Book Review: Leftovers

Book: Leftovers by Stella Newman

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

A novel about friendship, hope and the power of pasta from the bestselling author of Pear Shaped.

According to a magazine, Susie is a ‘Leftover’ – a post Bridget-Jones 30 something who has neither her dream man, job, nor home. She doesn’t even own six matching dinner plates.

According to her friend Rebecca, Susie needs to get over her ex, Jake, start online dating – or at least stop being so rude to every guy who tries to chat her up.

But Susie’s got a plan. If she can just make it the 307 days till her promotion and bonus, she can finally quit and pursue her dream career in food, then surely everything else will fall into place. If only her love life wasn’t so complicated…

A sharp, witty and refreshing novel about love, friendship and enjoying what's left on the table.



Rating: 1 star (Did Not Finish)

Review:

This was so frustrating and boring to read. Leftovers is one of those books where the main character described every part of her life from her crappy job to the annoying things her neighbor does. No detail is left out.

There was no point to this story which follows Susie Rosen as she tries to navigate her life. She hates her job and dreams of having a career doing something with food and cooking but she won't quit her current job until she's gets a promotion (yeah that doesn't make any sense). Her love life is non-existent but she's not in any hurry to start dating again.

The book's description really had me interested in wanting to read it. It seem like it was going to be a light and fluffy fun read instead it was so boring with non-stop flat dialogue. This book just droned on and on stopping me from being drawn into the story and the first person narrative didn't help. Since the story is told in first person it suffers from too much telling instead of showing.

I wish the characters had been more interesting but it felt like I had already seen these same characters from numerous other books.

This was a Did Not Finish for me because I just couldn't force myself to keep reading. Even if I did want to know if Susie eventually found a career she enjoyed and to see if her life had improved my interest was gone.