Just Like You is about a relationship that are facing differences in backgrounds as well as an age gap. The main characters Lucy and Joseph are both really likeable and you find yourself rooting from them straight away, even when you’re not sure yourself how the relationship will work. The different obstacles they face, whether real or self imposed, are well written and force you to think about situations from both sides of the equation. It’s a lovely romance novel that keeps you hooked and makes you laugh along the way. As always, Hornby has a way of writing that is rarely found these days in this genre. I will be recommending to everyone as a must read!

I had read a couple of books by this author before some years ago and enjoyed his writing so when I saw this I hoped it would be a good read and I found it to be an enjoyable read.
The story is set in London during the Brexit Referendum and features 40 something mother Lucy who happens to fall in love with 21-year-old Joseph, They are two very different people, Lucy is a white, well-off separated mother of two children and is a teacher. Joseph is black, has many different jobs, and is not well off and as dreams of being a DJ. The story follows them from meeting where Joseph works in the local butcher and Lucy is a customer to him babysitting for Lucy and as they spend more time together their attraction to each other grows.
I liked the characters, especially Lucy who seemed down to earth and realistic about her future with Joseph and although there was no tension between the two I felt that the fact the book was set during the referendum gave me feelings of anxiety as it brought back some of my memories of that time to me. I like how the author brings in big topics into this book like racism and class and the complex nature of people's views of leave or remain. There is something very down-to-earth about his writing and it took me back to how I felt reading High Fidelity and Fever Pitch.
I did not make me feel the need to keep picking up the book and reading on but it did bring a sense of familiarity to me when I opened the pages as well as a sense that this event in 2016 was a bit disconcerting.
I gave the book 3 stars. Worth a read and it is an interesting novel.
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

The skill, for me, in Nick’s books is his ability to take the everyday - and in this case, the time around the Brexit vote - and make you care. Lucy is in her early forties, has two children and an ex-husband who is a bit of an eejit. She hires twenty something Joseph to babysit her sons, and the three quickly bond. But despite their differences - and just how many becomes clear within the novel - Lucy and Joseph are attracted to each other, and begin a cautious but loving relationship. They want to bridge the gap between their ages and interests - the subject of inter-racial relationships is handled with care - and to unite their families and friends, all the while living in a post-Brexit Britain. At first sight, it’s a lot to handle but Nick does it impeccably, with real regard for his characters and their feelings. I thought it was wonderful.

This is a great read which I have devoured in one sitting. The author's writing style has really pulled me into this one and I can safely say that I have loved this from the very first page.
Although, I was attracted by the pretty cover. This has been a great read.

I really wanted to love this book. The synopsis hooked me in and I couldn’t wait to get started.

I’m not sure I would classify this as a romance...it didn’t get me in the feels like other romance books do. Maybe that’s just me.

The book had a generous touch of political references which I found a little off-putting. The Brexit vote was a sad and frustrating time to live through, so having to re-experience elements of it in a romance novel was not enjoyable for me.

I liked the story angles relating to class differences and feel like the race issues are quite topical in the current climate, although some of the descriptions felt a little stereotypical.

Overall, it was a good read. It just didn’t grip me in the way I like from a romance.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 📚

I’ve just finished this book and I really enjoyed it.
The book is based on a budding relationship that deals with ageism and it’s challenges together with a mixed rave relationship against a backdrop of differing views in the Brexit vote.
That may sound heavy going when in fact the author manages to weave these elements into a really entertaining story.
I really enjoyed the book and it certainly made me question my own views and choices but in an entertaining way .

Set in the months leading up to the EU referendum in 2016, Just Like You follows 42-year-old teacher Lucy, who wants to start dating again after splitting from her ex husband. 22-year-old Joseph works at the local butchers (one of many jobs), where Lucy asks him to babysit her sons so she can go on a date.

So starts a relationship between the two. In Just Like You we get to explore the differences between Lucy and Joseph that make their relationship more difficult.

As a lover of Nick Hornby's previous novels, I was excited to be granted access to his latest, which did not disappoint.

Being inbetween the protagonists ages, it was interesting to see their differences and what both felt about the other and their age. Mainly, their problems stemmed from what they thought others perceptions of them as a couple may be.

The Brexit focus provided more interesting reflections on issues like race and on the whole, the novel is extremely topical at the moment. It seems crazy that we're already reading fiction books with the referendum as a backdrop. The mention of the US election really brings home what a year that was...

If you're a Nick Hornby fan, you won't be disappointed here! It's a very real story, with real characters and an easy read. Maybe give this a miss if you've had your fill of Brexit though!

