Unfortunately, I was unable to read this book due to a formatting issue.

My review is based on the blurb.

This book has the wow factor. I flipping well loved it. Beautiful writing combined with laugh out loud moments make this one heck of a good read. Dive in and enjoy.

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

I received a digital ARC of #MakeOrBreak from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited to read this. The description and the reviews I had read all sounded great. Honestly it sounded right up my street. However there was just something about it that fell a bit flat for me. It is a very wordy and descriptive book, so if you like that kind of thing you will love it! I found myself skim reading through the lengthy descriptions to get to the dialogue. Due to the large descriptions, I found the book to be very slow paced, and I wasn't drawn in like I wanted to be. This is perhaps just the way the author writes, and some readers will love all the descriptions. It just wasn't for me. That doesn't mean the story itself wasn't good though. I enjoyed the story, even if parts of it were a little predictable.

If you’ve had a staycation this year and fancy the feeling of warm sun on your bones, then plonk yourself down on the sofa, pull the curtains to hide those drab, Autumnal evenings and settle down with Make Or Break – you won’t be disappointed.

Jess, the main character, is a 29-year-old human form of Chicken Licken! She gets whisked away by her steady boyfriend Pete to her best friend’s wedding in South Africa. Dreaming of returning to London with a rock the size of Table Mountain on her third finger, left hand, the romantic holiday didn’t go exactly to plan! Worse still, when Jess returns to home, she finds her whole life has turned upside down!

Initially I have to say that Jess drove me mad – her anxiety I saw as negativity, but she was written in such a way that it was impossible not to care for her and want life to turn out ok.

The setting of the book was amazing, and in my head, I could clearly see the view of the beach from Ian and Diego’s balcony, the description of all the places in South Africa were so vivid and real.

This is a lovely, feel-good story that wasn’t typically saccharine sweet – but was punchy and edgy. Would really recommend this.

A fun romcom with evocative settings. Storyline moved along at a good pace. I didn't connect with the characters and the plot was a bit predictable...but ,of course, this is fiction and it very much followed a romcom formula which isn't necessarily a bad thing. An easy going, quick read for anyone looking for some much needed escapism.

Jess made me laugh so much. What a character. I've never thought of myself as dippy but when Jess was wittering on I could see myself in some of it! Life happens to Jess. I loved her family and the dynamics between them. The shock news that the book centres around was a life changer, and at times I could sympathise with Jess, although at other times I wanted to give her a shake. A simple story mainly of Jess' trip to South Africa, but so much more behind it. I laughed and I cried. I loved Jimmy's family too - Ian and Diego were lovely. Great family love with Jess, Annabelle, their mum and the kids. I'd love to know more about what they get up to!

After reading her first novel, How Not To Fall In Love, Actually, I was really looking forward to read more by Catherine Bennetto and I wasn’t disappointed because MAKE OR BREAK is a brilliant and completely absorbing novel and I’d like to thank Simon & Schuster UK and Harriett Collins for inviting me to take part in the blog tour and for providing me with a copy of the book.

I laughed so much reading this book. If you are like me and you read during your commute, expect strange looks from people around you who don’t understand why you giggle every couple of minutes while reading a book.

Jess leaves for a holiday to South Africa with her boyfriend Pete to attend her best friend’s wedding and also to spend some quality time with Pete. But noyhing goes as planned, starting from the airport, and she also manages to antagonize the entire cabin crew during her flight. Luckily, not everything goes wrong and Jess not only finds new friends, but she takes the reader with her in her exploration of the beautiful African country: from music festivals to food markets, from safari to beaches with penguins walking and swimming around.

The protagonist of the novel is Jess. Let me say right away that I really loved this character. She is down-to-earth and funny. She has internal conversation with her wicked self and also with a dog called Flora. She is caring and selfless, spending all her free time helping her sister Annabelle to take care of her two young children. She suffers from anxiety and she sees the most dramatic outcome in every situation. The outcomes she comes up with are so funny that I can’t help but share some of my favourite: from poachers shooting her because, somehow, they mistake her for a rhino to her sister ending up in jail because Jess went to South Africa and nobody was checking on Annabelle’s 7-year-old son Hunter (probably) googling “how to make a bomb”. And let’s not forget a very disastrous butterfly effect in which a butterfly flaps her wings in Kent causing a chunk in Australia to break off and families to be divided and new maps to be drawn.

