4 stars, after a bit of a rocky start.

I really enjoyed the journey that Emma took in this story. Great characters and a fun storyline, even if the beginning was a little hard to get into.

this was super fun and delightful. originally picked it up because of the australian-ness and i was not disappointed. very enjoyable read!

Absolutely loved this novel! The writer has a beautiful and seamlessly flowing narrating style and I literally could jot put the book down.

I'm sorry to say but this book is awful. I don't even know where to start... Emma, the main character, has been traveling for seven years and is now coming back to Sydney. From page one the author demonstrate that she thinks it's normal to have a mother who only thinks about finding a husband to her daughter. No, this is not funny. It's also not funny that Emma lies about everything and anything because she's a whiny adult woman who can't take responsibility for her actions. It's not a cute look!

The main character made the story more interesting by trying to find herself and what direction she wants to take her life. Witty banter and a predictable ending made this book a fun light hearted read.

This book started out just okay for me, but did get better by the end. I found it funny that it referenced Bridget Jones several times, as it reminded of that a great deal. This book is about a woman named Emma in her thirties who, prior to where the book begins, has spent years traveling after disappointments in her love life and career. She then decides that she needs to settle down in the city, get a job, a house and a husband. So, she finds a job at a PR firm and tries to fit into the same cookie cutter role as the women she works with. However, she can’t seem to get the husband part sorted out. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I will just say that as the title suggests, she has to learn that she is wonderful just as she is.

It took a few chapters for me to be into the book, but once I was I couldn't wait to see what happened. I liked Emma and Nick from the beginning. There wasn't a lot of online dating that was mentioned in the blub, but I think the story was good without it.
Thank you to Harper Impulse and Killer Reads and NetGalley for the arc. I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Emma leaves Australia after her relationship goes drastically wrong, spending 7 years travelling the world. Finally she decides to go home, travelling visa Fiji for a final break. There she has an exciting one night stand then goes home to Sydney.
She applies for a job in a famous PR form by exaggerating wildly on her CV and, much to her surprise, actually gets it. The actuality is a mind breaking job with endless hours, however she perseveres until a surprise new person comes on board.
I like the description of people being birds or trees : the former for from one location to another, the latter put down roots and settle for life. Emma's struggle is trying to fit in as a tree when she is firmly a bird who hates being shackled down in one place.

As someone who has had her fair share of online dating disasters, I could totally relate to this book. I found it so funny in places. For me, the book is almost like a modern day Bridget Jones!

First of all, thank you to Harper Impulse and Killer Reads and to Netgalley for sharing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a light read about a woman in her thirties, Emma, who has spent the past seven years travelling the world after being left at the altar. Actually the travel was really something she wanted but the trigger was being left at the altar. So after seven years, she decides it's time to come home and starts travelling back to Sydney with a short stopover in Fiji. It's here she meets Nick and has one of the best nights of her life. She decides it's a one-night stand that must remain that way and never uses the phone number he's given her.

Once she gets home, she has three main goal in life: Get a job, Get a place to live, and find somebody to spend her life with. With a CV that's fully padded out, she gets herself a job with a major PR firm. Her mum finds her a place of her own to live, tiny though it may be. Goal number three is the hard one. She's set up on lots of dates but never gets past the first. She's still thinking of Nick in Fiji weeks later when he reappears in her life.

I'll say no more about it but it's an interesting path their connection takes from here. I thought it was a pretty good sort of rom-com book, with a few nods to Bridget Jones along the way. Yes, it's a romance but the main theme of the book is being yourself instead of pretending to be someone else. There are a few lessons learned along the way but she works this out by the end.

A slight niggling point I will make from earlier in the book is the reference to a swimsuit as a swimming costume. This wasn't once but several times within a chapter or two. I've not heard this used before in the time I've lived in Australia (over 25 years) so wondered if it's a regionalism. But funnily enough after saying this so many times, bathing suit is used once.

This was a cute romance although it got a bit sickly sweet at the end. I give it 3.5 stars overall.

As the title suggests, this book is somewhat of an homage to Bridget Jones Diary. If you liked Bridget and Mark Darcy’s antics, you’ll might also enjoy this occasionally fun “coming of age in your mid thirties tale.”

Emma’s been running around the world trying to forget the embarrassment she suffered when she was left at the altar by Murray, a perfectly vanilla computer studies major who used to tutor her in statistics. After seven years of globetrotting and making ends meet through a variety of dead end jobs, she’s decided to come home to Sydney and grow up. She has a three part plan: get a job, get a man, get a house.

On her way home, she opts for one last romp in Fiji, to hopefully get some sun and wash off the rain and dust from living in the UK. It seems like it’s nothing but couples as far as the eye can see, until she falls on her ass in the hotel bar and is helped up by an extremely handsome gentleman named Nick. The talk, they laugh, they skinny dip in the ocean, build a fire on the beach, and go home together. And the next day, Emma blows Nick off for a basket weaving class before getting on the flight to Australia and her new life.