A huge thanks to the publishers for the chance to read Just Like Me in exchange for an honest review.

I have read several of Nick Hornby’s novels and they never disappoint and neither did this one. This is the story of two people falling in love against the ‘norm’. it isn’t a romance as such, but a look at everyday life and how people meet.

Lucy is a 42, an English Teacher (Head of Department), separated from Paul, with two sons, Al and Dylan who are 10 and 8. She is white. Joseph is 22 and lives with his mother, keeping himself afloat with several jobs here and there. He is black. He is serving in Lucy’s local butchers, which is how they meet and Lucy asks him to babysit the children.

It is an unusual read for me as I mainly stick to crime/thriller novels. However, it is brilliant. Touching on racism, love, drink, drugs and how people relate to each other within a family and their circle of friends.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Penguin General UK and Nick Hornby for the ARC of ‘Just Like You’ in return for my honest review.

Lovely read. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed this but it just wasn't for me. Nick Hornby is one of those authors that I have been aware of for a very long time but I have never actually read one of his books. Just like you has moments of laugh out loud humour and touches on a number of current social issues. Despite its sparks there was just something missing here for me.

Absolutely loved this unlikely love story of Lucy and Joseph. Nick Hornby’s writing is at its best, sharp, funny and tender. He really gets inside the characters’ heads and underneath their feelings. Stealing the show however are Al and Dylan - their running commentary on their mother’s relationships is truly hilarious.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, so much so that I actually read it in a day. I didn't want to put it down, it was that good. It was a much needed distraction and brought me a lot of joy.

A novel about finding love where and when you least expect it, and exploring the likelihood of that love lasting. Does it even matter if there is no future in a love affair - should it just be enjoyed for what it can teach us? A very easy to read novel from Nick Hornby and enjoyably plotted. Perhaps some of the themes in here were rather superficially handled, but certainly a book worth reading.

This book touches on some important and current themes including: Brexit, the Black Lives Matter movement, alcohol abuse, snobbery and age gap relationships. All of these are seen through the backdrop of a relationship between a young black man, Joseph, and Lucy, who is a white divorced teacher in her forties who is dissatisfied with her life and the people she finds herself surrounded by. It details the self doubt that they have in their developing relationship and uses the reactions of others around them to throw a light on political issues and differences in class and experiences.
All of this should make for a fantastic novel but it almost tries to touch on too many themes and so doesn't really explore any of them with any depth. Joseph often feels more fully rounded then Lucy and more sure of who he is. Whilst I was rooting for them as a couple, I didn't feel any chemistry between the characters that would lift them off the page and make me care about them and it is this that meant that, whilst I liked the book, I didn't love it. I felt I wanted it to be more character driven in order for me to take them into my heart as I like to do.

Just Like You, Nick Hornby

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Romance, General fiction|R

OK, confession time. I've never read Nick Hornby, and as I don't have a TV I've never seen any film adaptations of his books. Yet his name is everywhere and when I saw this I thought maybe it was time....

So, what did I think? Well, sadly I guess Nick is one of those authors who many folk love but who's work isn't for me. I found this book really hard going, tedious, if it wasn't a review I would have stopped at 30% when I was still struggling to get interested in the story. Sadly that first third I struggled with was the best part of the book too.

I liked Joseph, but he was a very typical 22 year old, not ready to settle with one person and apart form being attracted to Lucy I didn't see why they were together. Likewise Lucy was a lady I felt for, failed marriage, elderly parents, mum of two young boys.
I loved her boys, at times they were the most honest out of all the folk in the novel.
There were times where Nick brought both Joseph and Lucy with others of their own age just to show they tried – that's how it felt to me, but the people they were with just weren't right for either regardless of the age issue.
Friends of both were predictable, Joseph's friends denigrating him being with Lucy because she was white and older, likewise Lucy's friends trying to be very middle-class polite about the fact Joseph was younger and black.

The book describes Lucy and Joseph's other relationships as the perfect match, but we didn't actually see any of that, they were just same age group, same colour, and had one shared interest. You could pull hundreds of perfect matches off a dating site if that's the only criteria.

