I really like Andi Osho as a comedian so I really thought I would enjoy this book however it was really too much to deal with. It was trying too hard to be funny and I wasn't invested in the MFC.

Fun and easy to read, but quite plot-lite - I felt like there could have been a bit more depth, but I enjoyed the humour and the characters

A wonderful read which gives an insight into the comedy world, how tough it can and what it takes to succeed. The book navigates well through the relationships of those around Abi and the feelings and emotions involved in starting and nurturing a relationship where children are involved

I loved our main protagonist, and felt that she was very interesting. I was definatley invested in her story. This book made my stomach hurt with laughter, but also had some very emotional parts in too. I did feel that the pacing was a bit off for me, and I felt myself losing interest within the middle section of the book. However, it was an enjoyable read over all.

I enjoyed this glimpse into the life of a stand up comic. It wasn't that well written - I didn't find it as funny as I thought it would and some of the comic parts fell a bit flat. The stand up routines definitely didn't work on the page. I didn't feel very invested in the main character as i found her a bit selfish. The male was similarly difficult to relate to - he just seemed quite immature. Some of the other charaters were a bit thinly drawn and I didn't feel much for them. However I enjoyed it overall - a fairly light and easy read.

I really enjoyed Andi Osho's debut novel, and this was on a pretty similar level. You can really see her experience as a comedian come through in the book. It's well written, and it's got the same humour as I have come to know and love from Andi.

I also enjoyed how prominent Abi's career is in the book, and she isn't portrayed as just Will's partner, trying to get approval from his children.

This novel is about the relationship between Abi, a struggling comedian who’s always told she’s ‘too much’, and Will, a single father who appreciates her uniqueness. Abi has to overcome her own issues and insecurities as well as adjusting to life as a stepmother to Will’s children. Their story is a sweet and life-affirming portrait of life as a Black woman and Abi’s insecurities and struggles (as well as her wit and determination) are affectingly portrayed. However, I found the novel was held back by a style that could be overly obvious and repetitive as her insecurities and struggles are constantly stated.

Touching and laugh out loud funny - as you might expect from the author. I really liked the exploration of womanhood and that concept of being 'too much' which I think a lot of women feel. It made the lead character very relatable and I enjoyed the development of the relationship as barriers came down. A story lots of women in blended families will relate to I think and told with great humour as well as sincerity.

This just was not for me sadly and I really wanted it to be. The funny parts just didn't make me chuckle and it felt a little 'woe me'. Good writing though.

Continuously being told she is 'too much', Abi, a stand up comic, starts to believe it herself, until she meets Will, who changes the game in ways Abi did not see coming.

A wonderful read which gives an insight into the comedy world, how tough it can and what it takes to succeed. The book navigates well through the relationships of those around Abi and the feelings and emotions involved in starting and nurturing a relationship where children are involved.

A very great read which kept me captivated throughout! I loved the characters and felt the author did well to convey each one. I loved it and would definitely read another Andi Osho book in the future! And now I need to go to another comedy show!

Tough Crowd is written by comedian Andi Osho about a struggling comedian, Abi who has always been told she's too much.

Although this is a book about comedy I didn't find any real laugh out loud moments which I was longing for. It is a nice light hearted read and there are some nice family moments with Abi and her sister Kemi. I also enjoyed the banter between Abi's fellow comedians and wisrcrackers Frank and Cassie.

However I wasn't particularly keen on the love interest, Will. I didn't really feel why Abi fell for him and put herself out so much with his daughters. Their relationship seemed to go from 0-60 in a matter of pages which didn't feel realistic to me and left me wanting more.

Overall a fun and witty read which I did enjoy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy to read and review

Thank you to NetGalley & HQ Publishing for an advanced reader e-copy of this title!

1.5

I'm sorry that I'm giving this quite a low review, I really gave it a try and I really did my best to like it. The story has everything that I like: romance, baby mama drama, struggling comedian, complicated family dynamics, and a funny main character. But I did not enjoy any of those in this story and I'm beating myself up for it.

