I received a copy of EASE through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.

And my thoughts are this... I'm confused. I read the whole thing but... I couldn't tell you why, what it was about the plot (what was the plot?) that pulled me along.

It was fine. Maybe forgettable.

This book is a bit difficult for me to review - mostly because the description left me expecting one type of book, but for me, at least, what was described was not what I got with this one. “Charming”, “sparkling”, “funny”? For me, not so much. Perhaps there were bits that were lost in translation, this is a very British book, and at times I was left trying to translate British English to American English. This may be why the early parts of the book felt a bit disjointed to me.
More importantly, although I’m not one who needs to “like” the main character in a book, I really didn’t much care for the main character, Domina, or her actions. And although in the end her little sabbatical from her life did seem to make her appreciate her real life and the people in it, at what cost? For me, at least, the tragedy she instigated pretty well negated the good she did for some of the people she came across during her little time out.
This was Patrick Gale’s second book, and perhaps that’s another reason the early bits felt disjointed to me. I’m not entirely put off reading others he’s written, but this one was a bit disappointing for me.

Copy provided by Netgalley and Open Road Integrated Media in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is the second book by Patrick Gale that I have read, and, I have to say, I'm glad I discovered him because he's a terrific author. He has a wry way with words that sometimes makes you laugh out loud, in this book, anyway, and a gift that makes his characters come alive.

At its essence, Ease is the story of Domina a, a happily married playwright stricken with writer's block. To remedy this, she moves out of her house and rents a bed sit under an assumed name. She has some rollicking adventures as she tries on her new persona.

Does she finally finish what she was writing? Does she go back to her husband? I'll not tell! Suffice to say that in her assumed persona she realizes that she is who she is, and is happy that's true.

This is a light and pleasant read.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

"Ease" by Patrick Gale, is a very thoughtful and emotionally involved novel. Whilst one would not ordinarily expect a novel of this sort to have a quick pace, I found that once I settled into this book, the lives and events of the characters kept me going until the end with few breaks in between.

The style of writing used in this book allows you to get very close to the main character and their internal thoughts. That made it easy for me to feel like I was reading about someone I knew, drawing me closer to the over all story. I love books where you fee a strong connection to one or more of the characters and I had that here.

This was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and I would recommend this book to others who like books that allow you to ponder what becomes of the characters after the book has finished. A wonderful read.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.