Ava is unhappy in Dublin. Seeking change, she takes a teaching position in Hong Kong. Her subject is grammar and, although she develops an interest in sentence structure and specific word use, she fails to excite both her students and herself. She avoids involvement with her co-workers. When she meets Julian, a British banker, perhaps she expects moving in with him and becoming lovers will give her the excitement she seeks. She accepts his laid-back attitude and refusal to commit as she adjusts to his rather posh lifestyle. When he goes on an extended business trip to London, she finds herself attracted to Edith, a Hong Kong resident, successful and far more work-oriented than Ava. Soon they are lovers and Ava decides she is gay and very happy, almost excited. She, however, never feels adequate and soon this relationships cools. What will happen when Julian returns to her? Naoise Dolan has given us an insecure heroine who seems unable to engage with others and is truly surprised when anyone appreciates her. Life never seems to fulfill her needs completely. Even the affectionate and witty phone conversations with her parents back home lack what she seeks.

I was really excited to get a copy of this book and am so grateful for the opportunity. The premise seems promising from the synopsis. And the cover art is adorable and right up my alley. But, for certain books I believe it’s a matter of “right book, right time”. And, well, maybe it’s just not the right time for me and this book because I just could not get into this one. The writing didn’t flow well for me and the storyline didn’t go anywhere in the first few chapters except to the bedroom. And I didn’t understand why we should care about these characters, because we were given basically no information about them. You barely get the main characters name, but not until chapter 4. In the middle of chapter 5, I’m done. Too many other books out there. This could be one of those that I pick up at another time and love it, though. So, I’m not giving up on this book. I’m just saying “not right now”.

This Story is about Ava, a young Irish woman who goes to Hong Kong to teach English to children. While there she meets Julien, a banker, and moves in with him. She lets Julien support her while she saves her money for her own place. They enjoy each others company and engage in a commitment free relaionship. When
Julien is sent to London on business Ava enters into a relationship with Edith, A Hong Kong born, Cambridge educated lawyer, The book has amusing situations and observations but is told by Ava in a detached manner. It is hard to develop any empathy for a character who lacks depth and direction,

I can see why Naosie Dolan is being compared to Sally Rooney. It is definitely a quick read, but far from fast paced. Perfect for a lazy day in the sun. Not particularly plot heavy, the main characters thoughts and emotions carry the narrative. A lot of witty one liners and excellent class criticism.

An interesting and original voice, doesn't shy away from dealing with contemporary politics, even though some characters feel a bit lightly sketched.

I can absolutely see why Sally Rooney excerpted this in The Stinging Fly. The ambiguous emotional relationships are millennial catnip, but the political and linguistic explorations were smart and surprising—and what I'll be thinking about for a long time.

"Exciting times" certainly lived up to its title! The book was a delight to read and the writing was both engaging and intimate. I will certainly be recommending that my friends get themselves a copy of this book when it arrives in bookstores.

This was a delightful book and I could have predicted that by the cute cover alone! I liked the short chapter format it’s written in and sped right through it.

Exciting Times is about a girl named Ava who is caught between so many choices in her life. I felt for her so hard because I remember how that felt, trying to figure out what to do with your life.

Should she stay in Hong Kong or move back home to Dublin? Stay in her uninteresting job or take a risk and get a new one? The biggest question she has to answer though is between the two completely different people she’s dating - wealthy and cool Julian who doesn’t care much about her or have anything uncommon with her or lovely Edith who is enthusiastic, affectionate, and sweet?

Like so many of us have done, Ava is trying to learn who she really is, not just who she wants to portray to others. I probably would have gotten a bit more out of it if I read this when I was fresh out of college and more in that frame of mind. Being a bit older now and looking from the outside, it can seem a bit navel gaze-y.

The dialogue through this book is top notch and never felt forced. The characters were richly detailed and not one-dimensional millennial stereotypes that you sometimes find in coming-of-age stories.

And the ending, you guys! The ending made me smile and I felt so satisfied as I thought back over the book.

I definitely recommend this one. It’s a fantastic debut from Dolan and I’m already looking forward to her next book. Thank you to @netgalley for letting me review this advanced reader’s copy.

Was really excited to read this, as it was described as a mix of Normal People and Crazy Rich Asian’s but it just didn’t hold my attention. Ava’s self-loathing was beyond annoying. I wanted to relate to her but I just couldn’t. So gutted that this wasn’t EXCITING for me...

I was immediately hooked on this book and couldn't put it down. The main character, Ava, moves to Hong Kong from Dublin for TEFL, and over the course of the novel enters into two very different, challenging relationships with Julian and Edith.

