Blog Tour: Reasons to Be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe

'Funny, charming, odd-in-the-best-way and gorgeously uplifting! A delight from start to finish' Marian Keyes

Today is my stop in the Blog Tour for Nina Stibbe's latest book, Reasons to be Cheerful and I am sharing my review for this fun and enjoyable story:

Title: Reasons to be Cheerful

Author: Nina Stibbe

Published: March 28th 2019 by Viking

Amazon | Amazon UK

Blurb: 'When people in the village heard I was about to start working in the city they tried to unsettle me with tales of woe. The sun, blotted out by the tall buildings, couldn't shine and the rain was poisoned by the toxic fumes that poured from the sock factories. My skin would be covered in pimples from the hell of it all'

So begins a young woman's journey to adulthood. Lizzie Vogel leaves her alcoholic, novel-writing mother and heads for Leicester to work for a racist, barely competent dentist obsessed with joining the freemasons.

Soon Lizzie is heading reluctantly, if at top speed, into the murky depths of adult life: where her driving instructor becomes her best friend; her first boyfriend prefers birdwatching to sex and where independence for a teenage girl might just be another word for loneliness.

In Reasons to Be Cheerful Nina Stibbe shows her extraordinary gift for illuminating the vital details which make us human. She is that rare writer who makes us laugh whilst reminding us of the joy, and the pain, of being alive.

Review: Reasons to be Cheerful is a fun and touching novel about growing up in the 80s in England. The story focuses on Lizzie, who has found her first job as a dentist assistant and has left her family home to move to a big city. She is not quite convinced that this has been the best decision though and although she tries to embrace her new adult life, she feels lonely.

It was very interesting to read about Lizzie and how she tried to make new friends and start a new relationship, although she did not have the best rate of success in those fronts, some of the situations she found herself in were sometimes so ridiculous that they were actually pretty funny. Actually, the cast of characters in this novel was definitely highly entertaining, which provided plenty of fun moments but also some touching and even sad ones. These gave a good balance to the story.

I actually didn't know this is the third book on a series when I started reading it but it turned out that it can be read perfectly well as a standalone as the author gives enough background for you to understand what's going. But now I am curious to know more about these characters and how they got here, especially about Lizzie's mum, as her story sounds like quite an eventful one.

Rating: 4 stars

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.