Having read to 55% of this book, I’ve concluded that I am not the correct target audience for it. I think it is probably verging on YA territory. Despite the fact that the flashbacks refer to teenage life in the 1990s, I just can’t find anything to interest me enough to keep on reading. I’ve become bored with it, as absolutely nothing happens - up to this point at least.

It is well written, and brings up some thought provoking issues about how some young mixed race and multi racial women - brown women, as they refer to themselves, felt, and often still feel, growing up in 1990s/ millennial England. It’s an interesting and enlightening perspective. The racism encountered in the corporate world of work that Bel inhabits, seems to be still a very common issue, despite efforts at diversity. I find that incredibly discouraging and frustrating.

However, there is so much introspection by Bel, and her best friend and sister, and description of her therapy sessions. The arguments between Bel and her friends on their ill-fated holiday to Cornwall as 16 year olds, is so juvenile and petty.

Sadly, I found I really did not care any more what happened to any of them, but I’m pretty sure Bel will have ended up with the hunky guy Luke who we met early in the story. This was a DNF for me. I am sure many readers will enjoy this book, just not me.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

I just loved this book. It was so real that I could taste the tears of embarrassment and smell the wedding favours. A real laugh of a book that is emotionally astute and really made me think and go back to all the daft things from my teens that affect me today. Please read this book, it’ll make your week.

Full disclosure, I didn't finish this book. It wasn't for me. So, my review is just for the first part of the book.
It's an interesting idea, having an accident and then having a realisation about your life and the choices you made.
I felt a little bit as though the author was using the character of Bel to write a comment piece. I didn't feel as though she was really describing how the character felt.

"...you realise that you don't even know any longer who the people you love the most are. Worse, the ones you suspect fit that bill, you've basically pushed out of your life."
After Bel falls down a pub's open cellar, her emergency contact is her ex-boyfriend. It is after this incident that Bel questions the relationships in her life. Who is her real support system and who are her real friends?
Bel ends up confronting people from the past and through this she paves the way to self-discovery and realises who the most important people in her life are.
This book was a truly thought-provoking read. It also dealt with relevant themes such as racism in the workplace and family dynamics.

Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve wanted the ground to swallow you up? Bel Kumar finds herself in a bit of a pickle during a meeting at work and that’s exactly what happens. When she wakes up in hospital after a near fatal accident and her next of kin happens to be someone she had pretty much forgotten about, she realises that life might not be as hunky dory as it might have seemed.
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It’s rare to find a book that makes you laugh, makes you consider social injustices and racial biases, and also manages to encourage introspection. Poorna Bell’s “In Case of Emergency” does each of these things in an extremely effective manner. Despite our many differences, I felt very much connected to Bel throughout this book and whilst this is more of a “wake up call” than a “coming of age” book, I found myself contemplating life and all that I might need to open my eyes to.

I loved the style of writing, and I have many passages highlighted that unfortunately I’m not yet allowed to share, but Bell has a lovely way with words and can phrase things so that they just speak to your soul (in between all the belly laughs and gasps of empathetic embarrassment that is!)

This book was a very welcome read. It was fast paced, funny, and I couldn’t help but come back for more in a bid to find out what happened next. This is one to add to your summer TBR pile; light and funny yet very much sprinkled with sincerity and depth.

"I realised something had shaken loose in me since the accident. Nothing that would show up on a brain scan, perhaps more a loosening of the internal framework I'd painstakingly built to separate the different parts of my life."

Present day London and thirty-six year old ad executive, Bel Kumar is making a mess of her life. In a well-paid, but soulless job, it takes a freak, near-fatal accident to make her realise she has isolated herself from those who care about her, leaving her emergency contract her ex, who she broke up with four years ago. As she recovers, Bel is determined to make changes, to re-connect with the important people in her life - her sister, mum & dad and her best friend from childhood. Will she unravel her past, can she ask for help and what will she discover about herself, her friends and family, on the way?

I loved Bel immediately, her relatable experiences, humour and spirited determination. The characters, particularly her family and immediate friends, are well-drawn and real with flaws and needs and the plot moves along at just the right pace to keep me reading. The focus on female friendships and familial relationships was a refreshing change from romantic relationships often found in novels, as were the astute observations about how those relationships work, struggle to work and even fail. Bel's friendships demonstrate joy and connection as well as sadness and betrayal. Her experiences in a South Asian British woman as well as her experiences with privileged, white men (and their "mental Rolodex of reference points for people who looked like me: corner-shop owner's daughter, demure, frigid onion chopper, garlic masher, terrorist's wife") are, I expect, spot-on. Witty and warm whilst covering complex issues, experiences and emotions with panache, I highlighted so many of the author's wise words. I absolutely loved this and would definitely like to read what Bel does next.

