This is weirdly wonderful and unique. I don't think I've ever read anything else quite like it. Addictive and curious, worth a try!

Ok, The Charmed Life of Alex Moore is a strange and unexpected story. It doesn't quite take the same track as what the blurb implies and this does it a disservice. The book is far more interesting because of the charm it contains, and the elements it makes the reader think about. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I don't think it will be for everyone.

Thank you for approving this title for me and I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to review it.

Not a fan of this one unfortunately. It started well but the story went off in a completely different direction to the one I’d imagined. A little far fetched for my tastes.

Sweet, heartfelt and emotional with a good storyline and important messages. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to younger boys and girls.

UPDATE:

On rereading my review today, I realise I didn't highlight any of this book's positive points in case any of you out there are interested in reading it. Here they are: The concept had potential and was certainly interesting and unique, but it wasn't executed in a manner that did it justice. The idea and the story intrigued me enough that I did keep reading to completion, but ultimately it left me disappointed. And there is some good writing here, but it is my honest opinion that the novel as a whole was too busy, borderline overly ambitious and quite complex. That being said, if you enjoy long books and stories that sit in the science fiction genre, you may enjoy The Charmed Life of Alex Moore.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

This book was a complete chore to get through, sadly.

Alex Moore is one of London's fastest rising stars, having just launched her dream start-up. While riding high on her success, she encounters a fake BBC reporter who seems to kick off a stream of strange occurrences. She is mugged, stalked and is accused of murder. Sounds random, eh? That's because it kind of is.

My issues with this debut novel are in abundance: The story is rambling and feels disjointed; the plot is complex and overly ambitious; the book is entirely too long and in its vast size seems indulgent; Alex is an unlikeable, narcissistic character and I couldn't relate to her; the Orkney storyline and sudden jump into the genre of science fiction (which I tend to love) feels unnatural and unbelievable; and I just could not get a feel for the flow of the book.

I persevered with this novel but was ultimately left disappointed. Not for me, unfortunately.

"How would you feel if everything in your life suddenly started to go . . . right?

In the past six months, Alex Moore has quit her dead-end job, launched her dream startup and become one of London's fastest rising tech stars.

But then weird things start to happen. Muggings, stalkers, fake BBC journalists. And when Alex is invited to visit a remote academic institute, weird turns into WTF.

How would you feel if everything in your life suddenly started to go right . . . and then you found out that you killed a man?"

I heard Molly Flatt speak at a conference & I honestly think she is brilliant. The book sounds really intriguing and I expected to love it. Unfortunately I have struggled to read this and haven't finished it. I don't know why. It just hasn't hooked my mind & I have to exert a lot of effort to keep my mind engaged when reading this. I'm hoping I will finish it one day, it might not be the right time for me to read this yet. I hope so because the author, Molly Flatt made a great impression on me & I wish her the best.

OK...So....Right...Erm....Yes....I am going to be honest with you here folks. I try my best to respect everything I read, unless the point is that you're not supposed to and then I happily unleash. I really try to find the positives and think about constructive reviews. At the end of the day, the author has written a collection of words and then had the confidence to have it published and put it out there for public consumption and I try my best to think about that. And on with the review.

I have no idea at all what I just read. I have no idea what actually went on versus what I think went on. I don't think I understood the start, the middle, or the end, or in fact understood how the bits linked together to create a flowing narrative. I will say that there is an element of modern adventure, and undoubtedly unexpected twists, but for me they didn't feel like they fitted in this story.

The story itself is messy. I know that sounds quite harsh, but it's the only word that comes to mind. It starts with a feminist power tone of a woman who has made it in her chosen field. It starts to explore the side effects of that, the perception of her familial bonds changing, the dynamic with her partner shifting, and then BOOM there is muggings and murder accusations and then BOOM travel to a non-electricity using Orkney island colony/cult where BOOM a sci-fi/fantastical twist comes in that really doesn't fit and then BOOM there is an amnesiac/mental health portion of the book that while interesting just doesn't truly work. I feel like this book is one of those pieces where there is a set of ideas that realistically should be separated down into a couple of different projects and have instead been merged together into a book that doesn't hold together.

