Just Saying by Sophie Ranald #NetGalley #JustSaying #book #review @bookouture @SophieRanald

Just Saying by Sophie Ranald

Published by Bookouture

Publication Date 3rd July 2020

Genre: Womens Fiction, Humour

Book Description:

I almost gave up on love. My ex, who called his private parts ‘Nigel’, was enough to put me off men forever. But then I met Joe.

Alice thought she’d found Mr Right. Her blue-eyed boyfriend Joe gives her butterflies, makes her bacon sandwiches when she’s hungover, and doesn’t have a nickname for any of his body parts.

She should have known it was too good to be true. Because one day, Alice and Joe bump into Zoe. According to him, Zoe’s ‘just an old friend’. But Alice saw the way they froze, and heard the strange note in Joe’s voice when he said her name.

Then, out of the blue, Zoe needs a place to live. And Joe has the bright idea of inviting her, and her fluffy ginger cat Frazzle, to stay with them.

Alice tries her hardest not to feel threatened. But the thing is, Zoe doesn’t survive off microwave meals, or go days without washing her glossy copper-coloured hair, or accidentally get mascara in her contact lenses.

Joe’s ex might be pretty much perfect, but there’s no way that Alice will let Zoe steal him. She’s on a mission to prove that three (four, if you count the cat) is definitely a crowd…

My Thoughts:

Alice and Joe are trainee lawyers at the same large solicitors firm.  Alice is all set up with a permanent post once her training finishes, Joe is hoping he too will be offered a fulltime position soon. They live together in a small but comfortable flat and Alice is at the point of dreaming that in a couple of years time there will be a wedding, a mortgage for a bigger place and all the things which come with being content in a relationship. Life is good... until it isn't any more.

Within 24 hours Alice's dream world has come off the rails and the train is running away in a totally different direction. The job has vanished along with her boss who has been suspended under a cloud of dodgy allegations, and suddenly they have a house guest (or two if you count Frazzle the cat) who just happens to be Joe's stunner of an ex girlfriend who is dropping not-so-subtle hints that she is still interested in him. Some people might be of the opinion that Alice should have handled the house guest situation in a more forthright manner, however I thought the way it panned out was perfectly representative of Alice's personality. Not one to make a fuss, perhaps a bit head-in-the-sand, it was classic Alice as we find out later in the book that she's not a person to confront any situation head on. We later find out that Alice is actually a very strong person though who has been carrying a huge secret all the time she has been with Joe - she hasn't even told him. Without knowing this secret, Alice's decision to not pursue her dream job does seem rather random but all becomes clear once her secret is out.

I enjoyed watching the interaction between the couple and their house guest - I felt very much like a fly on the wall - with Alice and Joe drifting apart each with their own work commitments and Zoe buzzing around the periphery, constantly there preventing the couple from having any time on their own.  

While Alice's personal life is starting to look as doubtful as her legal career, we meet a fantastic selection of other characters: her best friend Heather who won't change her menu choice from Pret in case she's disappointed with an alternative option, landlady Shirley who is dreaming of retirement in Spain with "chef" Juan, and a plethora of pub regulars who are as varied as the stains on the sticky pub carpet. They all come with their own back stories which will either make you smile or tug at your heart strings.

This book had me keen to pick it back up as often as was possible (in between real life getting in the way) and I was eager to find out whether Alice's job and relationship would survive.  Had she made the right choices? With the delectable Archie selling craft ales and gin next door too, maybe it wasn't just Joe whose head could be turned. A fun page turner of a novel I loved the characters Sophie Ranald has created here, and have downloaded a nice selection of her previous work for future reading too.

My thanks to the publisher, Bookouture, for the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in return for my thoughts.

About the Author:

Sophie Ranald is the youngest of five sisters. She was born in Zimbabwe and lived in South Africa until an acute case of itchy feet brought her to London in her mid-20s. As an editor for a customer publishing agency, Sophie developed her fiction-writing skills describing holidays to places she'd never visited. In 2011, she decided to disregard all the good advice given to aspiring novelists and attempt to write full-time. After one false start, It Would Be Wrong to Steal My Sister's Boyfriend (Wouldn't It?) seemed to write itself. Four more novels and a box set followed, and Sorry Not Sorry was released in February 2019. Sophie also writes for magazines and online about food, fashion, finance and running. She lives in south-east London with her amazing partner Hopi and two adorable cats.