An incredibly moving story of Eve who wakes up in a hospital bed not knowing how she got there, Her husband explains that she had a brain tumor removed. Eve learns how to walk, talk and write again. Through long walks with her husband she recounts what is important to her. This is Kinsella's most personal book and she is Eve.

This is a heartbreaking novella about cancer, preemptive grief and family ties and love. Despite it being a short story I felt emotionally connected to the female main characters and I felt the author did a beautiful and authentic job of representing the emotions of a terminal diagnosis in this novel.

This was such an emotional read. It is autobiographical and very impactful. I admire @sophiekinsella so much for sharing an experience that is so deeply personal and emotional. It truly drives home the fact that life can change in an instant and we need to appreciate every moment we are given.

A beautiful short story of a mother, a woman, a person finding out the imaginable. Friends and family support and cheer, but what does it feel like to have the end of your life so near?
Also incredible that this short story is based on the author's life.
Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel

Knowing that this is going on in the author's real life, especially an author whose work I've read consistently, felt so sad. But it was beautifully written as per her usual.

My heart broke reading this novella. I have loved Sophie Kinsella since her first Shopaholic book and have read everything since. I did not realize she was living with this horrible disease until I saw this book and did a bit of investigating.

This book was beautiful and tragic at the same time. It’s hard to say “I loved” such a heartbreaking story, but I was so moved as I read.

Definitely recommending this one!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Thank you, Sophie Kinsella for sharing your story with all of us. Although this is fiction, Kinsella states it is her most autobiographical story yet. The reader has the opportunity to discover, along with Eve the main character, a heartbreaking diagnosis and how to go forward. Kinsella tells this story with grit, grief, a little bit of humor, and a whole lot of heart. This book is a true gem.

A complementary copy was provided by publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. all opinions are my own.

(TW: Cancer) This is a 10 out of 10 novella. It’s brilliant and it’s strikingly personal. It’s gut wrenching and it’s heartbreaking. It’s cruel and it’s hopeful. Eve is so effortlessly lovable. Sophie is so brave, and her strength and optimism are traits I deeply admire. Thank you so much Netgalley and Random House for allowing me to review this ARC.

A beautiful novella about trauma, the unexpected and the sheer power of good faith and positivity. This was an extremely brave retelling of Sophie Kinsella’s battle with cancer. It was her closest work to an autobiography but still considered fiction because the characters are given different names.

What started as trouble balancing quickly turned into brain surgery, chemo and lots of rehab. Having gone through a similar trauma, I applaud this type of novel. I think it’s so important to bring light to things others might not know about. For me, it was about raising awareness so others would know if their speech is slurred and they can’t feel one side of their body, they more than likely are having a stroke. You wanna know about brains, brain surgery, or stroke? I’m an open book. So many people go through life altering sicknesses or trauma but very few are brave enough to tell about it. I applaud Sophie for so bravely sharing her story and I wish her the absolute best in this journey.

Synopsis: A novella of a prominent author, diagnosed with brain cancer that mirrors the real life story of author Sophie Kinsella.
Pros/cons: How do you rate a story like this? I can’t. All I can say is that Sophie Kinsella was truly my first “favorite author” in my 20s. I loved the Shopaholic series, Twenties Girl, Can You Keep A Secret- but my all time fave is The Undomestic Goddess. Learning about her incurable cancer is devastating- for her, her family, and the whole literary community. I just thank her for sharing a snippet of what she’s been through (I wanted more!) and hope she gets her happy ending.
I encourage you to read her backlist if she is a new to you author!

Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Eve is a successful author who one day wakes up in a hospital bed not knowing how she got there. She struggles to remember much of anything, and learns that she has just undergone surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor. What follows is her path towards healing and self discovery.

While the characters within this story are fictional, the events that occur are based on the author, Sophie Kinsella’s real life cancer journey. Words can’t convey how deeply touched I was by this book. Written from a first person perspective through flashes in Eve’s memory, the reader is taken on a journey that starts before diagnosis and continues through the agonizing weeks and months that follow. Kinsella’s words are raw, at times devastating, and at others, so incredibly inspiring and hopeful. Being able to not only put her thoughts and feelings onto paper but then to share them with the world takes strength and courage that are unimaginable. Reading it was such a uniquely personal, empathy evoking experience, and I was profoundly moved by it.

To Sophie Kinsella, your honesty, kind-hearted spirit, and abundance of joy bleed through these pages, and I thank you for your bravery in sharing them. I am sending so much love to you and your family along with prayers for continued health and happiness.

Wow. A stunning read. Heartbreakingly hopeful. Interesting stream-of-conciousness style pacing allows the reader to float throughout and connect deeply with the emotions and events at play. 5 Stars.

Wow, What Does It Feel Like? An absolutely heartbreaking beautiful book about illness, life, change, and love. This book is completely different for Sophie Kinsella (and based heavily on her own life experiences), so give it a try even if you haven't read her before.

This is a hard review to write, and I'm going to veer off topic for a moment, but before I do, you need to know that this is a 5-star book because it deserves to be one, not because emotion is coloring my rating.