I also found the lead character to be, well, irritating. I like a flawed character, I like a character that faces issues that are a direct result of their own success, I like characters that stand for feminist values and fight for their wants and careers, but she is confused and seems to be battling and forgetting everyone around her that loves her and I don't really get why.

It is clear that this book was simply not for me. It wasn't my cup of tea, and I really only finished it to see how the author wrapped what was a scattered story. Oh well.

I almost gave up on this book on numerous occasions but I persevered and eventually finished it. I am sure that there are others out there who will have enjoyed it but I wasn’t one of them. I feel it’s a bit disjointed in parts and jumps about a bit. I was also slightly perturbed by the sudden ‘romance’ which seemed to have come out of nowhere.

Alex has been living the dream for the last six months - she has suddenly found herself in the limelight as a successful entrepreneur after years just stumbling along. When she is offered the chance to go to an island in Orkney for research purposes she accepts and that’s when things become weird and a bit sci-fi ish.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced read copy of the book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

A BIG Thank You to Netgalley and Macmillan for providing me a copy of “The Charmed Life of Alex Moore” by Molly Flatt in exchange for my review.I honestly had mixed feelings about this book.

What I liked: The overall concept. I enjoyed how the plot significantly changes when Alex enters the island. The plot becomes very science-fiction like and I enjoyed the author’s idea behind it. Would we really want to remove our darkest memories that’s holding us back from our minds to become a better person? I enjoyed the overall theme of the novel.

There are also a lot of twists and turns that make you wonder what will happen next. People are not who they seem, and I was genuinely shocked to find out who the villain was. There are some characters who I found very intriguing, like Iain and Freya, and I wanted to read more about them.

What I disliked: *POSSIBLE SPOILERS ahead* I think what bothered me most was the sudden love interest between Alex and Finn. After covering around 70% of the book, I imagined they only maintained a sibling like relationship. However, towards the end they suddenly fall for each other? I couldn’t buy into this unexpected romance between the two.

Moreover, I really didn’t enjoy the author’s style of writing. It was exciting and fast paced at some moments, but for the most part, it seemed very wordy and trite without the story-line progressing in anyway. This 450 page book could have easily been shortened to 350 pages. For instance, the author spends an entire page describing a song that Alex and Finn hear on their way back to the island. Who cares?

Also, after reading this story, I’m still didn’t understand some of the concepts like stack and ‘freit’ and have trouble visualizing the whole Library. It also didn’t help that all the characters in the island’s surname is prefixed with Mac, making it very confusing to initially figure our who’s-who.
Overall, Alex Moore was a book that I had to force myself to complete for the most part. I think this would make an excellent TV adaptation for providers like Netflix. But, since I have more points to dislike like, I am giving it 2/5 stars.

I originally thought this was going to turn out to be a standard chick lit book, butthen it took a rather surreal sci-fi-esque turn, which was welcome although slightly jarring.

Overall I found it entertaining but it felt slightly disjointed.

The Charmed Life of Alex Moore starts simply enough: Alex Moore’s career is taking off in London, her day-to-day life transformed from dead-end job to tech superstar, but her family and friends haven’t adapted to her new lifestyle the way she had hoped. When strange things start happening – she’s mugged, stalked, and followed – Alex accepts an invite to Orkney to recharge at an academic institute, but all is not as it seems.

From here, the book melds women’s fiction with sci-fi/fantasy, and this was where the story lost me slightly – not because I wasn’t enjoying it, but based on the book’s description, it wasn’t quite what I expected, as I’m not normally a fan of sci-fi novels. Still, The Charmed Life of Alex Moore is a fun, quick read that brings together romance and (literal!) magic, taking place between the streets of London and the shores of Orkney.

I want to label this book as literary fiction (I know, I HATE that label) with a taster of contemporary fantasy and magical realism. I had no prior knowledge about this book until it turned up in the mail room with a press release attached.

I thoroughly enjoyed the emotional journey that Alex Moore goes on. This journey of self-discovery was what kept me going when the plot began to lose me. But the thing is, I can't quite put a finger on what it was about the plot that didn't quite enrapture me, it was lacking something. It had the weird, quirky element that usually I would find myself writing at my desk at uni and loving - so WHY AM I NOT IN LOVE WITH IT?!