Despite the fact that Emma *really* likes Nick and he *also* lives in Sydney, she literally throws his number in the garbage and decides to be set up by her married friends on a series of dates ranging from comical to disastrous. Her parents are so fed up with her living at home with seemingly no prospects (despite being thrilled that she’s come back from her travels) that they move her into a damp studio while she’s out shopping for a wardrobe for a job she’s drastically exaggerated her qualifications for.

Turns out being a PR person is a bit more difficult than she assumed, and she’s quickly overwhelmed at work. When her nightmare boss quits in the middle of a huge project, who is tapped to fill her shoes but Nick. From Fiji.

They flirt, they don’t communicate well, Emma continues to not be up front about her work experience or the status of the project, and things do not go well for her personally or professionally. Emma’s inability to honestly assess her own wants, skills, desirability made me so incredibly frustrated. She wants a man, an incredibly handsome and funny and into her man appears, and she tosses his info because they didn’t meet at a cafe like she imagined it? Wild.

The ending was nice. I appreciated that Emma finally took some accountability for her behavior at work and fixed the problem she created for herself. I love that she finally worked her network and found a job that satisfied her passions instead of what she thought everyone expected of her. I was underwhelmed by her as a character, and honestly found it hard to root for her at some points. I know that romance and rom coms are built on tropes, but unfortunately nothing about this book set it apart for me.

Thank you to Kate Mathieson, NetGalley, Harper Impulse and Killer Reads for the ARC. This is my honest review.

2.5 stars

I found this book started slow but picked up about half way through. I didn’t read any hints as to what it would be about beforehand so wasn’t sure what to expect which maybe didn’t help.
I found the female character was well developed and had a strong back story which you slowly got to know about. Sometimes I find the female lead changes personality but I found she became more confident rather than submissive (like similar books) which was refreshing.
It did become predictable but it was light hearted and easy to pick up and put down.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Impulse and Killer Reads, and Kate Mathieson for the arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.***

Just As You Are, Kate Mathieson, was not what I was expecting. The summary described it as a world traveler deciding to settle down and jumping headfirst into the world of online dating. There were only a handful of dates that didn’t take more than a few pages at most to describe. Emma ran away from Australia after a trauma and ended up staying abroad for 7 years. Now she’s back with a list of goals: a job, a house and someone to share her life with. Unfortunately, her job becomes her life. Fate throws a man into her path that she could see a life with, one she has a history with, but they can’t seem to get their timing right, not to mention a relationship between them is more complicated than average.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. The positives? I could feel the connection between Emma and Nick when they met. I think the busyness and tireless aspects of Emma’s job were well represented. Nick was lovely, albeit a little secretive about parts of his life. Emma had good friends who checked in with her and tried to be supportive.

The negatives? For me the story was very slow in the setup (like 43% setup before things took shape). I struggled to get through it and considered not finishing the book at all. The initial sex scene was not my cup of tea in regard to the way it was written. It was really hard to see Emma as professional given how she was doing her job. Her job took up the majority of the plot, and while it had interesting moments, it was setup as a house of cards so I spent most of the story waiting for it to come crashing down. I found Emma hard to relate to and even like at times. I was expecting romance and got very little, so the book felt more like chick lit than romance. And perhaps the biggest negative for me was that the reader spends so much time in Emma’s head with her what-ifs and ‘what is he thinking’ and those sorts of things. It was too much supposition, too much telling instead of showing.

I really liked the ending. It was definitely the strongest part of the book. I think perhaps I’m just a mismatch with this author.

Pretty enjoyable , funny romance. I liked Emma and her journey to figuring herself out and what made her happy, Thought Nick was great from the start and really wanted them to find their back after Fiji. Worth a read.

I was not a fan of this book. I just didn't mesh with the writing style. You can't win them all though......

This book wasn't my cup of tea unfortunately. I didn't enjoy the writing style and didn't connect with the heroine. DNF

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book.
Love that it's set in Sydney and makes you think about what you ultimately want from life.
The main character at times felt like her own worst enemy, digging herself a bigger hole, but I suppose it did make it more entertaining. Emma was quirky and trying to break away from the norm, which is probably how a lot of people feel without realising it.
A fun, witty romantic comedy that differs from the rest.

Nice light hearted romance. I enjoyed the storyline and found the characters delightful. I would recommend this book. Great beach read!

So I started this book and by the 2nd chapter I just though ugh, really, this again? I skim read a few pages up until around chapter 5 and then I was hooked. I laughed, I cried, I cringed, I cheered.

I think that Emma is one of my most favourite heroines, it helps that she's not your usual skinny Minnie and she knows her flaws but still finds her way to what she wants. Nick is like the yummiest thing ever and will be added to my literary heartthrobs.

Ive never read anything by this author before but I definitely want to now and can't wait to, honestly.

Definitely a must-read, don't let the first few chapters out you off - this is not the same as the rest!

4 stars (still not entirely over my first person narrative hate)