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LoveReading Says

I loved this novel!

After performing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival one year, Ada finds herself in two unexpected half-relationships: one with anxious, funny Scott, who messaged as a fan of her Edinburgh fringe show (as he lives in a different city, their relationship takes place almost entirely digitally), and one with independent, enigmatic Sadie, a former hook-up who ends up moving in with Ada (friends who sleep together when they share a bed). 

I’m a sucker for stories about love triangles and how comparing concurrent relationships can bring out different parts of yourself. My favourite parts of the novel where when Ada is increasingly torn between her part-relationships, Stuart’s constant intimate conversation but physical absence is inverted in Sadie, both only half-satisfying, yet all the more addictive for it. Lee-Kennedy also captures the relatable thrill of flirting via messenger.

Often when I read novels with romantic storylines, even if the character is torn between multiple potential love interests, it often feels pretty ‘obvious’ who we’re ‘meant’ to be rooting for them to end up with, and therefore unsurprised by the ending (not necessarily a bad thing – it’s the journey not the destination etc) but I enjoyed with this novel that I felt very much suspended between whether I wanted Ada to be with Scott or Sadie, or both, or neither of them ‘in the end’ – I was enjoying the journey, wondering what might happen that might sway me one way or another.

Reviewed by Billy Lindon
Lily Lindon (Billy) is a writer, editor, and bookseller living in London.
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