I really wanted to like this book but I found it quite difficult to become invested in enough to keep reading. Bel (Beryl) falls down a deep hole and manages to survive without any serious injuries and her emergency contact was a guy she acrimoniously split with years ago. This triggers off the realisation that she doesn't have any friends and some soul seeking follows.

I think the book tries to hard and doesn't quite hit the spot for me but I would read another book by the author.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy.

The storyline unfortunate didn’t draw me in as much as I had thought it would. Beryl’s attitude to the important things in life change after she falls down a cellar.

Bel fell down a pub cellar hole and ends up in hospital. She can't remember much of the accident but it changes her life.

I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. So relatable as an Asian woman living in the west.
I felt seen when I read this book. Bel is a character that just draws you in with her imperfections and although we can see her vulnerabilities, she puts on a front to the world that shows her strength, which isn't always helpful.
I loved the character progression and although the writing wasn't the strongest at moments (with stilted conversation) I still enjoyed it!
4/5

An easy read, this is the story of Beryl Kumar, who after an accident, wakes up in hospital to find her ex boyfriend at her side, reminding her that she had not updated her next of kin at work. This is not a novel where much happens but is more about self-discovery and friendship. Pleasant to read but lacking in depth and tension.

With thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review.

Fabulous!

I had thought this book was going to go in a completely different direction to where it did. Bel suffers a potentially fatal accident and comes round in hospital to find ex-boyfriend Gregor by her bedside. She never changed her ‘in case of emergency’ contact on her work HR records and they’ve called him… but no, this isn’t about Bel and Gregor finding themselves and their way back to each other, it’s about Bel finding her way back to herself. To her friends. To her family. And it’s ruddy fabulous.

I loved Beryl Kumar - she’s a complex mixture of feisty, intelligent, no nonsense woman and a teenage girl holding hurt and grudges against her former friends. Almost dying throws her world on its axis and she starts to reflect on where she is and what she wants to achieve in life.

Along the way we meet her old friends, her sister, work colleagues and the delicious Luke (ok, I wanted that to go a different way too!) and they’re also fabulous - except the ones who aren’t.

A lovely story of an emotional epiphany told with the lightest of touches and an absolutely wickedly witty turn of phrase, this is a winner for me.

Enjoy!

Beryl is a Marketing executive in London who has her own flat and is loving the single girl about town life. Until she accidentally sends a personal text about her boss in a meeting, forgetting she was sharing her screen, and falls down a hole and realises her emergency contact is her ex boyfriend.

I like Beryl, and as she's about the same age as me I enjoyed reading about her teenage life. It took me out of the story when she talked about racing her friend to the record shop for a Smashing Pumpkins album in 1999, when that was released in 1995. Similarly, she talks about pretending to visit the Eden Project in 1999 when it didn't open until 2001 - both things I unfortunately know about by virtue of being a fan and living in the SouthWest at that time.

Full disclosure - I didn't manage to read all of this. About halfway through and really it felt like nothing much had happened. She's still talking about being lonely (but being slightly less so as she's texted her school friend and seen her family) and I just didn't see it going very far. I wasn't interested enough in Bel to carry on, I'm afraid.

I thought there was some beautiful bits of writing in there but it lacked a driving narrative structure to move the story along. Thank you for the DRC, of course, and I'd love to see what Poorna Bell writes next.

This is a great thought provoking read whilst still managing to remain easy reading and entertaining.
It's about assessing where you are in life and if that's really what you want, and if not how understand what it is you need and how to achieve it.
I love that it recognises that even at 36 some things aren't any clearer than they were at 16 and there's no 'correct' way to live your life.
It shows that reconnecting isn't easy but can ultimately be worth while.
And finally it makes you think of what being a POC means in current times.

This book was such a delightful read and I hated whenever I had to put it down. Bel was such a great character to follow around. When I read the synopsis, I thought the ex would have more of a presence but I'm really glad he didn't. It was a great, insightful read about betrayal, trust, friendship and family. I would've given it 5 stars but the ending did feel quite rushed and the little drama at the end felt a bit off. I would still recommend this, though!

36-year old Bel thinks she's got a great life. She's successful at work, she has her own flat and she has loads of friends to chat with via Whatsapp and to have boozy lunches with. One day, whilst paying more attention to her phone than her feet, she falls through an open hatch into the cellar of a pub. She could have killed herself but she didn't. Remarkably, she walks away unscathed - physically, at least. What shakes her up is that she wakes up to find the hospital has called her employers to get the 'in case of emergency' phone number and her very ex-boyfriend is standing by her bed, hoping she'll hurry up and get discharged so he can go home and bathe his twin toddlers.

