Thank you for walking me down memory lane!
This book had all the 2009 references I needed, from reruns of Fraiser to Buffy to subway sandwiches and even Leona Lewis! The vibes were immaculate and I'm so glad to have read it. I adored the male characters in this book so much, James and James are so utterly wholesome and hilarious. I had only wished the author had given an extra depth to her female lead. I'm going to be honest here, our main gal, Rachel, was a bit of a dud.
For that I give this 4/5 stars 🌟 but I'm now a fan of anything this author writes! I loved her writing so much. It was so fast paced and fun to follow along. Trust me I skipped dinners and sleep for this.
Thank you Netgalley for approving this beautiful book!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue. The story revolves around Rachel Murray, a twenty year old young woman, a less than steller college student finishing a degree in English, lving in Cork County, Ireland and exploring and struggling with all of the challenges a woman at that time of her life faces: independence, relationships, responsibilities, sexuality. Rachel has two young men named James in her life. James Devlin is a carefree young man, Rachel's coworker and very best friend and James Carey, a 27 year old man who Rachel longs and lusts for,yet has a tendency to disappear from her life. The book explores their relationships over a period of years. It is a delightful book that tells a story of friendship, love, loss, reconciliation and yes, redemption. It is realistic, funny at times and touching at others- just a wonderful read. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, it did not impact my review in any way. 5 Stars.

I LOVED this book. I laughed out loud and was moved by these characters. I loved the voice of the book and felt nostalgia for the time this was set in. I will think about this book and these characters for a long time. Highly recommend. Thank you to the publisher and net galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very character driven story about Rachel and James, two Irish best friends in the 2010's. Rachel is graduating from the university in Cork, and James works with her at a bookstore, so they decide to live together. Rachel has a professor she adores, and there begins the story about relationships and friendships. I liked the writing, was interested in the story, but the characters were a bit whiny to me. Could be my age--I think this will appeal to readers in their 20's and 30's. I can also see why people are comparing this book to Sally Rooney's books. If you like hers, I think you will like this one, too.

From the publisher:

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife.

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This was a slow start for me. I really wasn’t sure about it at all. But just past the halfway point, it really took hold and I flew through the rest. Rachel is young and thinks in a way that seems older while at the same time acting her age. I recommend this book for sure, but just be patient. You won’t be sorry.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing me with an advance copy of this book on exchange for an honest review.

Available June 27, 2023.

If Sally Rooney had a sense of humor, this is the book she’d write. It’s a perfect depiction of that time in early adulthood where you’re not a teen but non a grown-up either, on your own for the first time but unable to actually care for yourself, and when your best friends are your family.

4.5 stars
I’m not an Irish millennial but I think that some experiences transcend. I lost myself a bit in this story of Rachel and her relationship with the two James’ in her life. Secrets and lies and miscommunications usually don’t work for me but, somehow, Rachel’s insightful and sarcastic comments made it all work. I find myself wanting to say this is a feel good novel but that’s not quite right. It’s a book full of such realized characters that they felt real and stay with you long after you finish reading. Definitely recommend!
*Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

Set in Cork, Ireland during the recession, this one is all about friends, lovers, and figuring out your future.

Rachel works at a bookstore and befriends co-worker James. They eventually become roommates and best of friends. While Rachel is finishing her English degree, the Irish economy is in shambles.

A crush on her professor leads Rachel and James to concoct an event at the bookstore for his new book. The crush goes nowhere but Rachel is given an internship by her professor’s wife who works in publishing.

A romance with another man named James breaks her heart, she’s let go from the bookstore, and ostracized from the Cork community. Rachel moves to London and tries to begin her life all over.

While Rachel wasn’t always a likable character, she did finally grow at the end of the book. I enjoyed this different sort of book, but it’s back to thrillers for me!

The Rachel Incident has all of my favorite things: lifelong friendship, unrequited love, and twists I never saw coming. It’s a satisfying story of how Rachel finds her way and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Love and friendship can both be very complicated and this books captures that in such a perfect way. Highly recommend. Now I just need all my friends to read it so we can discuss.

I read this in less than 24 hours; I couldn't put it down. It had so many quiet moments and wasn't necessarily a big, dramatic story, but it was told so thoughtfully and with such emotion that I felt for all the characters involved, on all sides of each situation. I only wish I knew what happened next!

Completely engrossing. Found myself sucked into this book and read it in one sitting in an afternoon. The story is compelling and hard to put down. Somehow the author has woven some characters with despicable traits at times that the reader still likes and trusts the word of. Everything just works well.