The characters are hilarious and very likable and the plot is completely entertaining. I laughed from the first to the last page and, even during some emotional scenes, the author manages to insert some humourism that is not out of order and lightens up the situation. MAKE OR BREAK is a refreshing, witty, and compulsive read and I am already looking forward to whatever the author writes next.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for my copy of this book. This is the first book I have read by Catherine but it will not be the last. 

At first I found Jess quite a difficult character to get to know. She is constantly paranoid and seems to over think everything but as I got to know her, her walls seemed to break down and she became very likeable. I was really rooting for her by the end of the book. 

I've never been to Cape Town, where a lot of this book is set. To be honest I've never considered it as a destination for myself but Jess' adventures there made me want to go and do all the things she does. All the things the locals do rather than the classic overpriced touristy things. 

This book has ALL the emotions. I was angry, I was sad, I laughed, I cried and now it's all over and I don't know what to do with myself. There were some characters I instantly hated (Pete) and some I instantly loved (Diego). There are some absolute hilarious parts of this book. I literally laughed for 5 minutes when Jess' mum explained why they didn't grow up with a dog. Honestly one of the best conversations I have read. 

I really enjoyed Catherine's writing style. It has been likened to Lindsey Kelk, who is one of my all time favourite authors and I can totally see that. The story is about more than just love. It's about family and things not always going your way. It's real and it's hard but that's why I enjoyed this book so much. I know I will be buying and reading more of Catherine's books in the future.

Oh this book had me laughing out loud just as much as Catherine Bennetto's last novel, it was so funny and so relatable and just such a great read to cheer me up and entertain! Oh my goodness there were so many twists and turns in this novel I really felt for poor Jess and everything that life was throwing at her, but at the same time, some of those twists turned out to be so entertaining and have such comedy value, it was just hilarious!

Jess was a great character to spend time with and I really felt like the story was being told to me by her as she was recounting it via tweets and texts, even though that's totally not how the book is written, just because I felt like we were friends and I was really hoping that everything would turn out alright for her in the end. Sometimes Jess just can't seem to see what's happening right in front of her and other times I was just so proud of how maturely she handled some of the situations that she was faced with,. I loved the family values that she had and what a loyal friend she was. She was just a lovely character who you definitely want the best for.

There are definitely a couple of other characters in this novel who you will love to hate, and possibly will even boo when they appear on the page and then, to balance that out, there are a couple more who you will fall in love, or at lest in love with and will possibly eve cheer when they appear on the page, the novel is well cast!

I loved the fact that a lot of this book is set in South Africa because Jess i right out of her comfort zone is a beautiful city but also a city with a lot of potential dangers, so many storyline possibilities therefore. I enjoyed reading about the city and about how Jess handles it all.

There is definitely a very strong message of family in this novel too and I loved getting to know how Jess's family ticks and the way they all look our for one another. There's a very positive message of love and respect here and I really enjoyed spending time in this family and friendship group. This was just a really well-rounded, standalone novel that you should definitely invest in to keep you entertained whatever you're doing with your summer!

​I have mixed feelings about this book. I just couldn't get into it initially and really struggled with the first half, but did enjoy the second half a lot more.

Jess, the main character, lives in London with her boyfriend Pete and helps her sister (single Mum) with her two young children on a regular basis, along with her Mum. Their Dad is away a lot on business selling islands to the rich and famous. Then her boyfriend surprises her with a trip to South Africa to attend her friend's gay wedding (the friend paid for it all).

Once their Pete is bowled over by the outdoor life and wants to climb mountains etc., which Jess really, really doesn't want to do. So Pete meets a fairly famous guy called Goat and ends up dumping Jess for a week of their 2-week holiday to do these outdoor activities with his new friend. Jess is understandably not amused but decides to get out and visit places herself, with the aid of Jimmy a guy her and Pete had met at a galllery/club/bar where he worked.

So.... the good parts. I really enjoyed the descriptions of South Africa and all the places they visited, it sounded absolutely amazing. I also loved Jimmy's character and his brother Ian and his partner, Diego, they were so welcoming to Jess and she spent a lot of her time at their apartment.

The bad parts.... I really didn't like either Jess or Pete. Jess panicked about every tiny little thing and really over-thought things far, far too much, and in contrast was extremely over-exuberant at other times. Pete was a just a selfish idiot.

The 'Make or Break' of the title was definitely something I wasn't expecting though and was a complete shock, very clever twist and completely unexpected. And there was a very nice ending. So the first half was just so-so, but the second half was a lot more interesting for me.