Okay, I have long been a fan of Sophie Kinsella's books, and she is an auto-read (and auto-request on Netgalley) for me. When I got an ARC of her newest novel, I was thrilled. I noticed it was quite short - hmmm, odd and a bit of a bummer not to have something longer to read, but so be it. I saw something about it being her most autobiographical work yet, thought, "Cool," and didn't think more about it until I picked it up last night to start reading. In case, like me, you don't know this - Kinsella was diagnosed with glioblastoma late in 2022, and she went public with the news earlier this year (2024). In case you also don't know how dire and scary the prognosis is for glioblastoma, I'll give you a moment to go look it up. This book is about a successful rom-com author who is diagnosed with glioblastoma. Like Kinsella, Eve in the novel has a loving husband and five children. Me living in lala land and not knowing Kinsella's news led to me looking it up once I was a few pages into the book, then bursting into tears as I tried to tell my worried husband what was wrong. I think you should go into this book knowing about it, which is why I'm not marking this as a spoiler.

This book is very different from Kinsella's other works. It's told in a series of vignettes that mirror Kinsella's own journey through her diagnosis. The writing is remarkable, especially given the side effects that come with the disease, and Kinsella infuses the story with emotion, humor, and love for her family. It is intimate and personal and says so much in a very spare style. I will hope for advances in medicine that give Kinsella many more years, and I thank her for all the joy her books have given me through the years. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press for a digital review copy.

Brave and Courageous!

“Write the book you would like to read yourself. Write the truth about life, whatever genre you’re in. Write what you know and do it convincingly.”
In a phenomenal story about luck and the irony of life, Sophie Kinsella wows us in What Does It Feel Like? While this is the fictionalized story of Eve, this is a story about Kinsella and her battle with having a grade 4 glioblastoma removed after an eight how brain surgery - and relearning the basics while dealing with short-term memory loss.

This is definitely a quick – possibly in one sitting – read, and it is so worth it. The raw emotions and the vulnerabilities seep into every page and will leave you thinking about life and how to achieve your own happy ending. I feel like I need to incorporate the concept of “normal plus” into my life as well!

On a more personal note, there is something for everyone in this novel and I think it’s important everyone reads it. When you are going through something, while it personally affects you – the truth everyone (family, friends, colleagues, are all involved in the ride as well). My uncle was a perfectly healthy lawyer, and the next day was found unconscious (encephalitis) and lost his whole frontal lobe and still, after 12 years, has no short-term memory. After having severe migraines an MRI scan showed I had a small (thankfully we found out benign, but it was a very long, stressful time period) brain tumor that I now have to watch for growth. . . and have multiple doctors and medicines. This book just tore at my heartstrings (especially dealing with the concept of guilt and why-me?, even though at times we have good luck and at other times bad luck).

What a powerful, poignant read. While fate may be in charge, this book just gives you a positive outlook on living each day to the fullest and I think this is a must read! An easy 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this inspiring ARC. All opinions are my own!

And let’s not forget from the author of the Shopaholic series: “If you buy the dress, the occasion will come.”

This book was fantastic. Making the connections to real life and opening up about the experience a person has after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Another success for Sophie Kinsella

A memoir of sorts by the beloved author Sophie Kinsella. But fictionalize it and make it a novella.
It’s huggable, emotional and powerful all in one.

Is it about her journey through stage 4 brain cancer? Yes. Yes it is. But it’s told in the same wit and humour as we’ve come to expect from @sophie

The book never feels heavy in the way some memoirs are. But I suspect the author did it that way on purpose. And the purpose was to give a little gift to her longtime readers.
Unapologetically private that she is, Sophie opens up to snippets of her life where she started at the ‘top of the world’ and ended up fighting for her life.

I’ve been reading her for decades just like thousands in the world. She created stories with quirky and silly characters that were always endearing but fun. The little happily-ever-after beach read that was easy to sink into.

This is that but with a glimpse of her last year of struggles with cancer. It never goes too deep into the pain but most of us can read behind the wit…. If you love her books, you’ll love this one too.

Ps. Sophie: I’m with you on the “normal plus”. It’s never been the big things in life… it’s always been the “loving and being loved” as Catherine, the Princess of Wales just said last week.

Normal Plus is my new favourite phrase.

Fiction based on real experience. I really enjoyed this authors account of feelings and thoughts that were present during a serious illness. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Random House Publishing for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

“What Does it Feel Like?” is Sophie Kinsella’s most autobiographical story and while the formatting and flow of the book is different from her tradition novels, this short story is filled with her signature humor. We meet Eve Monroe just as she’s sparked genious with the idea for her “Hey Big Spender” novel (aka Shopaholic). We see her during a normal day in her life, cutting to what could be considered her most successful point in life, moving directly into her life post diagnosis.

Kinsella writes beautifully and full of emotion. There’s no need for a lot of external characters or the hijinks we’re so used to in her books. The focus is on Eve and her family moving through life with terminal cancer. We experience her confusion and memory loss alongside her while grappling with the hardships facing her and her husband. Even though the story is short, you’re immediately there with Eve feeling her fear and hope for a cure. Despite Kinsella’s own diagnosis, she hasn’t lost her spark for writing a story that easily engrosses you.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If Sophie Kinsella writes it, I will read it (and almost always LOVE it). While What Does It Feel Like is different from Kinsella's typical style, it was still an enjoyable and moving read!