Nothing Serious by Emily J. Smith was a fascinating and well written debut!
The clever and entertaining concept made this story worth the hours of sleep I lost.
The writing sucked me in and kept me engaged till the end.
It was well written with a good tone and pacing, an engaging plot and well developed characters.
I will definitely pick up Smiths next novel.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

Edie and Peter are best friends since college currently in their mid 30s working in the tech industry. While Edie feels stuck in her career, Peter is the golden boy who is already a multimillionaire.

Edie has a secret longtime crush on Peter and when he breaks up with his long time girlfriend, Edie thinks it’s finally her chance. Not to see Peter go on an online dating spree. When one of his recent dates turns out dead, things spiral from there with Edie becoming obsessed with the case and befriending those involved, including the victim’s sister.

What seems like it might be standard tale of mystery and obsession is truly more a story of one woman’s journey of why she is stuck in her life and what she can do about it. It is also a commentary on the sexism of the tech industry and the downsides of being constantly online.

This was an enjoyable short (under 300 page) read that felt fresh compared to some of the other tech centered books that have come out recently. Although this has been marketed as a mystery, that is an overly simplistic take of what this book is actually about.

This book was very strange. It's a murder mystery, part unrequited love story. Also, I wish the writing style was stronger. The writing isn't terrible, but it's nothing special either. The overall tone is what really threw me off. I just couldn't connect with the overall story. It was good but lacked intrigue and excitement.

This is an adult novel but it reads as younger so I think my students will like this. A stalker, a love triangle in her mind at least will be interesting to some of my students who though emotionally healthier than the main character Heightened emotions during their adolescence make the character more relatable to them. For me it didnt work as well

3.75⭐️

I enjoyed this debut character-based book which follows the friendship between Edie and her best friend, Peter.

The title is very ironic as this deals with way more serious issues than it lets on- misogyny, sexism, alcoholism and drug abuse.

All the characters are unlikeable and one- dimensional but I think they add to the overall uniqueness of the story.

The plot brought some interesting topics, such as ‘tech bro culture’, male privilege and toxic masculinity and friendship. The representation in the book was spot on.

The ending was a bit rushed and I found myself rereading as I didn’t understand it and the language was shrouded in confusion and ambiguity.

If you enjoy mixed genre books then you will enjoy it.

I am so thankful to the publisher, Emily J. Smith, and Netgalley, for granting me digital and physical access to this one before it hits shelves on February 18, 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC.

This was an easy read, but not my favorite. Parts of it were enjoyable and yet other times I felt like I was ready to be don with it.

I struggled to finish this book. The author offers insightful commentary on women and dating in middle age, so I hung in there for a few gems of quotes here and there. This had the potential to be a thoughtful story.

The characters in this story, and what motivated them, had me feeling confusion, anger, and (at best) pity. Edie's obsession with Anaya was over-the-top. The genesis of it felt forced, and it was so repetitive that I was quite sick of reading about Anaya by the end of the story. Edie's development as a character, instead of feeling genuine, felt like it served primarily as a platform for what the author wanted to say from a feminist perspective on the role of women in tech, in life, in relationships, etc. Even though Edie was the main character, it felt like she wasn't the focus of the story. Even her breakthroughs, the moments when the reader has been waiting for her to break out of destructive habits and ways of thinking, felt rushed and unconvincing. The book, overall, just left me disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for approving my request to read this book.

This book was not what I expected. The story was a lot more serious and not as funny as I thought it would be. Still, elements of the story were really interesting! For example, I enjoyed some of the discussion on feminism, motherhood, and friendship. Unfortunately, I do feel like the book ended with a lot of unanswered questions and it kind of fell flat for me. Overall, it was a decent read but not something I would rush to recommend.

I could not get into this book how I desired to. I grew annoyed with the main characters lack of self fortitude and esteem.

This book has such an interesting premise—but for me, the story just fell a bit short. I had a hard time rooting for the main character. She gave off crazy vibes and not in a forgivable way. Especially when it came to her relationship with her male best friend who she not so secretly harbors unrelenting feelings for. However, I did really like Alex’s character and arc. She felt believable and relatable.

The plot ended up feeling a bit expected but also unbelievable. So much of this book is focused on character development or lack there of that the plot gets lost in between it all.

That being said, I did finish it in two sittings and wanted to see it out until the end.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Spice: 🌶️/5

The title of this book is clever, because this book does in fact deal with a lot of serious topics. It can sometimes feel like the book is almost a little detached from some of these issues, as main character Edie is able to delude herself into believing or ignoring just about anything outside of her pursuits. It's one of those stories that makes you cringe a little, even as you can't quite stop reading.

This debut novel can fit into many genres: mystery, romance, general fiction…there’s a lot going on in a short amount of time. The author has so many excellent plot points but I was left hoping for maybe fewer ideas with the selected one or two to be more fully developed as Emily J. Smith is clearly an excellent author! The overall story is the FMCs best friend is accused of murder and she may need to testify—but is she on his behalf or not after doing her own investigative work throughout the book!

Read if you like//content warnings:
—gender studies//feminism
—LGBTQ+ rep//gender fluid relationships
—mental health rep
—fertility struggles
—drug addiction//overdose
—domestic abuse & sexual assault
—murder//suicide

Overall, this is a good debut novel and I’m grateful to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

📚 ARC BOOK REVIEW 📚

Nothing Serious By Emily J. Smith
Publication Date: February 18, 2025
Publisher: William Morrow

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
(Rounded Up To 5⭐)

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this #gifted e-ARC and to William Morrow #partner for the physical book in exchange for my honest review!

