Sylvia Penton is a woman obsessed with the University Professor for whom she is PA. This obsession colours every aspect of Sylvia's working life, she is manipulative and devious in the extreme. As a character she seems completely unlikeable. However there is more than one side to every story and she is also involved with a hedgehog sanctuary. When everything starts to go wrong Is is Jonas and that Sanctuary that in some ways will see her through to the other side. In some way Sylvia can almost be compared to the Hedgehog - hard and prickly on the outside but with a soft and fearful internal persona. The author writes well and although it took me a while to really engage with the characters and the narrative I think she has handled both beautifully. I would definitely read more from this author

oh how I adored this book .... reminiscent of Eleanor Oliphant who I miss so much months after finishing. Needle mouse was a great combination of story line and characters and such a good read

False hope and hedgehogs
Jane O'Connor has a light writing touch with Sylvia's story of unrequited love. Written in the first person, the story runs through a whole gamut of emotions, both hers and ours: amusement, frustration, sorrow and finally happiness. Sylvia works at a London university and is The Prof's PA. She is obsessed with her boss, seeing it as her mission to give him peace and quiet in which to do his valuable research. Any students or staff brave enough to try and see the Prof get short shrift. Her journal jottings show her as a woman with no life of her own, who has alienated her family, has no friends and is ridiculed in the office. She doesn't see herself like this at all, believing that 'her' Prof is in love with her and is only waiting for the right time to whisk her into his arms. As the book progresses, you find out about the heart-wrenching event that make her turn against the world, curling up into herself like a frightened hedgehog. But who played the biggest part in her downfall?

Poor Sylvia! Her only release from her dull life is her work at the local hedgehog sanctuary, run by Jonas, a man she feels sorry for as he seems even lonelier than her! To say more about the story would spoil it. Love the way the book runs through the seasons, reflecting Sylvia's life over a year. Each season starts with a section from Jonas's book on hedgehogs, detailing their behaviour but also Sylvia's. Autumn for busy foraging (Sylvia poking her nose into Prof's affairs!), winter for hibernation (hiding away), spring for awakening and new beginnings, summer for sunshine, fun and the prospects of love.

An excellent debut novel. Love everything about this book including the cover design and the name Needlemouse, explained towards the end of the book. The last chapter is understated and perfect. Look out for more from Jane O'Connor.

Sylvia is a 52 year old single woman who I really didn’t like very much, she didn’t seem to have any pleasant qualities at all.

She works in a university as the assistant to a Professor who she tells herself she love and he, obviously feels the same way about her. As he is about to divorce his wife, she knows he will come to understand just how much Sylvia means to hi,.

Sylvia does try to make herself more interesting and likeable by volunteering at a Hedgehog rescue centre, I mean who doesn’t love Hedgehogs?

I loved the other characters and they were so well written, it was a bit like watching Doctor Who through your fingers, as you watched Sylvia’s life fall apart....and while she is not a nice person at all, I still felt sorry for her, which is a credit to Jane O’Connor’s excellent writing.



I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review

I really enjoyed this book. It is beautifully and simply written. It is about Sylvia finding out exactly what she wants out of life and finding happiness. There have been lows and highs in her life and she has a lot to learn and a lot of living to do.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

An easy and enjoyable read, which develops extremely well as the book progresses.

It's interesting to start with a fairly unlikable character, but this serves to intrigue, to lead you on to learn more. Her fall, when it comes, is catastrophic and seemingly impossible to recover from - yet she does, and in just the way you hope for. From feeling deeply embarrassed on her behalf, yet somehow not sad for her, we are take on on a journey of understanding, just as our heroine, Sylvia, is until finally we can rejoice in her re-birth as the kind of person we might like to spend an evening with.

If you're seeking a pleasant way to pass an hour or so, with no silly or over-the-top chick lit tropes, but instead a complex tale presented carefully and entertainingly, this is it.

Needlemouse depicts the story of Sylvia, a woman hopelessly - well, obsessively - in love with her boss, 'Prof'. She becomes jealous of a new student and goes to far in pursuit of what she believes will be the perfect relationship.
While Sylvia is horrible at the start of the book, we see a much more reflective and open Sylvia at the end and it easier to empathise with her.
I really enjoyed this book and finished it in one day.

Absolutely loved this book. The characters were so strong, I loved Sylvia. I read this book in two days, it's a real page turned. Beautifully written.

Sylvia, devoted assistant to the prof, takes great delight in putting others in their place and scoring little victories. She doesn’t have friends and her life is dedicated to the professor who she believes regards her as highly as she does him. But she goes took far in her pursuit of him and her world collapses. I wondered where the story was going for half the book but then we find out there’s more to Sylvia if we scratch the surface. This is a feel good story of unrequited love, hedgehogs and new beginnings. It grew on me and left me happy.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I was not expecting to like it so much as the main character can be really annoying in the first few chapters but there was something about the story that kept me hooked and it was really worth it.

As I was reading the book, I felt more and more drawn to Sylvia and her personality and she reminded me a bit of Eleanor in Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I found Sylvia's story more interesting though and truly uplifting. As I turned the last pages, I had a wide smile on my face.

It was a really cosy book that I read in a heartbeat. The characters were believable and the hedgehog sanctuary brought warmth and real hope to the story. Family relationships are also a big part and Sylvia's resolve to overcome what happens around her is admirable.

It's a very satisfying read that will let people realising that sometimes in life, we go through phases of hibernation and that is good (and fundamental) to wake up and truly go back to living our own precious lives.

