Effie isn’t enjoying life very much at the opening to this novel. In fact I would go as far as to say she’s suffering with depression. She sees her life through a pessimistic lens - she’s single, still living with her parents and often polishing off a bottle of wine at night to drown her sorrows, Where I did feel some kinship with her, was her love of books, I’ve been using books to disappear to other places during shielding for twelve weeks, so I really understand the need of books to enhance life or in Effie’s case to make it bearable, Then she meets Theo. He is coming at life from a different angle, because he has a reason to make the most of it, He believes in not taking life for granted, something that, arguably, Effie has been doing for a long time, As they start to fall in love, will their different outlooks change each other, or will Theo’s secret derail their fledgling relationship and Effie’s life?

I loved how Theo challenges Effie’s outlook. He shows her that life is something to grab hold of and make the most of it, There were times where Effie’s cranky nature and pessimistic outlook drove me crazy. So it was great to see her grow and change in the face of Theo’s influence. However, his choice to grab life’s chances and make the most of it comes from a place of deep grief and loss. This makes you realise that people have more going on in their lives than you think. I know when I’ve run workshops that people have made the assumption that my outlook comes from having an easy life, full of happiness. Yet I have faced a lot of difficult challenges and experiences huge loss, but I have to keep living and I’m not going to do it filled with despair and lethargy. Meeting someone with an outlook like this can be challenging at first, but for Effie it makes her see she has choices in life, Maybe one of them is to be with Theo? I liked the secondary characters and felt they made a contribution to the book and it’s message. I also loved that the author didn’t tie up all the lose ends neatly, because it doesn’t happen in real life.
An uplifting book, that moved me due to its character’s growth and change,

I started off hating this book. The main character is so unlikeable and I couldn’t imagine why any man would be interested, but as the book goes on, you realise that she’s very self aware of her flaws. Then comes the main plot point and I ended up staying up until 3am to find out how it ends. A great, easy, holiday (or lockdown) read.

This book was fantastic! Completely different from my usual reads but I absolutely couldn't put it down.- would reccomend

Loved this book so much. I loved the characters and the storyline was so unexpected, certainly not your normal romantic read, I could even relate to parts of it!
Effi has to be one of my favourite characters now, I enjoyed seeing how she matured and got stronger as life kept throwing things at her.
Can't wait to read more by Hannah Sunderland.
Thank you netgalley

If you loved Sophie Kinsella's 'My Not So Perfect Life' then you will love 'Very Nearly Normal'

This novel follows the story of 28 year old Effie, who is still living with her parents, has a tragic love life, and has given up on her dreams to become a published writer. Effie's so called best friend Kate appears to be living it up in a glamorous flat, with a successful career and is newly engaged whereas Effie lives under a black cloud. Her self-esteem and self-belief is drastically low and she doesn't feel good enough and as a result she turns to the bottle to drown her sorrows.

Following a failed date Effie, meets Theo who encourages Effie to live out of her comfort zone. They write a to do list together and before you know it you are laughing and crying as we follow Effie's on a journey of self discovery.

Overall, a very relatable and feel-good story. It is so easy to think everyone is doing better than us and that we should have reached the same goal posts but this story shows us how we all have our time to shine and that good things come to us all.

I loved this one soooo much! Theo and Effie were really lovable. I enjoyed the writting, the characters and story. I especially liked that there were chronic illness included, because there should be more books with it. I recommend this book to everone who loved Me before you.

I must admit I very nearly put this book down after the first chapter, I felt quite depressed reading about Effie. But wow what a journey she took and learnt a lot along the way. I loved this book and couldn't put it down, even thinking about it when at work. It was very well written and I can't wait to read more from Hannah Sunderland x

I do love a good romantic story, however, as I have gotten older I have found that I need more. I need my romances to have a lot more substance. Enter Very Nearly Normal by Hannah Sutherland – the quirky love story of Effie and Theo.

Effie is, for want of a better phrase, a hot mess. She is the wrong side of her 20s, living at home with her parents, lacks any ambition, has had a handful of previous failures – romantic and career wise – and when we meet her she is on a disastrous Tinder date. She is the antithesis of the person you would want to be.

Enter Theo: A young dude who witnesses the aforementioned date and then starts to ardently pursue Effie. A love story for the ages.

Everything here seems so (very nearly) normal for a romantic comedy check list however Sutherland does make you work for your protagonist and her potential for a happy ending. For the most part, Effie has some really unlikable qualities. She is petulant and whiny, she talks to her mum like she is a piece of dog much that she has stepped in – in fact she is kind of like the living embodiment of the Harry Enfield Kevin character. She is a bit of an arse at times.

However, fall in love with Effie we do. We do this alongside Theo. He breaks through her tough shell and we begin to see the softer side of Effie.

But love is never simple and its course is never smooth. Very Nearly Normal is a bit of a bumpy ride.

I found Very Nearly Normal to be every bit the page turner that you want a novel to be. I fell completely for Effie and Theo and wished all good things for them. They are the kind of characters that you think about long after you have turned the final page and you wonder what happened to them next.

Very Nearly Normal is a brilliant romantic comedy…with a big dollop of substance.

Very Nearly Normal by Hannah Sutherland is available now.

For more information regarding Avon (@AvonBooksUK) please visit www.avonbooks.co.uk.

