Member Reviews
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC
Katherine's wittiness, sense of humour and love for her family all shine through as she recounts a brief history of her love life and how she finally managed to settle down with her high school boyfriend
While this was a very enjoyable quick read (It probably took me just over an hour to finishing reading - and I'm a slow reader!) It feels like this book is just a brief sketch of the author's life, rather than her opening up to the reader. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see her emotional journey change from "I don’t want to be alone -> I don't need a man to in my life -> I've found the right guy
How to Accidentally Settle Down by Katherine Ryan is a novella that details the romantic history of the stand-up comic. While I am not familiar with Ms Ryan's work, I did find this brief telling of her reconnection with her high school boyfriend to be fresh and unfiltered, though I was expecting a few laugh out loud moments, and was sadly left wanting. Overall, though, this is a quick and witty read if you are looking for something a little different from your usual fare. 3.5 stars
Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for an ARC.
This book is pretty much exactly what the title says — which isn’t a bad thing! I was already familiar with Katherine Ryan’s stand-up and tv show, which I think added some depth to the story that others who aren’t already familiar with her might not get. There were a few funny bits but generally I would have loved if her unique, relatable humor shined through more.
Humorous, reflective and self-deprecating, Katherine Ryan delivers a novella that reads like a stand-up special. This was an enjoyably quick read.
How to Accidently Settle Down is a short memoir following Katherine Ryan as she navigates relationships and growing a family life. It follows her life from meeting and falling in love with Bobby as teenagers to eventually reconnecting as adults.
I thought this was really interesting and I enjoyed the witty writing style. As someone in their twenties I found this very comforting to read and I liked the way Ryan reflects on her past mistakes without blaming her younger self. The insights into her family life particularly the experience of raising her daughter as a single mother were fascinating and I enjoyed the fact that the book also explores her relationships with her friends and family as well as just romantic relationships. This book is only 32 pages so it was very quick to get through and I read it in one sitting.
I did find that due to the length of the book it felt slightly rushed and there are some aspects of her story that I wish we could've learnt more about. The ending in particularly felt extremely rushed and quite abrupt. I also wished we could've unpacked more about her career progression.
Overall this was a quick, fun read and I would definitely recommend it if you want to learn more about Katherine Ryan as a person or if you just want reassurance that it's okay to make mistakes in your twenties!
I love Katherine Ryan so I was really excited to read this, quick and easy to read and full of love and laughter. Fantastic read overall.
3.5⭐
Having learned some of Katherine's life through her comedy specials and finding it interesting, I loved having her history written in one chronological story but found it to be more a quick summary of her life and lacking many comedic witty antidotes I expect from such a brilliant comedian.
A laugh out loud novella when you just need a quick burst of entertainment or a palate cleanser between books. Highly recommended!
Katherine Ryan is just so relatable! A quick, short read of only 32 pages but she crammed in a lot of information about her dating life. I liked the fact she didn’t overkill the comedy parts however I would have expected a few more pages about rekindling with Bobby. This felt a little bit slap dash to wind the story up. Overall a fun, quick read.
Not very long (42 pages), this is listed as a novella. Nothing wrong with that. I have been reading a lot of memoirs lately. Truth is often much more interesting than fiction. 3.5 stars rounded up.
I enjoyed this novella. Very readable and interesting. Not really a laugh out loud novella.
The author's daughter Violet seems like a gem.
Many thanks to NetGalley for introducing me to (yet once again) a new to me author. Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Amazon Original Stories for approving my request to review the advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was a fun short story. I was hesitant because anything that says it's going to be funny, rarely is, but this was. Glad to have read it! Many thanks for the opportunity to read this one.
Short and sweet book about Katherine and Bobby finding their way back to each other after being together in high school. I would have liked for her to go into a bit for detail. The ending where she talked about getting back together with Bobby and getting married felt a bit rushed.
As someone whose husband was meant to be a one night stand and who had Taco Bell for dinner last night, I feel perfectly equipped to review this book. While the early stories made me laugh and the culmination of her memoir was quite obvious (I mean, it’s in the title of course), and he end of it all felt rushed. I’d have enjoyed more after she met Bobby again.
Told via a string of failed relationships, this witty novella follows Katherine Ryan’s path to eventual love and stability.
This was an amusing, quick and easy read, and I enjoyed getting to know Katherine as she recounted her various romantic relationships. Having finished this, I found myself wanting more, and was happy to see she had previously published an autobiography, which I’ll be adding to my TBR!
Thank you to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I find Katherine Ryan to be very funny, watched her series on Netflix, I’ve heard bits of ow she got back together with her high school boyfriend. This short book goes into some detail into her previous relationships with that KR humor. A great afternoon read, kept me laughing.
Sometimes things don't go as we expect, and sometimes things go exactly as we expect...decades later than we expect. That's what happened for Katherine Ryan when an old relationship became a new relationship.
This is published by Amazon Original Stories, so it's not a full-length memoir but rather the length of a long essay. Ryan takes readers through her relationship history, basically, with a side of comedy career—the former mostly somewhat toxic but the latter progressively more successful. If you're familiar with any of her work, it won't surprise you that she has some pointed things to say about the barriers women face in comedy. Per usual, I would have liked more scenes and less speeding along through what happened, although in fairness it does keep the story moving right along; the book can easily be read in one sitting.
Ryan isn't really my style as a comic, but it sounds like she's lived a pretty interesting life. I found myself wondering where she might have gone with a full-length memoir—which it looks like she may have already published, so this might make for a useful quick read for anyone considering reading her full-length book.
Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.
I’ve been aware of Katherine Ryan for several years now (particularly from her appearances on British talk and game shows), and having always enjoyed her storytelling, I thought that How to Accidentally Settle Down would be a short and sweet palate cleanser between more serious fare. And it is that: not quite 50 pages, Ryan briefly summarises her romantic life — from first love, Bobby, to more adult relationships (including a long stretch with a man she calls “Then Boyfriend” [TB]; the father of her first child, Violet), and finally a reconnection with Bobby twenty years later — and while Ryan describes everything with a sardonic, comedic touch, the stories tend to somehow have both too much and not enough detail. Ultimately: I don’t know if this needed to be written, but it was an entertaining enough reading experience; still interested in reading Ryan’s longer work.
A very brief account of the author’s love life from high school to today, this book is peppered with funny references (eg: things she learned from the documentary, Forrest Gump) but is pretty unremarkable. It’s too brief to really make you feel invested and the narrow focus on her romantic entanglements is limiting.
Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!
These short stories are a funny quick read leading up to where Katherine is right now, romantically that is. The series of essays begin with her high school journey dating experiences both good and bad. We then follow Katherine as she ends up moving oversees with a guy who she knew she had no future with, but ended up going and staying there. Eventually she has a baby that of course does not save the relationship but instead creates an amazing bond between her and her daughter. But when she goes back to the states for a quick trip she meets up with her high school boyfriend....and you can guess the rest ;)
This was a short but hilarious story from one of my all time favourites and this was truly a good time. Really enjoyed the book and how she narrated her maniacal relationships eloquently. Thank you netgalley for this ARC and thanks Kath for the story