This book is very much not my preferred genre so it's perhaps not altogether surprising that I found it dull and unoriginal. The characters seem so unrealistic - I just can't believe such people exist in real life. While representation of LGTB relationships is great, the plot here is very....not great.

It was very much the wrong book for the wrong reader and, having read very little within this genre, I feel ill equipped to say whether this is a decent example of it, but suffice to say, I didn't like it.

I tried to read this so often and I could never get into it. Sadly this was a DNF on my part. But others I'm sure will love it.

A very easy read about love and relationships, following the lives of three women. I didn't feel like it was remarkable, but it was well written.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

This was a case of right book at the right time. This made me smile and laugh and I really enjoyed it

[The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

Unfortunately I had to dnf this book because I just couldn't get into it.

The book focuses on the lives of three women and the relationships they have: romantic, family and friendships. It’s written from a multi-narrator perspective which is an absorbing way of understanding each character but it can feel clunky at points. Not much happens in the plot: it’s basically ordinary people living ordinary lives. I did enjoy the way LGBT relationships are normalised and the triumph of female friendship above all. A gentle, easy and insightful read, but not something I’d be in a rush to read again.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read an eARC copy of this book!

This story follows the lives of three separate women; Grace, Violent, and Annie. All of whom are trying to figure out their lives and navigate this mad world.

Annie and Violet are best friends who live together but they couldn't be more different. Violet is a young woman experiencing depression and "the fear". Violent struggles with her self-confidence but one day meets a woman and finds herself interested in her, which comes as surprise to Violet who has only ever been interested in men before. It also comes as a surprise for her roommate Annie. Annie is a successful lawyer with an overbearing mother who is desperate for her to get married. Annie meets who she thinks could be the one and thinks she might have found her perfect future. Grace is a therapist who meets a mysterious woman at a party one night and falls head over heels.

I have to be honest I really did not enjoy this book. Nothing seemed to actually happen in this book - like if you skipped from the start to the end nothing really changes?? And all the "twists" of Lawrence being a con-artist and Sam dating both Grace and Lawrence just seemed so obvious to me and really didn't surprise me. The women themselves aren't that intriguing. Grace meets this woman once and starts to borderline stalk her and although Sam clearly expresses throughout that she doesn't want to be tied down, Grace continues to push her. Violet is probably the most interesting of characters but is still quite bland. The characters all felt very old-fashioned and I just have never met anybody who acts like any of them acted.

I just really struggled with the lack of purpose with the plot. Annie did save it for me at the end but it felt a little bit too late.

A brilliant read for bewildered girls! I really enjoyed getting to know Violet, Annie and Grace. Their lives were rich, hilarious and definitely something I could relate to. I gobbled it up in a couple of days. I can't wait to see what Emma Morgan does next.

Love how the female friendships in this book are so stand out. Loved reading about them and would absolutely recommend.

What a great story for a debut novel.

I read a chapter of this book and really liked it. I loved that it was set in somewhere other than
London and that the characters didn't fit the norms of love stories. I am going to purchase the book to finish it off.

This book is about three women named Violet, Grace and Annie and it is about their relationships and friendships. I liked that the novel didn't make a big thing out of the same sex relationships in the book and also normalised some mental health issues but I wasn't hugely gripped by it. I enjoyed it reasonably enough but felt that it was trying too hard to be quirky.

You know what, I liked this book. I really liked it a whole lot.




It follows three women - Grace, who tells herself her life is happy and fulfilled until she falls in love with a woman at a party; Annie, who meets the man of her (and her Mother's) dreams; and Violet who lives with crippling anxiety and who for the first time in her life has fallen for a girl.

It's an easy read, and a quick one, and I found myself staying up too late reading it which is always a good thing. It is, actually, what I think I wanted Dawn O'Porter's The Cows to be but wasn't - feminist, diverse, fun, a little bit quirky (I'm still not over how underwhelmed I was by The Cows. Damn you, instagram.)

I mean it isn't perfect: Grace fell in love with Sam too quickly for my liking (we all know how I feel about instalove) and Sam as a character didn't make sense for me; she seemed to undergo a weird personality transplant partway through and she wasn't fully fleshed out enough for the amount of page time she got; I find it hard to believe that Annie would have made the choices she made - although she was super badass at the end and I loved it - and again she fell harder and faster than felt believable; I think actually that overall these women felt younger than they were supposed to and there some things I would have liked to have been explored more deeply.