This book, even though has romance in it but it’s first and foremost about self love. In life, we always have this set plan for our future and when things don’t go our way we get angry. Angry at people who are succeeding, at our fate, our life and we forget to see the positivity around us. We don’t see that life is giving us all that we need, we just need to open our eyes to it.
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This book will teach you that until and unless you don’t love yourself, everything will seem bleak in life. Effie’s life was the same, at the start of the story, she was stuck in this loop of what the hell effect. If everything else is bad, why not drink away our sorrows, why care to work towards something, let’s just sit and blame everything and everyone.
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But once she started appreciating herself, it was as if she should see the world brighter and clearer.
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Coming to the romance part of the book. I LOVE Theo. He is funny, sarcastic and wants to talk silly all the time. I think I found my new book boyfriend.
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I think everyone should read this book, it will make you cry and laugh out loud. It’s perfect for fans of Me Before You.

Thanks very much for the copy via Netgalley. Id seen some of the media reviews for this and thought it sounded brilliant.. and it was!

It's happy and heartbreaking, a story of love, life, adventure and friendships set in a modern day life with the problems any of us could face. The very relatable in parts love story that you are rooting for them with every chapter.

This book was fantastic! Completely different from my usual reads but I absolutely couldn't put it down.

I absolutely loved Effie, such an unusual heroine but you couldn't help but root for her! Will definitely look for more books from this author

This book is probably lovely, but I found the start so negative and so much of a downer that I just couldn't get through it, not when I look to books to uplift me and give me an escape - this one was just too 'hard luck' type for me

This was such an easy story to lose myself in when I needed to distract myself from all the recent stress of 2020. Effie and Theo's story definitely provided me with a few laughs as I read along.

What I loved about this book:

1. The was such a cute romance that really packed an emotional punch. Definitely have tissues close by while reading this one.

2. Effie was an unhappy person who is completely honest it. At first you may find her a bit off putting, but she definitely grows on you. I found her sarcasm witty and I really enjoyed seeing her character grow and realise her self worth.

3. I like how this book touched on alcoholism and how using it as an escape can lead to real problems.

4. This book had a unique plot that easily keeps the reader engaged. I love seeing both Effie and Theo evolve and grow together.

This book was both heartwarming, humorous, and heartbreaking at the same time, but overall enjoyable. I definitely recommend you give this one a read.

Effie has never felt like everyone else, always too much of the wrong thing and not enough of the right. Still living with her parents with a bottle of wine for company, her only love is the bookshop she works in. However upon meeting Theo things start to change.

This is one of those novels that I can’t be sure if I loved or not, much like Matilda, who is a majorly flawed character, which does make her incredibly believable. Defiantly worth a read.

I skimmed sections of this book and the big issue is around the reveal of the heros chronic illness and how its treated by herione and everyone in the book. Was not for me

Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. A prickly protagonist who has hit the self-destruct button and an enigmatic suitor/saviour character who turns out to be more than they first appeared. I devoured this book and will look forward to by Hannah Sunderland. Bonus points from me for the bookshop backdrop too!

Thank you NetGalley, Avon and Hannah Sunderland for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
Disliking the main character is almost always a book killer for me. It’s hard to connect and read about someone that’s as miserable as Effie was at the beginning of the book. There was a lot of negativity that almost had me putting the book aside. Luckily I decided to push through in hopes it got better.
This book had romance, laughs, tears and a whole lotta love. I soon found myself fully invested in Effie and Theo and, of course, Elliot the cat! Instead of feeling frustrated with Effie I was soon rooting her and Theo on. They both have their own flaws and things to work through but by the end of the book you really feel hope that it’ll all work out.
While this book wasn’t quite what I thought it would be when I first picked it up, I still thought it was pretty darn good!

This was an interesting read that I mostly enjoyed. The protagonist was annoying and pretty unlikable, while Theo seemed too good to be true. I enjoyed getting to know the secondary characters though, that was very enjoyable. The twist re: Theo was unexpected and made me think, oh no, is this going to be one of those books?? But the ending was resolved to my satisfaction, whew. The author had some insightful and witty observations on life peppered throughout the book, which I also enjoyed.

My thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I found this a hard book to actually get into - I started it twice, it didn't capture me straight away and Effie was a hard character to empathise with, the story did get going and it was a worthwhile read, but it wasnt a real winner for me unfortuanately.

The start of the novel introduces the character of Effie, out on a date, which starts and ends within minutes, and in the midst of embarrassment she unwittingly meets Theo and this is the start of their story.

Effie is presented as an irritating character, flawed and unwilling to try and help herself, although I did find myself thinking that her teenage years clearly didn’t help matters. You just want to shake her and tell her to pull herself together and to get some help.

Whereas, Theo, an optimist, is drawn to Effie and is set on helping her change her mindset and make the changes to her life that she desperately needs, including loving herself, whilst shielding her from a secret of his own. A secret that could tear them apart.

This book took me on a rollercoaster of emotions from laughing and crying to getting mad. The real and raw internalised thoughts that negatively consume Effie are relatable and raises topics which some might find uncomfortable, but they’re handled sensitively.

The author really takes the reader on Effie’s journey, with the use of her carefully crafted and manipulated writing, depicting the monumental moments perfectly. Your opinions of Effie change for the better and you can’t help but feel for her and become her cheerleader.

A heart-warming love story that will stay with you, when the tears have dried.