Page:
464
Publisher:
Usborne
Release
Date: 1st
February 2016
Edition:
UK paperback,
review copy
So
I'm spending the summer in California, with the mum who upped and abandoned me
– and I think I'm falling for a guy guaranteed to break my heart. This is a
situation destined to fail.
All
Amber wants is a little bit of love. Her mum has never been the caring type,
even before she moved to America. But Amber’s hoping that spending the summer
with her can change all that.
And
then there’s Prom King Kyle, the serial heartbreaker. Can Amber really be
falling for him? Even with best friends Evie and Lottie’s advice, there’s no
escaping the fact: love is hard.
If you ask me why I left this
sitting on my shelf for three months after the release date, I honestly wouldn’t
be able to tell you. I completely loved ‘How Hard Can Love Be?’.
I started reading this on a
complete whim and ended up devouring 200 pages before I'd even realised it. ‘How
Hard Can Love Be?’ is just ridiculously easy to read. When I wasn’t reading it,
I was eager to get back to it and when I was? The world (and screaming children
on a train) just melted away. It’s been a while since I've felt like that when
reading so it was really lovely.
It feels like I read the first
book in the ‘Normal’ trilogy a really long time ago so I almost went into this
with a blank slate for Amber. And I really loved her. Her comments on America
cracked me up: the terror of the airport security; the perennial cheery, cheesiness;
the fact that you can't walk ANYWHERE; the fact that there’s sugar in
everything and the constant comparisons between the US and the UK were so spot
on.
Alongside the humour there are
some really serious threads running through the plots and discussions. Feminism
was, of course, a major part and I loved the passionate, enthusiastic dialogues,
especially when Amber’s instinctual thoughts went in what she thought was an
anti-feminist direction.
But the big push of the book is
the non-relationship between Amber and her mum. It was heartbreaking to read. Amber’s
feelings of abandonment, her confusion and the overwhelming sadness she felt
over her mum’s new life winning over her was emotional and intense and I just
really, really ached for her.
I loved ‘How Hard Can Love Be?’
and I can’t wait for Lottie’s story in ‘What’s a Girl Gotta Do?’ in August.
Thanks to Usborne for the review
copy.
Sophie
Yay! I adore this series so much, so glad you finally read it and loved it!
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