Proust the author, rather than the 4,215 pages of memories it inspired him to write about.

When the story shifts to the later period in their lives, Adam is 48 and Angelina is 45. They haven’t changed much. Adam is still endlessly in the throes of introspection about Angelina and their relationship, and Angelina is (also) still all about Angelina.

Thus, I found much of the book boring and often alienating. The immature characters just didn’t interest me in the slightest. This may be because the author didn’t really choose to tell us much about them besides their musical tastes, and their manipulative actions.

There are two side characters, who are (inexplicably, in my view) devoted to Adam and Angelina in spite of their flaws and in some instances abusive behaviors.

In the end, not much has really changed, at least on the interior of each of the characters, or rather, what interior there is.

Evaluation: Fans of Simsion’s “Rosie” books may be in for a letdown; I certainly was.

Story of a middle aged man who has always wondered what might have been with a past love. When the woman from his past reconnects he never hesitates and walks away from the problems in his life in hopes of rekindling their love. But there are years of life and love and an accommodating husband that make Adam look at his own life and what his choice will cost everyone. The ease with which Adam was initially willing to change his life and the life's of everyone connected to him made the story unappealing to me. And Charlie, the husband, and what he was willing to accept and tolerate was disconcerting and unbelievable to me.

Thank You to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advanced copy of Graeme Simsion's novel, The Best of Adam Sharp, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- Twenty years ago, while working in Australia, Adam Sharp met Angelina Brown, a vivacious soap-opera actress. Adam and Angelina had a short and intense relationship, which ended when Adam's work took him to New Zealand. 

Now, over twenty-years later, Adam is living in England and his marriage is on the rocks. His wife, Claire, has a major career opportunity that might require her to relocate to the United States, and Adam isn't sure he should follow. In the midst of his marital crisis, Adam receives an email from Angelina, whom he had lost touch with years ago. Although Angelina is married with three children, she begins a flirtatious email exchange that plunges Adam down the rabbit hole of nostalgia. Angelina invites Adam to spend a weekend with her and her husband, Charles. This weekend seems like a bad idea, a very bad idea: but can Adam resist his past?

LIKE- I've read Simsion's The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, and I'm a fan of his writing. He's fabulous at creating memorable characters. The Best of Adam Sharp is a character drive novel. It is a riveting emotional drama, one where the stakes are enormous and it feels like everyone is bound to lose.

Nostalgia is at the heart of The Best of Adam Sharp. Adam and Angelina meet prior to the internet being a big deal and when they part, they don't have an easy form of communication. It's a contrast to todays technology and social media, where it is easy to keep in contact with people from your past. Prior to Angelina reconnecting, Adam only has his memories of her. He has a hobby as musician and he links songs to memories. He met Angelina while playing the piano and singing at a bar: Angelina joining him on stage. They connect through music and the  lyrics become a form of secret communication that takes on a huge importance. I think most readers will be able to relate to this form of nostalgia, where we look at the past with rose-colored glasses and where we put certain moments on a pedestal ( good or bad memories), allowing particular fragments to take on a deeper meaning. The further the distance, sometimes leads to less perspective. 

The first half of the novel is about the nostalgia and the romance, but the second half takes a rather dark turn, when Adam decides to stay at the country house in France with Angelina and Charles. Angelina and Charles do not have a happy marriage and they have brought Adam into their troubles. The moral of the story being, while it is possible to reconnect with your past, be careful that the boundaries are clear, and that your past, doesn't endanger your present or future. 

 DISLIKE- The second half of the book left me feeling funny about both Adam and Angelina. Character likability is certainly not a requirement for me to enjoy a novel, however it helps. I liked both Angelina and Adam, when they were nostalgic for their past, but when they crossed the line into a bizarre and rather uncomfortable scenario with Angelina's husband, I was left with a bad taste for both of them. I wasn't sure what to think about Charles. It's realistic that under the circumstances he would be a little hostile or conflicted, but it was hard to respect his character, even in the end. The story included a bit of erotica, which was surprising. I'm not prudish, but under the circumstances of the novel, it was highly uncomfortable to read. I guess what I'm saying is that I felt "squirmy" while reading the second half, which is what I think Simsion set out to do.

RECOMMEND- Yes. Simsion is a wonderful storyteller, who writes about complex emotions and relationships. The Best of Adam Sharp made a deep impression on me.

It would be very easy to give spoilers for this terrific book so I’m going to be very careful with what I say. It is a book about love, regret, long term relationships and also if we can let go of the past or get a second chance. There is a theme of classic pop songs that runs through the story and makes us wonder at the emotional manipulation of music. We are at times rooting for Adam and at other times wondering what he was thinking. Angelina is selfish, self-centered and we wonder if she is truly a match for our hero. Claire is not as well developed a character and Charlie and Richard are no match for Adam’s intelligence, although they think themselves superior.
I read this book straight through. Getting out of my reading chair only for snacks, coffee and potty breaks. I loved the author’s THE ROSIE PROJECT and although this one doesn’t have the same humorous intent, it is still a 5-star read. It is provocative and so intensely sensual you will either admire, dislike or relate to the characters, or perhaps all three.