I loved The Next Big Thing! This book references many of Australia's overly large inanimate objects, which is honestly just a total draw card for me all on its own.

James Colley is an Australian author, and this book is a great underdog story. Norm wants to save his small town and get the girl. His chosen method is to build a big thing! What follows is entertaining, hilarious and downright captivating. I really enjoyed this story, and I thought it was the perfect summary of some Australian humour.

I've picked myself up a physical copy of this one, purely because I enjoyed it so much.

Big thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for this one!

The perfect Aussie rom com, highly recommend. x

Norm from Norman....what a kid!? He seems a somewhat awkward kid that feels disconnected from his community. He'd make any parent proud, if only his were around. Norm wants to save the dying tiny town, and he has a plan thinking he knows how. The mayor has other plans to seize the town and cares for himself only, not the community.

There are mostly likeable characters in The Next Big Thing and throughout the book we get to know the different personalities and the many stories behind them.

The book starts slow and a little dull, however, it does improve. I rate it 3.5. It's a light read about a serious problem faced by many small communities.

Known for his writing and comedy, the author James Colley, writes astutely in this debut novel and I like his humour.
James writes;

"His baby girl was leaving home. That was it, then. He’d be stuck in the grandstand. If that. He’d call Zeke now and then, but he never knew what to say. They’d
share a few results from the weekend and then Mick would
seize up. It was hard to shake the feeling that he was always
interrupting something more important. His kids were busy
living their own lives now."

I think most parents will understand James' words when their kids fly the coop. It's a well thought excerpt that had me saying YES! because it captures a life changing experience for parents so eloquently. It shows how insightful the author is and how well he is able to translate experiences into his book.

Just as aptly the author captures the essence of a town on the brink and the essence of a small Aussie community. I enjoyed reading the citations at the beginning of each chapter, informing readers of a good few 'Big Things' around Australia.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Pantera Press for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. #NetGalley #TheNextBigThing

At the start of this book I had to keep reminding myself that Norm was a teen/young adult. It took me quite awhile to get my head around. I think it was the name and I just assumed Norm was an old name. It's a name that you definitely don't hear at the moment in young people.
I think I was expecting "big things" from this book and it didn't live up to my expectations. I enjoyed the little snippets about the big things at the start of each chapter, but it didn't bring me enough throughout the book to keep me interested. I felt like it was more of a love story. In my head, I was expecting for the characters to visit more big things, or to build a big thing earlier on in the book and have that story told. I felt like the big thing was put to the side of the story behind the 2 main characters entwined relationship.
There were many little stories going on behind the main story and at times I felt like it was hard to keep up with it all. Every character had a story and the author wrote them all in. It made it confusing at times.

Norm from Norman. I'm sorry, I had high hopes you'd make me feel something. Having lived in a tiny town, and also one that is perhaps known for one the 'big things' mentioned in the book, I wanted this to be more. More uplifting. More entertaining. It's not badly written. It's just... dare I say, a tad boring? A bit like many of those 'big things'. The idea sounds good, but when you get there it's not really that great.

I found this one a bit of a chore, to be honest. I probably would have DNF if I wasn't reviewing it. Having said that, I'm sure it will have it's fans out there. It just wasn't for me.

This was a bit slow to start but did improve.

I think this one captured the essence of a small Australian town - all the characters were likeable and real.

Overall, I found this to be a light read with some strong themes around problems facing small towns across the country.

Thanks to Pantera Press and NetGalley for the ARC! Opinions are my own