The dialogue in this book was great. There were lines in the book that made me laugh out loud. Dolan is a very witty writer. I thought the character's use of social media felt authentic and not at all cheesy (which is rare in my opinion). Through Ava's interactions with other characters in the story, Exciting Times provides a great exploration of Marxist politics in a wealthy environment. Ava's socialist ideologies are continually challenged in her new home, and her inability to always hold firm feels authentic (if not frustrating). She feels fully formed.

If anything, the pacing of the story felt a little off (I felt the first section dragged on a little longer than necessary and the final section wrapped up a little too quickly), but overall I very much enjoyed the story.

Wasn't quite sure what to make of this book at first. I can see it being divisive, especially for older adults who have trouble with Millennials. I work with college students, so the feelings and actions in this book were not surprising or annoying to me. Ava needs to grow up a little bit, and from this glimpse into her life, it's hard to tell if she's having the experiences or making the right choices that will lead her to be more likable or a happier person. I appreciated the humor and I think the theme of language was fascinating.

Exciting Times is about Ava. She’s from Ireland, working in Hong Kong teaching English grammar to children. She doesn’t think much of herself – she thinks she’s a bad, unlovable person. She moves in with Julian, and then falls for Edith, both of whom are rich and she is not.

There is a lot going on in this book and I don’t think you have to grasp all of it to enjoy the story. It is a story about politics, class, identity, gender, sexuality, and relationships told from a Millennial point of view. Somehow, a lot of it resonated with this Gen-X reader.

What I love most about this novel is the way it explores language. This is a novel about how what we say (or don’t say) and how we say it shapes who we are and how we relate to other people. It was a lot of fun.

I didn’t know anything about this book before I read it, except that the author is Irish. Each time I picked it up, I made a mental note to Google how her name is pronounced. Then I would get absorbed in the novel and forget about it. (BTW, it is “nee-sha”, which I should have been able to figure out on my own, since I know Saoirse is pronounced “seer-sha”.)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to access an advance reader’s copy of this book.

Oh my goodness. This book is incredibly fine. Now I know what the phrase ‘razor sharp wit’ really means. On a sentence level the novel delivers one perfect zinger after another. Dolan is particularly good at capturing the way men talk to women whom they mistakenly think are not as smart as they are. The dialog is brilliant throughout. You have to understand that this is the kind of story I have very high standards for because the plot is an evergreen plot: young person at loose ends making her way in the world and deciding who to love. And yet it’s so original. I dove right in and read from beginning to end, and now I’m giving thanks that such a book exists in the world—light, sweet, sad, true.

Billed as a cross between Sally Rooney and 'Crazy Rich Asians,' regrettably this debut novel from Naoise Dolan misses both marks.

The similarities are easy to see in a superficial sense: Ava, a recent college graduate with communist ideals uproots from her home in Ireland to teach English to children of wealthy families in decidedly capitalist Hong Kong. She finds friendship and sex and a place to live with expat British banker Julian, who matches her intellect and humor and emotional dysfunction.

Imbalanced in affection and resources, their arrangement lurches along. During a months-long period while Julian travels for work, a stylish and fascinating Hong Kong lawyer, Edith, draws Ava in with her quirky, unstudied allure. Ava pursues a sexual relationship with Edith and they start dating in earnest. Their bliss is interrupted when Julian returns to his apartment. Ava’s inability to draw appropriate boundaries between the relationships intertwines them together like a weird tripod that eventually, inevitably, falls over.

Though she’s caught between friends and lovers, Ava’s greatest obstacle is her own indolence. She reliably identifies problematic behaviors in herself and others without ever acting to improve her situation. She relies financially on a partner with whom she shares not love but affectionate contempt, but she refuses to move out of that situation. She gets offended by instances of casual racism among her peers but doesn’t speak out against them. She acknowledges her refusal to socialize, but continues to ignore invitations. She exercises little agency, living her life passively, letting things happen to her. Ava is so alienated from herself emotionally that the reader is separated from any true connection with her.

The writing reflects Ava’s refusal to know herself. Ava’s first-person account has a way of skirting points and then revisiting them as if they maybe should have been clear all along. The first third of the novel gives the reader no hint that Ava has desires outside heterosexuality. Then later, she ascribes the fact that people disliked her in school to her liking girls. (Which still isn’t exclusively true.) It’s a whiplashy, “what did I miss” experience of reading that makes Ava seem like an unreliable narrator of her own experience.

