Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Have you ever imagined running away from your life?

Well Birdy Finch didn't just imagine it. She did it. Which might've been an error. And the life she's run into? Her best friend, Heather's.

The only problem is, she hasn't told Heather. Actually there are a few other problems...

Can Birdy carry off a summer at a luxury Scottish hotel pretending to be her best friend (who incidentally is a world-class wine expert)?

And can she stop herself from falling for the first man she's ever actually liked (but who thinks she's someone else).

Review:

This was a really fun, light read. Yes there are some serious themes (alcoholism and cheating) but overall this was a good rom com with some real laugh out loud moments. If you like a feel good, cute romance with some humour - this is a good read for you!

I love a good bit of romance and I got it with this book. I also got a lovely feeling of being relaxed and enjoying the Scottish scenery.
All of the characters except Russell and Tim are people that I could be friends with.
Yes, what Birdy did was wrong, but I say ‘good for you’. I wish I had the courage to try something new.
An easy to read and charming book.

The Summer Job is a lovely light read, it was my perfect genre, girl meets boy and happy ending.
In my opinion this book was about a girl Birdy who lost her identity and used her friends to create a new life and eventually find herself.
It was based on decite between friends but it was lovely how her friend understood the reasons behind it.

This was a lovely read.
Thank you.

Birdy does not want to go back to living with her parents. So when her best friend, Heather, jets off, she accepts the job Heather has been offered in Scotland as a sommelier at little hotel. As long as she learns the small wine list she should be fine right?

I quite like the mistaken identities trope however I also struggle with too much cringe. The beginning of this book Birdy was cracking these jokes that I struggled a little to stomach but as the book progressed these calmed down. I like how although a romance, this book dealt with other issues. It is more about Birdy discovering who she is.

Definitely a book to read with a glass of wine in hand.

Loved this book, it just constantly made me want to know what would happen next.
Could not put it down.

I'm going to find this hard to rate, so essentially I'm writing this review to try and work myself around to one!

The premise of this book is fun and rife for the kind of shenanigans that I love to see: Birdy Finch is pretending to be her best friend, a really great sommelier, at a hotel up in Scotland while Heather herself is off chasing love. Nobody knows about it and, obviously, Birdy has to keep it secret and pretend to know things about wine when she very much does not. It's funny and entertaining and the comedy that unspools from that, I thought, was great. It was also very heartwarming: it was a joy to read about Birdy struggling, to see how overwhelmed she got, to see her struggle and decide to apply herself to this, especially when we're shown and are aware of all the times she has steadfastly refrained from doing that before. The character growth that Birdy undergoes in this novel is so organic and so lovely to watch. I also really appreciated that the author guides us along, that we see Birdy's flaws and faults, that she recognises them herself and makes the active decision to try and not fall prey to her own worst impulses this time.

Honestly, that was the real joy of this book: watching Birdy. As a character, she's wonderful. She's funny and witty, charming and very real. She feels fully realised and, as I think this is a debut, I found that admirable. Her backstory is so sad and tragic, which is never brushed over, but nor is it necessarily dwelled on. She has an alcoholic father and an enabling mother who let her down over and over again and it's important to the story and important to Birdy, but something I thought was done really well was how this was incorporated and weighed in well but never overwhelming. Birdy's personality was what really brought this book to life and I really, really rooted for her. I wanted her to make friends and keep them, I wanted her to find a place for herself, and I wanted her to take down Russell.

A lot of the other characters were fun additions too, a sweet cast of characters who were fun to run into and who helped create this narrative. I enjoyed it!

The main reason I'm not sure about this, though, is that I just didn't believe in the romance. I never really <i>got</i> James. So many of these characters had their own hints of personalities, but I think that James was just nothing? He's clearly meant to be a sweet boy, who is warm and caring and quiet and just much more grounded than Birdy, to help her feel more sure-footed. I got that sense! The problem was I didn't get the actual feel of it. He felt more like a shadow than a person, which was especially disappointing because Birdy was such a great character, whom I loved reading about. The lack of personality for James just absolutely obliterated any hope of me caring about their romance. Quite frankly, I just didn't! I wanted to read about Birdy. I couldn't care less about James. Ultimately, this soured it for me and, when the end of the book comes and the happy ending, I just didn't really care that James was involved. I would have been quite happy for that to melt into the background and for Birdy to move forward, knowing more about herself and feeling more settled. Her character growth is really great and she's so great.

I suppose, all in, I'd give it roughly three stars but I really feel like this would have been a much stronger book without the romance, if it had just functioned as a warm character study for this woman. The romance element is perfunctory and underdeveloped, so I feel like I'm at war with two different impulses. As a romcom, this book fails; as a character journey, this book was much more fulfilling.

I was provided with an advanced copy from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for a review.

Heather Jones, an up and coming sommelier has a new job in a hotel in Scotland. The only problem is she's not a sommelier and her name isn't Heather. She is actually Elizabeth Finch and she has taken the job her friend Heather was meant to take before she went to Italy to be with her present boyfriend.
I really enjoyed the book although read it with a sense of dread of Elizabeth being found out.
Very well written, with realistic characters and a great storyline which kept me hooked throughout.

