How Hard Can Love Be? (The Spinster Club Series #2)

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I loved the insight Holly Bourne gave into the mind of someone who has OCD, exploring all the ways it can affect someone's life. At times, it made it uncomfortable to read certain passages, because of how hard hitting and raw it was. But I loved that! It was educational, refreshing and honest.

Holden, Lucy (19 June 2018). " 'Life isn't how it looks online.' Holly Bourne, the woman on a mission to end social-media envy". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 30 July 2018. The ending was really good up until the epilogue. That ruined it a bit. A lot of the side characters are really underdeveloped. They all seem to have their own issues, but they are never really explored since this is the main character's Evie's story so by the end I'm like ARE THEY OK? Overall I'm in love with this book and it tipped my TBR over the edge, as I now need to read all the Holly Bourne books. The great news is that this is the first book in a series. Each one focusing on a different member of The Spinster Club and I can't wait to read on. Then there's a guy: Kyle who all the girls want because of his 'prom-king' looks. Will he notice Amber? A girl who is a die-hard feminist and definitely not a captain of the cheerleading team? Fact: love is hard. Another thing I loved: it was funny. So funny. Dark, self-deprecating humor is my jam, it's my chosen method of dealing with difficult situations and this book did it so well. I was in love with the banter between characters and Evie's monologue. There were so many other direct quotes I could have inserted too, because I truly highlighted enough to fill an entire review, but you get the point.Holly Bourne has got the type of writing style where it's chatty like you already know the characters before you read about them yet her way of describing characters, settings and emotions are mesmerising. Holly Bourne really understands life, insecurities and opinions for teens and I think her writing is some of the best portrayals of it I've ever read. --Miriam is Reading but there were so many fantastic undertones of feminism and friendship and it was really really beautiful

I charged Amber with the crime of not being Evie at the beginning of this review. She’s guilty of it—but that’s a good thing, right? Nothing is worse than an author who can’t write characters with unique voices. So it’s good that Bourne can write more than one UK teenager. Obviously, since Amber doesn’t share Evie’s anxiety and compulsiveness, she is more whimsical in how she behaves. She drinks and generally gets up into mischief … yet, paradoxically, there is steel beneath this carefree exterior. Amber is afraid of losing control as a result of her experiences with her mother. Inspired by what she saw, she started writing teen fiction, including the best-selling, award-winning ‘Spinster Club’ series which helps educate teenagers about feminism. When she turned thirty, Holly wrote her first adult novel, 'How Do You Like Me Now?', examining the intensified pressures on women once they hit that landmark.

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confessionsofabooklover (25 July 2015). "Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 8 May 2018.

My sympathies lie, for the most part, with Amber. After all, in addition to being the protagonist, she is also a teenager, while her mom is a parent. Nevertheless, despite the first-person narration, Bourne still manages to portray Amber and her mom’s fraught relationship with depth and complexity. We see her mom’s pain, the daily struggle of a recovering alcoholic—but we see it through the eyes of the child whom it has affected so dearly. And, yeah, Amber says some harsh things, does things that might not be advisable—but it all makes sense in the context of what she has gone through. How Hard Can Love Be? neither sugarcoats nor sensationalizes the life of a recovering alcoholic and her estranged teenage daughter: Bourne carefully distills the truth, for all its vinegar. It was always going to be very hard to top Am I Normal Yet?, because I loved that book so much. It had such a great main character, and pretty damn accurate portrayal of anxiety and OCD, that I couldn't help but enjoy it. And then there’s prom king Kyle, the guy all the girls want. Can he really be interested in anti-cheerleader Amber? Even with best friends Evie and Lottie’s advice, there’s no escaping the fact: love is hard. And I was just about to judge her, when she said: "I'm so mad they got rid of Slytherin, I mean, Snape was, like, the best one," as she walked over, and I learned a lesson about not judging people until you've found out whether or not they've read Harry Potter." Am I Normal Yet? was one of my favourites when I first read it, for so many reasons and I'd been putting this off because I was worried that it would disappoint me in comparison but it didn't, at all. In fact, I loved it for so many totally different reasons. It wasn't so difficult or heavy for me to read and it combined so many things I love in a book (give me all the US road trip and summer camp narratives please!)Everyone's on the cliff edge of normal. Everyone finds life an utter nightmare sometimes, and there's no 'normal' way of dealing with it... There is no normal, Evelyn.” This book is fantastic and no, you don't have to read Am I Normal Yet? before you read this but I recommend that you do so you get the full 'spinster club' experience! The characters all felt very real! The family dynamics, the side characters were all well developed and I loved the main protagonist. She went through such amazing growth!