A debut novel about an age gap relationship. Very emotional in places with unexpected twists and turns. Easy to read

A 23 year old young publicity assistant meets a 56 year old writer and they fall in love. He is married, she has to hide their relationship. A really gripping debut novel that reads really well. Definitely recommend

Thanks to her new job as publicity assistant at the independent publishing house Winden & Shane in London, Charlie gets the opportunity to meet the author she has been idolising her whole life, Richard Aveling, and the two embark on an illicit and all-consuming affair.

Whenever I had to put this book down, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Charlie was so easy to love and care for, and going through this journey with her and watching her grow felt like a privilege in its own. The relationship between her and Richard is so incredibly well written, and doesn't shy away from anything, it makes it almost uncomfortable at times. Every single character is so complex and multifaceted, and they all feel so incredibly real. The writing was incredibly captivating, and it made it so easy to fall into these pages and never want to get out.

Bitter Sweet is the story of a young PR in a publishing house getting involved with a 56 year writer that she idolizes. There was a moment were I was obsessed with these kind of story. Power dynamics, mental health explorating, grooming etc. And based on years long enjoyement of the topic I requested this title. Bitter Sweet made me aware that I either outgrew the topics explored here or were simply not in the mood. I felt the style not working for me, not caring about Charlie and the relationship drifting without real grip. Cecile as a boss is truly wishful thinking as is the convenience of rich friends. I powered through but am sure to have forgotten this quiet soon. Loved that Charlie ended up accepting the help she needed. Glad I gave it a go; not a book for me personally but it´s good to know the content for my customers.

You know from the first page you're in very safe hands here. This is a sparkling and assured debut. I think this one will be the talk of book clubs around the country

The characterisation is this book is phenomenal. I was very quickly wrapped up in Charlie's world and could not put the book down!

Charlie is a 23 year old working in the publishing industry when she gets the opportunity to meet her hero - her favourite author and the favourite author of her late mother. She finds herself falling into a secret relationship with this married, much older man and the book’s plot revolves around how this affects her working and personal life. Spoiler, it’s an incredibly negative impact.

Charlie is a deeply frustrating character, intelligent but incredibly naive, self centred and at times very irresponsible. I wanted to shake her throughout the book and I felt a lot of sympathy for her flatmates and colleagues as she was quite awful to them most of the time. Richard was controlling, slimy and predatory, I found no redeeming features in this character at all. I had a really specific vision of what Richard looked like in my head whilst reading, more so than any other character.

The author’s character development was excellent; all of the characters including the less prominent ones felt well fleshed out and whole. The plot was slow, but I feel this was a deliberate decision and it matched the vibe of the book. It took me a long time to read this book, not because I didn’t enjoy it (I really enjoyed it!) but because I’d get so frustrated with the characters that I’d have to put it down and do something else for a while. So well done to the author for provoking these feelings in me! I’d definitely recommend this book if you like insightful books that cover ill advised love affairs, the publishing world, chronic illness/mental health struggles and being 20-something in the late 2000s/early 2010s.

I can never get enough of books like this.

I’ve read so many stories of messy women in London in their twenties making terrible decisions, occasionally in love with older abusive men.

This is no different and while I’ve read a lot of books like this, I always love this narrative and dynamic.

Charlie is a young publishing PR with an obsession with a famous writer. When she gets the opportunity to meet him to help promote his new job, they start an affair which begins to unravel her life.

Nothing I haven’t read before, but I’ll never get enough of this kind of thing. I loved it.

On the surface, Bitter Sweet is a novel that I should have devoured. Introduce me to another twenty-something lost soul and I’m there. I live for these turbulent storylines where morality and happiness can never exist at the same time, and this is what drew me to this novel in the first place.

However, despite its moments of powerful prose and its representation of chronic illness, Bitter Sweet fell completely flat for me. I am all for defending an unlikeable character, but Richard Aveling had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, which made Charlie’s poor decision-making completely unjustifiable.

But my biggest gripe with this book is just how tone deaf it is. No real discourse is had around the privilege and competitiveness that is so apparent in the publishing industry, and Charlie’s nonchalance about it is more than irritating. In the novel, she ends up taking sick days without needing an explanation or facing repercussions (which wouldn’t happen in any workplace). She is also able to get a non-private doctor’s appointment in London a few hours after she requests one - this one was a particular punch in the gut. Even when she DOES face repercussions for her actions, the blow is more than softened by offerings of free accommodation and perfect solutions.