I hate that Joseph is portrayed as – well – not too bright. The Brexit issue, where he wavers, feeling he “ought” to vote one way or the other and then....his determination to make it as a DJ, but in fact though music and one song plays a big part I didn't feel he was that invested in it. He didn't know what were some common genres of music, when if he was serious he's have been doing it not just talking about it. He wants to be a DJ but isn't out there learning, helping another, finding out whats hot right now. The theatre where he doesn't really know the story etc...it just felt he was a stereotypical black male, when the opportunity could have been to make him so much more.
He was a pleasant kid, and that was it really. He hadn't grown much from teens, wasn't ambitious, didn't know what he wanted from life on a personal or professional level, he was just a typical new adult drifter, waiting to see which direction life takes him. Regardless of race that's how things are for many early twenties kids.
Lucy, in contrast, was portrayed as very middle class, degree educated, English teacher, mum of kids, and a very “Boden family” type person, from her friends, her interests, her voting habits, everything apart from the divorce and her ex. She's interminably living in her head, mulling over problems, worrying what her friends a family will think. She had friends she didn't even like but was too polite to keep away from them. Her friends are very much the same mould – the start to that dinner party, “ oh, obviously you're not Joseph!” The type who love to see themselves as open minded, liberalists and yet they're inwardly horrified at Lucy being with a black younger man. Sadly had it been the other way round, older white guy with black younger lady they wouldn't bat an eyelid. Sexism is still alive and thriving in some areas.

I suppose at the heart this novel didn't ever give me the feeling there was anything more between Joseph and Lucy but hot sex. The interactions they had were mostly fraught with problems, prickly tensions over age and race. Lucy seems to endlessly mull on the age issue and Joseph having kids, thinking she'll be gone by then, and Joseph thinks about the future in terms of someone, sometime, but who isn't Lucy. I just can't wee two people supposedly in love who would think that way without the demons of jealousy gripping them. The holiday – I found that really odd, there's no way I could have done that. Invited, or gone, and it just reinforces to me that there was no grand passion, no real love between them.
The ending – well, I felt it was rushed and unsatisfactory. All the issues that plagued them through the book were still there, none were resolved, no action ever taken to deal with them, and yet somehow the last few pages magically make everything OK.

Stars: Two, I guess Nick is an author who's writing others love but I don't. I found the story had no real point, drifted along and relied on stereotypes that irritated me. It could have been so much more for me, but as ever its perfect for others.

Arc via netgalley and publishers

There are several Nick Hornby books I love so I was excited to read this one. It has all the warmth and humour, as well as accurate human observation I've come to expect from him. I really loved the first half of the book, but felt that the second half did not live up to the rest. I would have loved if Lucy's relationship with her ex was explored more.

Many thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.
I didnt enjoy this book at all. Although it's well written, with some great humour, I felt that the characters were just too shallow to be believable. None of it sat well with me. There was too much irritation and not enough warmth. I can see a film being made of this book and I hope its better than the book.

A lovely read which is perfect to take to the beach (if you get to one this year!)
I really enjoyed this novel, the characters are likeable and I was really rooting for them to come together despite their appeared differences.
Touches on a lot of topical subjects, such as brexit, race, class but in an accessible way.

I have read several Nick Hornby books and expected to enjoy this one. However, I found it disappointing. Initially, I enjoyed how he introduced the two main characters, their relationships and profiles. As the relationship between them developed it was difficult to see where it could go with the inter racial aspect and the huge difference in age, set against the backdrop of the Brexit referendum. He was empathetic to the older woman, but I'm not so sure about the coloured man. After the first few chapters I found the story slow and no longer of interest although I did read to the end. I don't really feel I can recommend this book.

As someone who has read and enjoyed multiple Nick Hornby books before, I had high hopes for his new novel, 'Just Like You', and whilst it isn't my favourite of his, I wasn't disappointed.

The book explores the highs, lows and challenges presented in an interracial relationship with a twenty year age gap, with the inclusion of Brexit, drug-addiction and single parenthood thrown into the mix.

I really enjoyed the exploration of this unexpected relationship between two people at very different stages of their lives, and the notion that whilst society says it really shouldn't work on paper, it somehow does. However, I found that once the climax of the get together had been reached, sadly, there was little else to the plot of the novel. Similarly, whilst I found the themes of Brexit and racism very relevant to our current global situation, it felt like Hornby explored these as almost a 'side story' to the main plot of the relationship, rather than interlacing them in. None the less, it was an enjoyable story with likeable characters and interesting themes.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the copy to review.

I'm a little on the fence with this one - there's absolutely no doubt that the book is well written and flows really easily. I like the characters. However, the actual subject matter feels too contrived - like your parents trying to be down with the kids. I cringed a lot. Throwing in a few random words and phrases from the urban dictionary is really not the way to go. A bit patronising.