Tough Crowd follows Abi, a struggling comedian who falls in love with Will, a music teacher with two kids and a whole load of baggage. And the story starts well, the character's motivations, backgrounds and chemistry are established relatively well and can be easily digestible because it's relatable. Abi goes through so much turmoil trying to impress Will and his kids whilst dealing with her own dysfunctional family, she's trying to be eldest daughter and big sister at the same time to a family that is strikingly familiar and also lacks basic communication skills. That part I liked, Osho does a good job in building her characters, and trying to make them likable and relatable, and it really shows and their hard work pays off.

The author's biggest weakness is the plot. There is a semblance of a plot in the beginning, tensions are built, and drama begins to simmer but the pay off rubs me the wrong way. For one, I was on this journey with Abi to be a better person, and she became really unlikable to me; she didn't learn from her mistakes, she brushed people's constructive criticism off and boiled it down to 'hate', and she also never ever ever takes accountability for her actions. When she was up, I was cheering for her, but when she was down, I couldn't back her anymore. Abi, in short, blames almost everyone for her actions and no one really calls her out on it. I understand that miscommunication is a big theme, but to blame others for your own lack of healthy communication is something else - babes, none of the things that happened to Abi would have happened if she didn't think throughout the whole book that everyone could read her mind. I don't even know if she really learns her lesson at the end because everyone was apologising to her for the hurt that SHE caused. It made me really dislike her, and the last 20% of the book dragged for me that it was so hard for me to even finish the book.

Given, this is an advance copy and I am giving my review quite late, and I understand that things may change from ARCs to publishing, but I would heavily rewrite that ending so that we can give Abi the redemption arc that she deserves. And I understand that writing plot is hard, and trying to keep the characters the same is difficult, but it's not hard to read through the draft and see that the main character is unlikeable. That's mostly why I rated this book so low - because the unlikability was definitely not intentional. But thank you for HQ publishing for the advanced copy!

A fun book which was easy to read.
I enjoyed the characters and their relationships.
The book was light hearted and funny

Tough Crowd by Andi Osho

Aspiring comedian Abi meets Will and they fall in love. But Will has two daughters Elle and Esme, so things aren't always straightforward. Plus Abi's Mum doesn't approve of her chosen career and criticises her every time she visits. Can Abi find her voice and succeed or should she accept that she's 'too much' and give up?

Great story with fabulous characters and a really interesting setting in the comedy world. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Unfortunately, one that I struggled to get into.

The writing was decent and I liked the protagonist, but something about it just wasn't working for me. I was only able to get a few chapters in before I was just bored.

A shame as it sounded really fun.

I enjoyed this one but, not as good as her first one. Maybe I was expecting better and built it up too much. So, I'll only give it 4 stars. My thanks to netgalley and th e publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

An enjoyable read but not as funny as I expected. Slow in parts but also a good story.. worth a read.

I liked this read because I felt invested in the protagonist and wanted to see her succeed in all areas of her adulting life.

I was drawn to the book because the background of Abi’s character – being a stand-up comedian – made me feel like this was going to be a belly-laughing type of book. Unfortunately, I don’t think Osho completely achieves this however, I did find all the gig scripts to be quite entertaining. I feel like I have quite a niche sense of humour – it takes a lot for me to laugh out loud – but I think Abi’s material was something that was lacking. Eventually she realises this is one of the reasons why she is not succeeding at securing the biggger gigs and I enjoyed watching her transformation from making herself the heart of the joke, to reflecting on her own life.

And there is plenty of material that Abi can draw upon. Firstly, her budding relationship with Will comes with its complications of being involved in his two children’s lives. Add in the fact that Elle, Will’s eldest daughter of 13, seems to be having more success on the comedy circuit than Abi, and tensions start to grow. Secondly, Abi does not see eye-to-eye with her mother, who is presented as a cold, judgemental and scathing woman. The lines that we hear from Abi’s mother made my blood run cold but, I must admit, I did enjoy watching her “take downs”, even though they were quite malicious.