I thought this was going to more light-hearted than it is: in fact Sylvia is spiteful and malicious as a response to the trauma she has suffered in the past. I found the tone varied widely: sometimes there's a gentle humour, then we're in crazy WTF territory, then again we're back to something more emotional. The extremes disoriented me in the book as I veered from disliking Sylvia intensely to feeling sorry for her to wanting her to heal. It's hard to believe that someone as intelligent, as self-aware can be that doolally over a man we can see is transparently not to be trusted, and the pop psychology that excuses her by the end doesn't really stack up.

On the plus side, O'Connor's prose flows and she's caught Sylvia's voice - more moderation and subtlety rather than the bombastic emotional trajectory we get would have suited my tastes more.

I thoroughly enjoyed this light hearted book. The characters are uniquely created and play their parts perfectly. A heart warming story .

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Needlemouse. What a character Sylvia is and she will definitely be a person to remember. You cannot help but warm to her has the pages are turned.

I enjoyed this. The main characters obsession with her "Prof" does tip in to stalker territory and she is incredibly naïve and child like in her expectations / sense of reality but there really are people like that out there!. The animal care gave another aspect to her make up and I enjoyed this side of the tale. If you've read and liked The Cactus, you'll probably enjoy this also.

There seems to be a fashion for novels with offbeat heroines at the moment; I’ve recently read The Cactus and Eleanor Oliphant which have a similar basic premise.
In ‘Needlemouse’, we meet Silvia, an administrator at a University, who is experiencing unrequited love toward her boss. When a doctoral student seems to ingratiate herself with the Professor, Sylvia’s jealousy takes hold!
In tandem, we learn about Sylvia’s relationship with her sister and brother-in-law and her work at a local hedgehog sanctuary and how these also impact on her life.
This was a great novel. There’s both humour and pathos and my feelings towards Sylvia changed significantly over the course of the novel. It was really quite moving.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although a little unbelievable at times. Things fell into place ooh so easily, life just isnt like that!! But I did enjoy the book and would recommend it.

This book for me was bitter sweet on one hand the lead character is annoying, self centred, narcissistic and unbelievably 50 years old.. she behavesaid like a love struck teenager towards her boss despite his total lack of interest. Her whimpering and total self obsessed behaviour was hard to read. However the other characters are charming, the hedgehog sanctuary,although it doesn't entitling fit it provides an ending, is sweet. .
Overall I found this book OK, although the lead character I could cheerfully slap. ...

aka Hedgehog
(actually a hog - a pig relative)
Whilst I quite liked this rather sweet novel about obsession and its consequences - and how stalking can come about - I wish stories about universities were a little more realistic.
Unless ‘her’ Professor was working in an Oxbridge university or was a ‘name’ and thus bought in for prestige, the whole concept of a personal administrator has long gone. Universities just can’t afford them. Nor can they afford Professors who sit around their offices all day writing without producing. It would be nice - but generally speaking, Professors are busy on committees, holding seminars, seeing multiple research students, and networking, as well as lecturing. Administrative staff are usually not required to submit students’ work to any conference - and a conference would require several months notice of submission due to the peer reviewed process it would need to go through. Sometimes they will book flights and accommodation but often these days, staff do this themselves and then get reimbursed.
So a lovely view of what university life must have been like some 20-30 years ago perhaps?
That said, I liked the hedgehog component. It was the saviour of the story really - they really are blameless creatures who are totally dumb, and sanctuaries deserve all the support they can obtain. We once found a nest of babies in our greenhouse. The mother had gone in there, late in the year and had got herself killed by getting tangled in support wires for tomatoes. The babies were too small for hibernation and we took them to Tiddlewinkles and gave a generous donation for their care.

Sylvia is the wrong side of forty and has been in the same job for fifteen years. To say she's set in her ways would be something of an under-statement. She works as a PA to a Professor at a university and the role has taken over her life. She believes she does a good job, and she probably does, but she's blinkered and become, in her crusade to to do all she can for her 'Prof', self-centred and entirely deluded over the nature of her position with the Prof. Delusion can be harmless, but in Sylvia, with little other than a sister to distract her (one she views the same way at the rest of the world, as slightly beneath her and irrelevant) it becomes dangerous and hurtful. Her eyes are opened and she begins to realise that her carefully constructed world is a sham when it all comes crashing down around her. Her rose-tinted specs shatter and she is forced to see the world as it truly is. and she makes some heartwarming discoveries as well as plenty of heartbreaking ones.

Sylvia is impossible to like until she is broken. That is not a charitable way to view anyone, but, in all honesty, it is brutally true. She dislikes her niece - she actually says she dislikes her own niece, and that is one of her more lucid moments. Her disdain for the world around her and the people in it is entirely derived from an over-inflated sense of her own importance. But is also born from a sense of having missed out, of having been forcefully deprived of something too painful to contemplate and her world, the one in her mind, is there as a shield to prevent her from having to face up to what is painful and unavoidable. You like her at the end, you sympathise with her and others start to bear the brunt of the reader's disdain, and Sylvia is, if not wholly, then at least mostly, exonerated.

I absolutely loved this book, I loved the subtle way the author manipulates us and makes us change our mind so entirely. From wanting to snub the over-officious Sylvia, one wants to hug her.

I liked this book - it is quite long but that really helped show the development of Sylvia (the main character) and helps us to realise why she acts as she does and what events shaped her behaviour. It has a great balance of making characters that are realistic; some of whom you want to punch and others you want to shake and the rest you want to hug - despite each character's flaws you can relate to them which makes this book very engaging.

Thanks for the chance to review.