On the whole though - this was a good book. I especially like how Grace and Violet's sexuality is just a thing that is - I haven't read many books where there is a lesbian character whose sexuality isn't a key part of her story or made into a massive deal and I loved that that's how it is here. Even though Grace's arc is about her love life, it's not about the gender of the person she's in love with and it was so refreshing. We need more books like this. The same goes for Violet's anxiety, actually. It's just a part of who she is and WOW but don't we need more things where mental health issues are normalised? I've seen a little bit of backlash over the choice to call it 'the fear.' Honestly, I don't get that; it made sense, for me, for this to be a choice Violet made, to give a name to how she felt that made sense for her.

I was a fan of the multi-person narrative and I really liked how all three stories came together. Yeah ok I could totally see it coming but did it matter? Not so much, because this wasn't a book about suspense, where the beauty lay in the way it all unfolded and caught you by surprise, it was a book about people and real life struggles and about love and friendship and families and the fact that I was perhaps about a third of the way in when I thought -oh well we all know how this will pan out - didn't take anything away at all. Not for me anyway.

Also - and there are so many times that I can't say this - I liked the ending. I know, right?! Hurrah.

A Love Story for Bewildered Girls was published at the beginning of February so you can get your paws on a copy now should you want to. And you should.

I had high expectations starting this book, but I must admit that my interest flagged somewhere in the middle and I put the book down. However, I am glad that I picked it up again, as I enjoyed the ending, but it was not what I expected. I did not enjoy the writing style of the book, although this was due to personal preference - as it was definitely very original. Of the three women I liked Grace and her story the most, and Sam was a rather wishy washy character, I think. Altogether, not my cup of tea, unfortunately.

This is a quirky story about three youngish women's intersecting lives and loves with a mix of sexualities and much confusion about life choices. I liked all three characters very much and warmed to them and their anxieties, professional and personal. The book is also written from an unusual multi-narrator perspective that worked well and shone light in the same events from each point of view.
This is a funny and engaging book and one that I can heartily recommend if you're in the mood for something unconventional and life affirming and occasionally surprising. It might be described as a romcom but is rather more as it makes the reader question their own life choices.

While I think a younger reader (20s/30s) would identify more with this, I found it a lovely read. And shows me the world my daughter and niece are living in with modern take on relationships. We saw confusion, love, happiness, occasional glimpses of joy, sheer angst, in short every emotion as relationships were begun, established, and finished. Friendship shone through, and always links that you are never aware of. I enjoyed the characters, fortunately as this is an exploration of characters rather than a strong plot. A gentle book, and I think useful for the older reader as a guide to modern relationships. There are so many more pressures and things to think about nowadays, nothing is as straightforward as the girl meets boy of my younger life. Refreshing. #netgalley #lovestoryforbewilderedgirls

2019 reading off to a slow and unremarkable start... I fancied something lighter for my bus journeys, but didn't find the right partner in A Love Story For Bewildered Girls. I found Annie's portrayal as an uptight English woman - who uses table manners, no less, as a barometer for romantic interests - too cliche, Violet's "The Fear" too vague (depression - I'm 70% in and it's been named once, although a badly described panic attack was at least acknowleded as one), and Grace... I have a lot of problems with how she discusses straight women versus queer women. She conflates freedom from sexism with homosexuality, and uses an outdated view of sexism at that. For example, Grace has never known a lesbian to read a fashion magazine, implying that straight women are more exposed and/or susceptible to societal standards. Not only does that imply that one would only be interested in fashion because of partriarchal pressures (I thought we moved beyond that thinking years ago?), but it also limits the sphere of queer women too... It's great for a book to feature characters where their depression or sexuality isn't the driving force of the plot, simply a feature of their character. But is it progressive if it is executed in this way? I think not... Maybe the characters will click better with other readers, the intertwined love stories are interesting enough to read. But for me, onto the next one...

A comedy and a romance rolled into one. Likeable characters, some of whom I could resonate with and a great story. A fun read.

I wanted to love this book but I found it muddled. I’m not entirely sure where it sits within literary fiction. The characters are great, complex and likeable, I just struggled with how the story is set out and the authors writing style.

Really enjoyed it - although I was constantly waiting for all the stories to somehow tie up together. But an enjoyable read, if a little confusing at the beginning, while trying to remember who each individual character was. A little predictable with the sisters - it sounded a little bit like Ballet Shoes in one way. But other than that, an enjoyable read, and definitely worth your time.

Such a cute story! Not one of the best romance reads but certainly worth the time spent reading! A great story that did get a little tedious at times but it did pick itself up!