These factors unfortunately drove a wedge between myself and the main character. As someone who has dreams of working in publishing and suffers from a chronic illness, my empathy should be everlasting for Charlie. However in the end, I couldn’t find anything about her to defend.

DNF - This felt very niche in that the format would be beloved by a specific reader who tended to read this writing style. For me, it felt like a dunk into the chronically online world & that is not necessarily a place I aim to visit, especially in this format.

I thought this was an astonishing and remarkable piece of writing that was evocative, beautiful, and gripping.

The structure, sense of place and character building was genuinely incredible and I could not put it down.

Had it been written by a man, it would be lauded as literary fiction, but I fear it will be branded chick lit, which would be doing it a massive disservice.

This is a book that gets under your skin and so perfectly draws London, and the world of publishing, and depression and anxiety, and the lure of an older man, and the intricacies of an affair.

It’s perfect and I ADORED IT.

Bitter Sweet is about a woman in her twenties called Charlie, who lives in London with her two friends and works in PR for a book publisher.

She gets tangled up in a complicated romantic situation, and the book mostly focuses on that, as well as insights into her mental health, childhood and relationships with her friends and family over the years.

I thought the book started strong, but plateaued by the middle. I found myself frustrated with Charlie’s choices, and felt that her love interest was controlling, preyed on her naivety and youth, and wasn’t right for her.

I felt compelled to stick with it to see how things progressed though, and I hoped things would turn a positive corner for her and that she’d make better choices. I thought how the story panned out was interesting. I also found some parts of the story predictable, but the earlier chapters were engaging.

With thanks to Orion Publishing Group, and NetGalley, for the ARC.

Whilst this is an uncomfortable read, it’s raw and powerful. I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I put it down. The power dynamic between the main character Charlie and Richard was so well written, he was gaslighting me through the page. Charlie was a fantastic main character, strong and clever but young and naive, which you don’t blame her for. The “sweet” in the book was definitely her friends who rallied around her in her time of need. The ending was a salve over the wound that this book caused. An incredible debut!

Thank you so much to Orion Publishing Group & NetGalley for the e-ARC!

4.5 stars! I've upped my rating as I keep thinking about it! Rounded up

This was such a deep and yet frustrating read. I love annotating my books but since it was an e-ARC my notes app took a few heated words from me as I was reading lol

Charlie, I wanted to shake you. I wanted her to listen to Ophelia and Eddy. I wanted to swing at Richard.

This holds so many themes within it such as mental health, loneliness, age gap affair, power dynamics, people pleasing all the sorts.

One thing that annoyed me about that Richard was how he constantly went on to mention the age difference between them, constantly mentioning or commenting, 'your age', 'before you were born' etc and yet when she makes a one off reply to his comment about his hairline - HE GETS MIFFED SO BAD!!!

Even though I was frustrated, I kept reading. I NEEDED to know what would happen to Charlie, I needed something to happen to get her away from Richard. With how this is written and the way grief & mental health is written and the whole dynamic of Charlie literally gaslighting herself really seeped in how much more deep this book and Charlie's story was than just a tale about an affair.

I feel like maybe I need my own therapy session to unpack my feelings about this. Part resurfacing past trauma, part pure melancholy and part hopeful?

I think at some points in the beginning I was a bit frustrated with the lack of subtlety around Richard’s manipulations of Charlie. It felt like the author was explaining to us why what he was doing was bad or forceful instead of letting us figure it out for ourselves either in the moment or down the line. I think I would have felt more connected to Charlie a bit more if we were given the opportunity to fall in love with Richard the same way she did.

There were times I really didn’t like Charlie. I struggled to not get annoyed with some of her choices and thought processes but when I think about it I can 100% tell you that I have made so many of those same choices in similar situations at her age. Shared trauma, shared experience still incredibly uncomfortable to look at so closely.


At the end I think that maybe I feel a bit like Charlie felt. A bit nostalgic, a bit empty but pushing on and trying not to think too much on the past.

Ps my sincere apologies to Richard Osman who played the part of Richard in my brain throughout this entire book. I swear it’s only because the name, age, career and general description brought you to mind. I’m sure you’re lovely and would never be the Richard in this book.