Abi is such a likeable character because she honestly tries all the time. She has her best intentions at heart but doesn’t always understand what is expected of her. Abi is definitely a character who grows over the novel and I enjoyed watching this evolution – personally, romantically and comically. The ending was especially fitting and gave a closure to the story that I wanted Abi to experience. On the other hand, I did feel like it was a bit slow in getting to this point and wonder whether Osho could have condensed this slightly.

I liked this interesting take on what a stand-up comic has to go through, especially ones that are trying to break into the major leagues. Add in the adjustments needed when starting a new relationship that has a ready-made family and I was keen to see how Abi would cope, without turning it into a constant joke. I enjoyed this book for such a different plot, but think I wanted more belly laughs in the narrative as well.

With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Andi Osho is such a good comedian, I couldn’t wait to read this one. Her debut Asking for a Friend, ngl is still on my tbr but after this one I’m intrigued to see how that one pans out in comparison. Overall, I did enjoy reading this, I laughed and cried, many times, but I do think I was annoyed at a few things which made me dislike it a bit more than I anticipated. Here are a few thoughts I had during my time reading the book;

- I thought the ending though was beautiful! It did feel very close to home, especially with Abi’s relationship with her mum.

- Some of the things that I didn’t quite understand during this reading experience was how fast the first month seemed to go and this is just my opinion, but I feel like saying ‘I love you’ after a month is very fast? Again that’s quite subjective to each persons relationship. And even though Will said it’s too soon to meet the kids, she meets them quickly anyway?

- Ironically, even though I felt like it was going quite fast, my own reading experience felt really slow. It felt like I was reading this book for a month and I looked, and I was only at 28%.

- I feel like the first half of the book there was no buildup, there wasn’t much explanation towards certain things and it felt a bit rushed, but I think it definitely got better during the second half, and I felt more emotionally attached to some of the characters.

- I did get a bit annoyed about how our main character contradicted a lot of things, especially being terrified at the thought of having children and being so shocked about finding out that her new boyfriend had children. But suddenly agreed to meet them and act like a family within a month.? Just cause she didn’t want to prove her mum wrong? Like I kind of get that, but also it’s way too extreme for something like that, surely? She was very much the one pushing to meet them and it just didn’t make sense considering how freaked out she was about it five seconds ago.

- A lot of things just felt quite convenient as well, and there was no explanations. I feel like most of the characters in this book in the first half anyway, we’re awful human beings. They are constantly negative and their comments are just awful and disgusting, I’ve made many notes on my kindle and the majority of them have just written down the word, ‘bitch’ or ‘asshole’ 😂

- I would’ve liked to have seen more of the jokes done by other people rather than Abi, as their sets are done after 2 lines whereas she has a whole page sometimes. It would’ve been nice to be part of that and seen the difference in humour styles.

- There were time I was so angry and swore out loud with certain comments, especially when Elle was just an absolute bitch 😂

- I really loved the sisterly relationship with Abi and Kemi, it felt so real and lovely to watch unfold. And with their dad as well being an absolute legend, I just love him!

Overall I had a very interesting experience with this and was definitely entertained. I learnt a lot about differ types of culture and appreciate the themes applied within the story!

3.75/5 ⭐️

Tough Crowd by Andi Osho is a wonderful contemporary novel about family, friends and love.
Family is important. There are many different types of family. We see one where the matriarch rules the roost, with a poison tongue. Vicious barbs still hurt a life, even as an adult. It requires courage to stand up and speak out.
We see a split family where each parent is doing their best. As a new girlfriend of a single Dad, it is hard to be accepted by the family. Clashes with a teen are inevitable. Trying too hard to appear in control takes its toll. It is okay to ask for help. We need to be brave enough to be truthful when life overwhelms.
We follow characters trying to break into the comedy circuit. It’s a difficult nut to crack, but being anecdotal and true to oneself is always good advice.
All the characters were well drawn, likable and realistic. We see the action in the first person from the point of view of the leading lady. She is a blend of bold and sassy, with a vulnerability that is easy to empathise with.
I thoroughly enjoyed Tough Crowd. It was the perfect way to spend a couple of afternoons.
I received a free copy from the publishers. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.