Ava’s life largely takes place in her apartment or on her cell phone, with only brief visits to her job or other instances of the outside world. There are hints at a vibrant social scene, a turbulent political environment, and the humanity found on all points of the spectrum of wealth that characterizes Hong Kong, but Ava, typically, doesn’t engage with much of that, and the reader loses out on witnessing a rich and interesting setting.

What Ava does engage with, she observes keenly. Most frequently it’s her latent anger and her preoccupation with the power disparities found along gender and class divisions. Contemplating an entitled expat she socializes with, she realizes, “It was as if someone else ironed everything for her –her whole life– and her role was to make new creases.”

The novel is at its most enjoyable when Ava is with Edith, joyful and/or seeking joy. It’s really too bad that Ava spends most of the novel purposefully ignoring happiness or even contentment as an option she can choose. If a reader is motivated to choose joy, they might do better to look otherwhere than 'Exciting Times.'

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for the eARC.

This debut is completely deserving of all the praise it's receiving. It follows the life of Ava who moves over to Hong Kong from Ireland aged 22, as she learns about herself through her relationships with Julian and Edith, a banker and a lawyer, seemingly firmly established in their lives in HK. Dolan's style is really moorish, the story unfolds in short sharp chapters, filled with lines of droll, witty dialogue and narrative, and introspection that is often hilarious and devastating in equal measure. It manages to be moving without being romantic and really captures the struggle of trying to find a place for yourself in a new environment and how this can lead you to reflect on your character in general.

Fans of Sally Rooney will appreciate this book. Naoise Dolan writes about an unconventional relationship between two expats living in Hong Kong. When a third person becomes entangled in the relationship Ava must make decisions about who she will choose. The writing is sparse and unique, as well as beautiful, and makes the novel easy to jump into.

I can safely say that Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan is unlike any other book I have read. At first glance, it looks like your average love triangle plot, when it fact it’s a lot deeper than that.
The plot itself is very minimal and is told from Ava’s point of view. The story is driven by the relationship of these characters and is well written – I could almost feel the awkwardness when Julian and Edith met for the first time.
Ava is a very unique character who has an opinion on everything, whether its politics, feminism or class structure. There were moments where I really liked her, and others where she was quite frustrating. A lot of the time, she seems quite emotionally distant, which made her hard to read. She lets herself be treated relatively badly by Julian at times, and when Edith finally wants to offer her love, she panics. Although I can imagine that this sort of self-destructive behaviour is relatable for a lot of people, it didn’t make it any less frustrating to read.
I liked the sense of humour in the book, especially between Ava and Julian. They’re both sarcastic and witty and are always trying to one-up each other. They have a really complex relationship, which at times I didn’t always understand.
Edith, on the other hand, is a lot more open and honest. Compared to Julian, she’s a breath of fresh air. But that doesn’t make her relationship with Ava any less difficult. It was interesting to read about how a lot of people are scared to be in openly gay relationships in Asian culture. Without spoiling too much, I think Edith deserved more from Ava.
As a whole, Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan is an interesting and at times a thought-provoking read.

I was excited to get this book. Its synopsis made me curious and I was looking forward to reading it. However, sadly, it was just an okay read for me.

The beginning sounded promising and intrigued me into reading further but after a few chapters, I felt the pace of the story slowed down and not much was happening. The story was not really engaging and at times it fell flat. I had to force myself to continue reading it. The characters were kind of interesting at the beginning and I was hoping for more character development as the story developed, but that didn't happen either. The protagonists became annoying to me with too much over the top reactions to the ongoing situations. I did not connect with either of them. I found the writing very simple and just functional but not attractive at all.

I'd say this is an OK read, if you like this kind of stories about love triangles and its uncertainties, especially in a foreign land. But this was not what I had expected to read and I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

A big thank you to HarperCollins Publishers and Netgalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Review published on Goodreads on May 10, 2020.

This is a story for people who like unlikable characters. It captures the lost college graduate perfectly, and whether we actually wandered aimlessly like Ava, I think many will relate to that fear of ending up where we didn't mean to. I'll be trying to figure out how I feel about this one for awhile, which seems appropriate.

An exciting, fresh love story!

I think this book hit a lot of high notes. Ava, our protagonist is an Irish expat. She moved to Hong Kong hoping all of her dreams would come true. It hasn't really been working out like that for her, yet. Until she meets someone - scratch that - two someones.

This book had it all! There was humor and wryness. I felt like I was in Ava's soul at times. She navigated two extremely complex relationships simultaneously - one with a man and one with a woman.

I feel like this would be an excellent book for bookclub!