📚MY REVIEW:

Nothing Serious by Emily J. Smith is one of those books that's labeled as multiple genres and leaves me wondering what exactly I'll find in the pages...What I found in these pages was a compelling storyline, entertaining plotlines, and fantastic writing that flowed seamlessly.

This was a fast read, which was good because I didn't want to put it down. So much of it felt like a hot mess train wreck, where you know you shouldn't look and yet, it's a captivating hot mess train wreck you can't look away from. From cover to cover, this book entertained me and I couldn't wait to see how it was all going to turn out in the end.

This is the story of best friends Edie and Peter, who've been friends since college and are now thirty-somethings employed in the tech world of San Francisco. Edie has an obsessive-like unrequited love for Peter, and Peter also has an obsessive-like appreciation of himself. Newly single, Peter begins dating several women - including Anaya, who ends up dead after she sees Peter one night. Edie becomes infatuated with Anaya and inserts herself into the mystery surrounding her death. This book is one part love story, one part satirical commentary, and one part mystery.

As I read, I kept thinking about this quote: "When people show you who they are, believe them." There were so many parts of this book when I wanted to reach into the pages to give Edie a good throttle and shake some sense into her. There were just as many parts of the book when I wanted to reach into the pages and give her a big hug. I really enjoyed the dichotomy of each character, and Smith did a phenomenal job of creating both good and not-so-good sides of their personalities. I also personally enjoyed the questions of criminality posed within the underlying mystery, as I think culpability and accountability are becoming bigger hot button issues in recent times. As a true crime legal nerd, that part of the story fascinated me.

The only thing that stopped this book from being a 5⭐ read for me was that I wished the conclusion of the book had lasted a little longer. There were a LOT of different climactic plotlines happening all at once in the last handful of pages, and it almost seemed too much to process in a short time. I would have loved to have had just a few more pages about all the story's conclusions so I had more time to wrap my mind around it. However, as I'm still sitting here pondering the book long after I've finished reading, I'm replaying storylines in my head and tying together all the endings of the emotionally-driven plotlines... And I'm liking this book even more as I'm still pondering it. Well done.

#NothingSerious #EmilyJSmith #WilliamMorrow #ARC #NetGalley #NetGalleyReviews #womensfiction #mysteryreads #booklover #bookaddict #LGBTQIA

2.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think the idea of this book of was super interesting, what happens when your best friend is accused of murder, and what ensues from there? I think the execution unfortunately was not there.

While the beginning I was interested, that quickly dropped off. The story felt a bit choppy and the pacing felt did as well. There were some really interesting ideas such as egg-freezing, her parent’s relationship, Anaya’s unpublished final manuscript, etc. but they did not lead anywhere.

The resolution felt almost anticlimactic since it was so rushed. I also still feel a little lost what the reader was supposed to gain from this book?

In addition, there needed to be some major trigger warnings about eating disorders, drug use, suicide and honestly plenty of other triggers.

This FMC is oddly obsessed with bodies and almost every characters body shape is ridiculed on top of the triggering descriptions of an active eating disorder.

While I had heard good things about this book and still find the initial premise an interesting vignette, I would not recommend this book.

This was such an accurate and painfully honest portrayal of what it means to be a woman in a patriarchal world. The main character, Edie, examines these feelings with such nuance and thoroughness — I really related to her. I wished to know more at the end of the story, I felt it ended a bit abruptly, but that I wanted more goes to show how much I enjoyed spending time in this book.

Thanks to the publisher and to Emily j smith

I wish this book had been a tad bit longer, just so that we could explore the themes more thoroughly.
This was a great, multilayered book!

A scathing portrayal of capitalistic entitlement and productivity culture and at their worst. The main character, Edie, is a 35-year-old single woman barely hanging onto the middle rungs of the tech bro career ladder and struggling to find purchase in her own adulthood. The bright spot of her existence is Peter, her best friend, who is attractive and wealthy and - she is beginning to realize as the novel dawns - a terrible person.

When Peter is implicated in the death of a woman he's dating, Emily investigates the crime, terrified that her friend could be blameworthy or, worse, blamed. What ensues is less a murder investigation than an interrogation of modern relationship mores through the lens of Edie's history with men.

Edie is laser-focused on the fundamental unfairness of male/female romantic relationships, and the novel is laser-focused on the perspective of Edie, an entirely fallible character. That probably makes the book's commentary susceptible to argument or dismissal - Edie is, after all, just one (fictional) woman - and maybe that's the whole point. <i>Nothing Serious</i> is obviously the book of its author's heart, and while it's wonderful that it exists in the world it's tragic that it has to.

This is not light reading: it's darkly comedic sometimes and the rest of the times just dark. But the writing is incisive and the characters are the type of people you probably know but wish you don't. And the story is unflinchingly honest about the world we lives in, the gendered distribution of privilege, and its cost.

Thank you for the ARC! I found this book very depressing. The characters, the story, the ending. I was hoping for something bright to happen, but that isn’t this story. Good descriptions and I was easily immersed in the setting.

While the entire premise had me intrigued and excited to read this book- I could literally never get into it or connect with the characters. It fell flat, was pretty boring and felt like it drug on way too long.

Maybe it’ll be for someone else but for me 3 stars is a generous rating.