This was a very light rom com type read that I could easily picture being some kind of movie. Though I wasn't super blown away by the storyline or the characters as it felt like something was missing. But it was still generally an easy and enjoyable read.

Such a great book. Enjoyable, entertaining and absolutely laugh out loud hilarious in parts. In a drunken moment, Birdy decides to take on a summer job at what she thinks is a run down restaurant in remote Scotland that her best friend is no longer wanting to do,as she is going out of the country with the latest boyfriend. But along side the job, she also takes on her friends identity,the downside is that her friend is a top expert in wine and Birdy is just an expert in drinking the stuff. There is true depth in parts of the book that really add to the story. I really recommend reading this one.

Fun and light, a joy to read. I kept wanting to read more and really enjoyed it! Ioved the character of Birdy!
I cant wait to read more from Lizzy, one to watch for sure! I loved the premise of finding yourself even when your pretending to be someone else and couldn't recommend it enough!

Fun and light, perfect for fans of Beth O'Leary. The summer job is all about finding yourself whilst you're pretending to be someone else. Lizzy Dent has written an excellent perfect summer read.

I totally loved this book and thought it was so entertaining, funny and sentimental all at the same time. Straightforward plot really and at times left me feeling a little bit 'as if she could pull that off' but main character Birdy did just that. Pretending to be her best friend and renowned Wine Somelier Heather, she blaggs a job in what she thought was a run down b&b type place for the summer. What could possibly go wrong? Well plenty which makes it entertaining, but in the end, the love story prevails. A nice easy read for lockdown afternoons by the fire.

My thanks to netgalley for an arc of this book in return for my honest opinion.

There should be a warning on this book that you will be hungry afterwards. I was hungry from the start and was craving haggis by the end., It's a lovely way to discover Scotland and the fine fresh food it has to offer. What it must be like working in hospitality though! This book shines a light on that! I think the author has had a great idea and you can tell she has enjoyed every moment of writing this book. And that makes this book fun and fresh to read.

In this book we meet Birdy and her best friend, somelier, Heather. They have been best friends forever and tell each other everything and both live in Heather’s flat. Things get tricky when Birdy gets mistaken for Heather and takes a job in Scotland as a somellier. Oops! As if things weren’t complicated enough, Birdy falls in love with the chef, who also thinks she’s Heather.
This is a fun, sweet book with a good heart and lovely descriptions of a loch in Scotland which is a nice bonus.

Oh boy. I really wanted to enjoy this. Really truly I wanted to love this but I gave up at 80%. I just couldn’t take any more.

That’s not saying I didn’t enjoy this book, parts of it I really loved – however. I just couldn’t get on board with Birdy. I love a flawed character, but in my opinion this took it too far. So many lies, so many anxiety inducing lies. I wanted to take James away and protect him – and that. That emotion is why I can’t call this time wasted. Because I really cared about the characters – all of them. Except Birdy, sorry Love.

Whenever I don’t enjoy a book I almost grieve for the time I’ve lost in reading it and although this isn’t quite the case with this one (there were scenes I really loved, the cooking lesson for example). I almost feel miffed at myself, this book could have been written for me, I’ve worked in hospitality, I’ve had terrible reviews written about me, I love angst and romance so why? Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m sulking about the years I worked in hotels wishing I could spit in the soup of the day.

This book has been tipped to be the new Flat Share and I’m sorry but it’s just not. If you wanted a fun romance you will (probably) enjoy this book. Just be warned. You will want to shake the main character.

The premise of this book was really enticing but the beginning of the actual story was so slow, I had to drag myself through a huge portion before I got really invested in Birdy's life. But I did really enjoy the humor in this one and watching Birdy try to pretend to be her best friend Heather made for some excellent situational comedy that I think would translate epically onto the big screen!

I really enjoyed this book; it was fun and easy to read. Birdie pretends to be her friend Heather, in order to escape London, to go and be a sommelier in Scotland. As she knows nothing about wine, she has a challenge on her hands! This book is a great summer read - there is love, loss and the search for self-acceptance. I also enjoyed all the food and wine talk!

This is a hugely enjoyable book with a lot of warmth and humour but more depth than I anticipated, Birdy is a lost soul, without her best friend Heather she’d be on her own with no ties to anyone or anything. When Heather backs out of the sommelier job she had signed up to for the summer to go abroad with her boyfriend Birdy is supposed to let the hotel know that Heather will no longer be working there but due to a mix up at a wine event Birdy decides that doing the job in Heather’s place solves a few of her own problems. There’s some lovely characters, some relevant issues covered but more than anything a lot of confusion and humour. The storyline might be simple but it’s a very engaging read and a cracking main character in Birdy.

3,5 starts.
I think it's an entertaining read with some very serious moments.
It's requires quite a lot of suspension of belief as I don't think that a guide is enough to work as a sommelleir.
I didn't like Birdy at the beginning as I found her immature but she grew on me and I liked her character arc.
The plot flows, there's a lot of humor but there's also some heartbreaking scenes.
I think you can love or hate it, I found it ok and it will be surely loved by a lot of people.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A fantastic idea behind this madcap caper of a book. It is quite slow to start and get into. The writing is good and MC's super relatable. A good read.