Wow! Bitter Sweet was an immensely powerful novel that held me captivated over the course of 24 hours.
It's set in the publishing world where 23 year old publicity assistant Charlie begins an affair with Richard, a 56 year old married author whose book her team is publishing. I felt that the portrayal of Charlie was so real and I could really relate to how she became completely caught up in a manipulative and controlling relationship which she prioritised above the relationships with her peers and could not see how Richard was using her. I felt so much anger towards Richard and the publishing company and so much empathy for Charlie.
The writing is beautiful and effortless and really takes the reader inside both the publishing world and what it's like to be an outsider. The exploration of Charlie's grief and depression was sensitive and empathic and powerfully showed the impact of trauma.
My words cannot do justice to this beautiful and moving novel. Highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Bitter Sweet tells the story of a Charlie, a lower-middle-class female graduate entering the world of book publishing and her treatment at the hands of a manipulative older author. It is a debut novel that, unfortunately, left me feeling a little indifferent. I mean, it was ok. It didn't blow me away, but neither was it poorly written or boring. The ending was rather too neatly packaged for me (the poor husband doesn't even get a name!).

I was annoyed by a few things in this books: the protagonist, as you just wanted to shake her; the seemingly charmless Richard (what on earth did Charlie see in him?); the pretentiousness of some characters; the thinly veiled publishing house name… I do wonder if these are the writer's own recollections of a previous life in publishing writ large? Maybe that's what ultimately annoyed me; a sudden realisation that a lot of book writers are all ex publishing/media staff of some kind (possibly getting all their mates still in the biz to slip them a decent review).

I worked in academic publishing the late 90s/early 2000s, so I very much enjoyed reliving the nostalgia of wine-fuelled post-work Friday shenanigans. Academic publishing was a much less pretentious world though, and we didn't wait for a Friday for those shenanigans either.

Thanks to Net Galley for the review copy.

Bitter Sweet was a little hit or miss for me, but there were some great aspects for a debut novel. The book excels the most when focusing on the secret and problematic relationship between main character Charlie and the much older author Richard Aveling. This is the tale of an abusive relationship, though it is one born of manipulation from a position of power rather than obvious violence or cruelty. Coming from Charlie’s perspective it creates an interesting dilemma, since the many red flags in the situation are seemingly at odds with how kind and caring Richard is to her. It’s the true embodiment of “It’s Complicated”, capturing the phrase wonderfully.

Where I struggled with Bitter Sweet is the character building and setting outside of the relationship, which personally felt a little cookie-cutter and lacking in originality. Maybe I’ve just read too many books set in the publishing industry at this stage, but nothing was grabbing my interest for the first 50 pages or so before the main plot kicked in. It must be said though, the book really came into its own once the relationship started to grow, and I thought the ending was well written and put together. Thank you to Orion and to NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion for the ARC of this debut!

Bitter Sweet is a story of all encompassing love. The kind of love where there’s a before and after; and things are never the same again.

The story of Charlie and Richard is immersive, emotional and thought provoking.

Another theme throughout the book is friendship - the intense friendship in your 20s where you’re propped up as you navigate life and love.

This is a really compelling story and I flew through it - it was fascinating to get an insight into the world of publishing.

Charlie and Richard and their story reminded me so much of Coco Mellors’ Cleo and Frank.

It was such an emotional, powerful, realistic story of love and loss.

Really enjoyed this one, thank you.

Bitter Sweet
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
(Contemporary fiction)

This book was an absolute gem.
At first glance, the plot follows Charlie, a 23-year-old girl, as she becomes involved in a romance with Richard, a renowned (married) writer that she idolizes since forever, more than two decades older than her and with whom she also works as part of the marketing team for her next novel. However, the story goes far beyond than just representing the forbidden romance that occurs between the two of them.

Bitter Sweet is a kind of a coming of age book that uses the power disparity between the main couple to also explore topics such as the connections to things and people that may occur while going through a grieving process, trying to find our place in the world and mental health, but despite dealing with such complex situations, the pages turn by themselves. It is IMPOSSIBLE to stop reading and even having an idea of ​​what the ending could be, it still comes as a surprise.

The dynamic between Charlie and Richard is literally a roller coaster and I think the author knew how to perfectly handle that line where I, as a reader, often felt anger and anguish for no obvious reason. It's hard to explain without actually spoiling, but it wasn't so much the situations as the way the protagonist felt in many of them that made me feel uncomfortable while reading if that makes sense.

Something I really liked about this book, too, was the connection that Charlie felt with her friends. A full-fledged found family, where each one feels like a complete and well-structured character, with an unbreakable bond with one another above all and despite the initial prejudices that one reading may experience. Once again, the author filled with beauty and depth something that at first glance could seem banal and superficial.

I think it's clear that I loved both the narration and the story itself so so so much. I got excited, I got frustrated and I find it incredible that this is a debut. Totally recommended.