3.5 stars - Thanks NetGalley for my ARC

'Is This It?' is the sequel to The Education of Ivy Edwards which I didn't realise before I read it as it didn't seem to be advertised as a sequel - however reading it I don't think it's a problem if you haven't read the first book as it's easy to follow.

This is a nice read about Ivy a young 30 something living in London and embarking on her teacher training whilst navigating her messy life. Ivy as a character is pretty realistic and so quite relatable. The plot is what you'd expect from a chick lit type book, nice but not exactly setting your world alight.

What let this down for me was Ivy's friends who seem like trash and just irritated me constantly and that the ending felt quite rushed. A lot happened in the last ten minutes to tie it up in a nice romcom bow.

Overall a well written book but nothing super exciting

So I didn’t actually realise this was a sequel until I’d finished it but it read really well as a stand-alone so I don’t necessarily think you need to read the first book before reading this! I don’t feel like I missed out on anything.

I really enjoyed this one, it had really great main and side characters, a great romance and many funny moments.
I loved Ivy as a main character, she was really relatable and was trying to do her best while also always seeming to be one step away from a disaster. She also felt particularly relatable to me as she was doing her teacher training and it brought it all back to me as I did teacher training at uni too so I definitely understood all of Ivy’s stress! And as someone who still works with 3 and 4 years olds I was definitely laughing at all the situations she found herself in with her class!
Scott was a really lovely love interest and I was 100% invested in his and Ivy’s relationship. I also really enjoyed Ivy’s family and friends as they added a lot of fun moments into the story.

I loved that throughout the course of the story Ivy really started to believe in herself and pushed aside the voice of Dilys (the voice in her head) to go after what she wanted and she didn’t let anyone else sway her into to changing her mind about what she wanted out of life. She also found her voice to stand up to people who were close to her instead of letting everything slide.

Overall, this was a fun read with a cute romance and some added drama!