This is a lovely coming of age novel that follows Rachel, a university student who works at a bookstore and falls in love with James. The novel is good but not great and definitely more for the younger audience but I definitely think it’s much better than books such a Normal People.

Although this is being billed as akin to a Sally Rooney novel, for me it is much closer to something by Dolly Alderton or Caitlin Moran. Whoever your chosen comparative author, it is a series of warm, ruthlessly honest, and pithy vignettes from a year in the life of a university student set in Cork in 2010.

Rachel Murray is adrift: her English degree is going to be of little use, her middle class parents have been sideswiped by the financial crisis, and her relationship with her boyfriend is dull and in a cul de sac. Then she meets James Devlin and they instantly become best friends, and she develops a crush on one of her professors.

Told from the perspective of Rachel ten years in the future, it’s a year in which Rachel goes through many trials: personal, social, and professional. She makes the sort of bad choices we all did in our early twenties and they have the sort of bad consequences we all suffered, but we can also see the embryo of the adult which she will become.

At its heart, this is a book about the sort of wild and completely absorbing friendship that is only really possible in that liminal stage of life before jobs, relationships, and responsibilities take hold. Highly recommended if you want to remember what your youth was really like.

Thanks to Knopf and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Even though this was not my typical type of read, I did end up enjoying it. It reminded me of how discouraging it was for young people coming of age at that time. I have read quite a few novels with dual timelines, but this one left me confused a time or two about when an incident being described actually took place. Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advance copy to read and review.

A very quick and enjoyable read, but a little bit one dimensional. A good book for a beach read, but many of the characters were a but stereotypical--i.e James as the "Gay Best Friend", the professor as a closeted gay man stuck in a marriage. I found Rachel a bit winey through most of the book, but found her less annoying by the end of the book. Not my favorite book of the year, but still a quick read and good for summer.

LOVED LOVED LOVED this book. A twenty-something with a messy, unsettled life in Ireland and her gay, male best friend. So sweet, so poignant, so FUNNY. I enjoyed every minute spent with Caroline O’Donoghue’s characters.

Fantastic portrait of coming-of-age. I loved this and was surprised by the freshness of it. Rachel is a likable character despite the time the reader spends watching her make mistakes. I loved that her and James met working at a bookstore and their instant friendship was believable and heartfelt.

I did feel that the ending should have been different. It was a little too tidy for me. But otherwise this was a gem and I highly recommend it to readers who like reading great character and relationship development.

Clever, funny take on growing up Irish in the early '10s. Eponymous Rachel paying her own way through uni since her parents' assets have declined in a recession. She gets a flat with bookstore coworker, James, a witty, closeted gay, and they proceed to go on a wild tear through Cork. Oh, to be young...

Both fall in love with men who are bad news. The best friends are there for each other during the ups and downs during one epic year.

Only much later in life do we see the denouement of these relationships.

Love, trauma, poverty, class, naivety, omissions, and truths weave together in this ode to friendships and how we learn who we are as young adults.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue comes with a lot of hype, everywhere I turn it’s being advertised as THE book of the season that is unputdownable. I will simply say…they are right. It was a 5 star read for me. It took about 25% for me to really get into it and care - I honestly thought it was a mystery before actually cracking it open so I think I was spending more time wondering why this wasn’t a thriller than anything about the book itself.

We meet Rachel and James right away in the future and we quickly flash back to the past, when they are in their late teens in a small town in Ireland trying to figure it out. It being adulthood and life, nothing major. While attending university Rachel develops a big crush on her professor, Fred Byrne, who becomes an integral part of her life with James and the incident in question.

The writing was fantastic and had me laughing out loud at times. There were a few points where I would reference something cultural in my head only to read on a few more words and find it on the page. The best example I have is when a character is talking about having Lupus and I thought of the contestant on ANTM, and then it was right there.

LOVED! You will smile, cringe, laugh, and think your way through this one.

Thank you the NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the ARC. The Rachel Incident is out now!

A story about friends, lovers, a financial crisis and a young woman desperately searching for something. Much of the drama centers around Rachel, her best friend James and his affair with her married professor. The dialogue was darkly funny and the cringe worthy situations Rachel finds herself truly made me uncomfortable.

I was not a fan of the beginning of the book, and actually contemplated not finishing. Yet I am a sucker for drama, so I stuck it out to the conclusion. I enjoyed the bond and devotion between Rachel and James. I found myself sympathizing with Rachel struggles in life.

I didn't dislike story but I didn't love it either.

Thank you Knopf for the complimentary copy.