Something else I didn't gel with was the ending, at all. It could have had 300 words cut from the ending and I would have left me more satisfied that slightly open-ended (is that a spoiler?) paragraph that felt like it came out from nowhere. It just left me frustrated!

I believe that this could have received a higher rating if the synopsis had made mention to the fantastical elements, and I had that level of expectation there. I think 3 stars accurately represents the emotional journey I went on, whilst this remains a solid debut.

Starting off as a light comedy set in the zeitgeist of the tech world and about a London hipster this book was OK. I liked the idea that Dorothy woke up one morning and became Alex - the duckling to the swan. I disliked just about everything else from then on. Unfortunately this was a book I skim read as I really did not enjoy it - possibly I'm too old to get it!

I was given the opportunity to read the charmed life of Alex Moore by the publisher for an honest review.

The story is about Alex who 6 months ago started a very successful business. She is very different to the person she was 6 months ago and looks back on how her life was. Strange things begin to happen to Alex, then gets invited yo a remote island in Scotland where things get really strange.

I have to say I didn't finish this book which is really unlike me, I gave up a third of the way through. I tried hard to get into the story as I hate not finishing a book but felt the nook just wasn't my cup of tea.

I struggled with this book. I felt like the premise had been well thought out, but the details around it were confusing. I wasn't convinced by the romantic subplot which seemed to come out of nowhere (describing your love interest as a man-boy when your protagonist is in her thirties is a bit weird), and it was full of confusing details such as an engaged couple who didn't live together for no reason. I thought the central premise was creative, but overall I didn't find this a very satisfying read. Also, Alex wasn't very likeable.

There are success stories - there are true stories - and then there's THE CHARMED LIFE OF ALEX MOORE story (Berkley)!
How would you feel if everything in your life suddenly started to go right? I mean, like everything. Six months ago, Alex Moore's life was in the can. She was stuck in a dead-end job, her parents and boyfriend were wondering if her get up and go had permanently left. Then over night, she launches a business she's dreamed of, and suddenly she's the darling of the London tech world!

"The change she'd undergone recently - no, the change she'd made happen - might be hard for her parents to understand, But she knows it was authentic, because it was, quite simply working." THE CHARMED LIFE OF ALEX MOORE

At thirty-one, Alex's transformation isn't easy for those around her. Her friends are struggling to accept her rapid success, her parents worry she's burning out and her fiancé is thinking twice about "I do." But then everything starts to shift. She's mugged, stalked and even accused of murder.

Alex is invited to tell her story to what she believes are some high-tech bigwigs, but things get even weirder. The meeting takes place in Orkney, which is a real island off the coast of Scotland, known to have an "otherworldly quality and magnetism which has captivated visitors and residents alike for over 5,000 years." That may in some ways explain my reaction to the novel. In fact the more I read, the more I had to suspend reality in order to keep up with where the book was headed.

THE CHARMED LIFE OF ALEX MOORE is supposed to "make you question what it means to be conscious, what is means to be in control - and to what extent you really can choose to be you." I accept that, sort of.

I found THE CHARMED LIFE OF ALEX MOORE to be a sort of mind trip. I did enjoy Molly Flatt's distinct writing voice, but to be quite honest, I didn't get it. That doesn't mean you won't. Her character, Alex Moore is certainly in the running for one of the year's more quirky characters.

This is a clever, entertaining story which I enjoyed, though at times it felt a little long. I liked the characters, especially as no one was really 'perfect' and Alex herself had her faults which just made her all the more convincing as a character.

The story suddenly got more supernatural than I expected from the synopsis and at some points I got a little confused about what exactly was going on. Still, it was an entertaining read!

I read this book pretty quickly, and found it a very easy and enjoyable book to read. But once I put it down, I realised I had no idea whether I'd enjoyed it or not.

There were definitely elements I definitely did enjoy. I though Platt's prose was lovely, and I felt that most of the main characters were well-defined, with their own personalities and styles of speaking. I also enjoyed the parts set in London, as they were largely areas I know (I see you, Homerton Hospital!), and I liked that they weren't the obvious, touristy parts of town.

