Let me preface this by saying I absolutely hate writing anything less than a 3 star review. It pains me. But I guess sometimes it has to be done and this was one of those instances. I know that this is fiction and not everything has to be realistic in a fiction book but there were elements of this that just didn’t add up and unfortunately that took me out of the story. I felt like more research into certain topics should’ve been done beforehand. I can handle certain aspects of a story being more “out there” but in this instance, none of it really worked because the things weren’t really ever explained..? I requested this book because the highlighted reviews said it was funny and I love a banter filled romance but this just didn’t deliver on that end either. It fell really flat. If you’re able to look past these things, this book may be more for you. But unfortunately those are (maybe personal) nitpicks for me so this book wasn’t for me.

This book spans a few weeks in the life of Amber Green, who gets her dream job as celebrity stylist after being made redundant from her job at Selfridges. The catch is that she has to live onsite for the duration of the three-month contract without seeing friends, family, or her boyfriend, Rob.

This book was not for me, I’m afraid. I’d like to think I’m a positive reviewer and give even bland books a middling review, recognising that other people’s tastes might be different from mine, but there were lots of things about this story I actively disliked.

The first was there wasn’t really much of a story. It was just, ‘Amber gets a job with a celebrity, celebrity does a few celebrity-type things’. There was no complexity, no development, even for a light-hearted story such as this. The message of the story is told rather than shown, and goodness me is it told – so many times. There is zero subtlety. There’s a cringingly self-important lecture on fashion at the end, framed as a letter to an agony aunt. It’s a device that is completely inconsistent with the rest of the narrative.

There is some attempt at character arcs for Amber and Mandy, but it falls flat, not least because the characters are pretty unlikeable, especially Amber. Mandy tells a (pretty hurtful) lie that she’s not only forgiven for by her followers, but lauded for. Amber, whilst being hardworking, behaves appallingly with very little self-awareness. I started to think this book was going to turn out to be some kind of social commentary about how superficiality and selfish actions affect others. But there was not a single negative consequence.. Which leads me on to my biggest concern.

Amber’s boyfriend, Rob, is a walking green flag. But Amber consistently puts her own wants first, with little thought to him; doesn’t support him when he’s clearly going through a professional crisis; abruptly has suspicions about him; uses those suspicions to justify cheating on him; doesn’t use a ‘family day’ to visit him; then tries to minimise what she’s done when confessing to him after she’s realised she does actually want to be with him. And he’s absolutely fine about it.

The writing itself is terribly clunky: an editor-in-chief is talking “excitedly” on the phone and says, “’It is more major than I imagined. This shoot is going to get people talking. Just wait!’” It’s like an alien with limited experience of Earth trying to replicate human speech.

Little things irked me, like a poor understanding of basic employment law and using Latino for Latina and trooper for trouper – these things wouldn’t normally bother me so much but really grate when the rest of the story has issues as well. There’s also no clear reason why Amber’s been singled out for this job, given her lack of experience – I thought it would be revealed, but no. And there are some really ill-judged moments such as the boyfriend trying to get back the engagement ring he bought his ex, so he can pawn it and buy his current girlfriend an engagement ring. Ick.

The book isn’t hilarious. It’s not even vaguely funny, which is fine, except that’s how it’s being marketed. Some of the supporting characters are okay if rather flat and one-dimensional, and the focus on the descriptions of the clothes clearly show the writer’s knowledge in that area.

Thank you NetGalley and HQ (an imprint of HarperCollins UK) for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.