What's so great about a life if you can't find a more appropriate ICE contact than a guy you split up with years ago?

Bel is unsettled by the realisation that she's got a ton of 'friends' who don't reply when she tells them she's had an accident, she has no idea what's going on in her elder sister's life, and she's totally out of touch with her parents. Oh, and she hasn't got a boyfriend either and her workplace has toxic racist undertones that suddenly seem a lot less acceptable than before.

This is a book about rediscovering yourself, putting old ghosts to rest (there's a long theme about stuff that happened in her friendship group 20 years earlier), working on her present and building for a future based on strengthening bonds with her past and present. It's also about losing your 'roots' when your immigrant parents aren't playing the immigrant game and bring you up just like all the other kids at your school. Bel has to come to terms with why she's refusing to date fellow 'brown' people and whether she really is the 'coconut' somebody accuses her of being.

A lot of readers tend to get a bit snooty about first-person narratives. I think it works in this book.

I loved a lot of the characters - especially her sister, Devi. I enjoyed watching her dawning recognition that most of her friends were only acquaintances, that her sexual encounters were mostly rather hollow and valueless, and her rediscovery of what mattered in her life. The avoidance of a classic 'happily ever after' (romantically speaking) was also appreciated.

It's a good one! It adds to the genre of 'brown children of immigrant stock working out where they fit in a mostly white Britain' which is (I'm happy to say) a rather booming sub-genre at the moment. I think it's the third book with that theme that I've read this week.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this enjoyable read.

I felt from the description that this book had a lot of promise to take the reader on an interesting journey of life re-evaluation after an incident that puts you at a cross road. However I just couldn't get on with this book and gave up half way through. I really feel like the bones and idea are great but it just doesn't deliver in what I like to read. I felt that the incident itself wasn't strong enough to warrant much of a life change and definitely wasn't projected in the book as being of much significance to the character that experiences it. The characters and story lines just felt weak, very obvious and as though they were trying too hard. Throughout the section that I read it also felt as though the author or publisher was trying to ensure they covered as many aspects as possible, mixed & multi-racial characters, a direct attempt to address racism in the corporate world which whilst I'm sure accurate of many corporate experiences just jarred in the setting it was portrayed and didn't feel realistic, high flying corporate careers, key worker careers, LGBTQ, immigrant family disparity, it's all thrown in and doesn't feel cohesive.
I understand that this is a pre-finished copy and is subject to change but as it is currently just isn't a book for me, perhaps for a younger generation who is living within the world of twenty something life changes and tantrums rather than has experienced a bit more and has more perspective on life.

I really enjoyed this book. When Bel has an accident and her ex boyfriend is called as her next of kin it really makes her thing about her place in her family, Her friends and her job. I really like exploring the relationship and what looking at your life can bring.

Bel's career is going well, she's living the London life and then her life suddenly takes a tumble - literally. When Bel wakes up in hospital following an unexpected fall into a pub cellar, she realises that her life isn't quite what she thought it was. Who does she have to turn to for support? Where does she really belong?

In Poorna Bell's novel, we join Bel as she tries to reconnect with people, leave some of her past behind and work out what, and who, really matters to her. This book was an enjoyable mix of humour and introspection with a few tears thrown in. An enjoyable place to spend a few hours.

Bel is a young executive navigating life's troubles until, distracted by her phone, she walks straight into the open cellar of a pub. Crashing 10 feet to the ground, Bel wakes up in hospital, disoriented and unsure about what has happened, to find that her ex boyfriend has been called - because he is her emergency contact. Distanced from her family and with few real friends, Bel is at sea about who to call to confide in. Forced to reassess her life she finds that she is not happy - single, barely tolerant of her family, with a job she isn't happy with and colleagues that she doesn't like, she miserably scrolls through her friends list realising there is no one to call.

And then she finds inspiration and looks up her best friend from childhood. Ama and Bel haven't spoken since they were 16 and fell out during their first holiday without parents. Ama is pleased to hear from Bel and the years seem to slip away - until Ama invited their other friends, Marina and Ling, to her hen do. Blindsided, Bel is forced to confront exactly that happened all those years ago and how this has impacted on every part of her life since then.

Reunited with her sister, Devi, Bel starts to build bridges, make changes and try to enjoy her life more by cutting out the toxic people and things that don't enhance her life. Pleasingly, the story doesn't end where you think it will and serves as a reminded that we don't need everything to feel happy.

This is a pleasing read and one that kept me coming back to it several times throughout the day. It is a cosy read and the characters are flawed and that is what makes them so relatable.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.