I also mostly liked the character of Alex Moore. While she was sometimes very frustrating, I thought she was very well-realised and represented feelings that I, and I imagine a lot of other people, have experienced - wanting to break away from the status quo but not knowing how to, finding something new and going a bit evangelical about it, trying to balance work and friends and family and partners.

The main plot, revolving around her trips to the Orkney Islands and what she discovers there, was absolutely not what I expected. It was complex and kind of off the wall, but I think Platt mostly handled that well. There were a few sections that were a little exposition heavy, but Alex's discoveries felt fairly organic and well-placed in terms of moving the plot forward. I did struggle to keep track of all the characters on the Orkney Islands though. Particularly with the changing allegiances and secrets, I didn't always follow who Alex was with and what role that character was supposed to be playing.

I also had some quite significant problems with Alex's platonic and romantic relationships. There's a limit to what I can say without spoiling things, but I definitely felt like the main romantic relationship was quite troubling, and I was never quite sure whether Platt was acknowledging that or not. Towards the end of the book in particular, some of these relationships went in quite unexpected directions, and whilst I felt the main plot was wrapped up quite nicely, the very end of the book was...abrupt. And I think that's part of why I'm so unsure how I feel about the book. For the most part, it was enjoyable, but there were a few elements that really threw me and left me feeling a little disappointed.

Overall, this was an entertaining and well-written book, which I think could have done with paring down in some areas, and more depth in others, and a more settled ending. But the main idea was fascinating: I think the book is worth a read because of that central plot, and I would definitely check out more of Molly Platt's writing in the future.

This is the first time I've ever really struggled to write a review and I'm hoping just the act of typing will encourage my brain to make sense of this book and summarise it somewhat coherently.

It's starts with our protagonist Alex Moore who has risen to the top of the career ladder, seemingly overnight with a tech start up. It has an air of the 'twenty-something-hipster-millenial' about it and the first third of the book tracks Alex's new found 'get up and go' in life and in business.
Things quickly begin to get weird and a series of nonsensical events play out that Alex seems to dismiss as a bout of bad luck. However we then stray in to the SciFi realm and everything we've understood to be true comes in to question.

It's a brave novel that takes ordinary fiction in an entirely new direction. It asks the reader who is on a fictional but 'normal life' journey to imagine something new. It's fantastic and I didn't see it coming. I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who but don't consider myself a SciFi reader or fan at all.

I think there are underlying themes of identity, who you really are and the ability to reinvent yourself. It makes us question who are we and which versions of ourselves do we allow people to see. There are authorship and readership themes alongside this, about reading yourself and others but also allowing an almost voyeuristic perspective in to our lives. It forces you to pause and think about your own key themes in your life and what's important.

This book is truly special and leaves you with a funny tingly sensation in your tummy that only really occurs when something unequivocally extraordinary has occurred.

If you're looking for something a little different - I highly recommend.

The Charmed Life of Alex Moore was very nearly a DNF. Alex is the epitome of Shoreditch hipster, with a start-up that doesn't seem to actually do anything (it's a glorified forum and blog) and she genuinely believes all the hype she comes up with. I agree with her fiancé that she is indeed in danger of disappearing up her own backside.

I was struggling to decide if this was satire or if we are meant to like this world, however Alex being like this turns out to be relevant to the whole story. Her friends and family believe she's not the same person she used to be. New Alex thinks old Alex was a loser, and she even has bouts of vertigo whenever she thinks about her old life.

Then things get weird, I like weird. When Alex is invited to partake in some research on a remote Orkney island, she thinks it's the perfect opportunity to find herself and prove to Harry that she can take a break from the business. Instead she finds a strange group of people intent of finding the truth about the day she woke up with a new outlook on life and started Eudomon.

I won't reveal what secret is hiding in the Orkney Islands but it was worth slogging through the beginning and I enjoyed the rest of the book. It explores the idea of destiny and whether or not can change your path in life. Certain events shape our very being, for better for worse. What would life be like if we weren't weighed down by the past? Sometimes we just need a nudge in the right direction...

I scanned over a few other reviews and it does appear to be a bit of a Marmite book. Some people liked it up until the weird part, which just shows how different we all are as readers. For me, it was crucial that it starts off with the exploding mystery man as I kept reading long enough to find out what the connection was.