I tend to avoid any book that is billed as 'laugh out loud' story. This was a romantic, slightly girly, tale of travel to South Africa. Jess goes with her boyfriend Pete to her friend's wedding, and hopes that she might return as an engaged girl.
The setting of the novel , the descriptions of South Africa, were evocative and attractive. I wasn't thrilled with the people who made up the story. Was it a mite predictable? Certainly it was a very quick read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a review copy.

At the start of the book I wasn't sure, but the more I got in to the book the more I enjoyed it.

Jess is on holiday with her boyfriend Pete to attend her best friends wedding. She is thinking they will be coming back engaged, after being together 6 years. While they are there they discover they aren't as close as she thinks and things start to fall apart, not just in her relationship but secrets mean her family back home is falling apart too.

Definitely worth the read.

First off, I loved the setting of this novel. Most of it is set in Cape Town, South Africa and it honestly made me want to go there.
Being about 400 pages, Make or Break definitely isn't a thin book but that didn't stop me from flying through it. Jess' life is turned upside down and inside out which made it impossible for me to stop reading.
Even though I saw some twists coming miles off, there also were things I didn't see coming at all. It was refreshing to be surprised in that way because I can honestly tell you that I had not seen a twist like that one before!

Our main character, Jess, has anxiety, which made this book even better in my opinion. Although this isn't actual slam-in-your-face anxiety, I could totally understand why it's hard for both her and the people close to her to cope but it made it equally beautiful to see how she tries to handle everything.
Not to mention the fact that she is brilliant at being funny, bad at being punny and overall just a joy to read about.

I do have to admit that I sometimes struggled with her anxiety but I guess, in a way, that's normal since I don't have to cope with it myself. I also don't have anyone in my environment with anxiety. This made Jess sometimes come across as downright negative, thinking the worst and even the most ridiculous bad things in any situation she found herself in. I understood it, I did, but at times it got tiring to read her rants and... I don't know. I feel bad about getting annoyed by it but I couldn't really help myself?!

4 / 5

Kathy

I thought this was going to be a really light a fluffy story of Jess and Pete and their surprise South African holiday, but this did have a couple of twists that I wasn't expecting, especially when it came to Jess' dad and his appearance at the airport. Jess as OTT dramatic, but that really made me laugh. Its still an easy read, which I enjoyed. Definite beach or commute read and would recommend.

This wasn't quite the 'bright and bubbly' read I expected - in fact, I did struggle a bit and could have done with it being a bit faster in pace. However, that's only me and others may well love it!

Jess and Pete have been together for six years; a lot of Jess's spare time is given up to assisting her single parent sister with her two children who both need extra help. This has the knock-on effect of meaning that she and Pete must live close by giving Pete a long commute and resulting in them spending not a lot of time together. When her best friend buys them air tickets to South Africa for her wedding, Jess looks upon it as a chance for her and Pete to reconnect. But will they both want the same things from their break in Cape Town?

I adored all the location information - anyone reading this book is bound to be caught up in the beauty and adventure which South Africa offers, but in comparison the story and it's characters just didn't live up to my expectations and I found myself struggling to get through this one which is not like me. This is the first novel by this author I've read and I may tempt myself with another one in case I've stumbled upon a blip.

My thanks to publishers Simon & Schuster UK for approving my request via NetGalley. This is my honest, original and unbiased review.

Undecided.
I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. It was a fun read and had some unexpected reveals which made it interesting but it wasn't wow, I don't think I wasn't invested enough in the characters.

3.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, Catherine Bennetto and Simon and Schuster for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story had twists I did not see coming and this is definitely not your typical romcom. The writing flowed and this is a book you dont have to think too hard about. However I found the characters superficial (Bennetto tells you rather than shows you and there is no real emotion), the pacing monotonous (stuff happened but there was no building up suspense or reveals), and I just wanted the book to end.

This book had so much potential but unfortunately it was not for me. Thank you netgalley, publishers and author for the eARC.

This book was brilliant! (lunges to read ms Benetto's first book) Jess and her Capetonian shenanigans were definitely worht watcihng out :D Her OTT theatricals were HILARIOUS (as a voluntary drama queen myself I GET HER)
Jimmy was gorgeous and soooo cool (I want one) My favourite charcters were definitely Hunter, Diego and Ian,
Pete and his posse of animal-named adventure junkies were NO!

I loved loved LOVED it!
*****
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I enjoyed this, it’s lightherated, funny, warm and enjoyable. It feels fresh, like Spring!