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BOOK REVIEW: Good For You by Lucy Vine

Liv’s furious – but you’d never know. As morning TV’s go-to relationship therapist, she’s built herself a no-nonsense, easy-breezy reputation.

But when she’s caught on video having a tiramisu-fuelled meltdown, she goes viral for all the wrong reasons. Suddenly everyone knows that the woman whose mantra is ‘keep calm and carry a condom’ can’t keep her cool.

Her boss gives her an ultimatum: anger management or unemployment. It should be simple, just six sessions stand between Liv and her old life. The problem is her therapist, Edward, who's insufferably perceptive and, worse still . . . devastatingly hot.

"Babe can you pick the spoon down? …

… No, because I ordered the tiramisu and I'm going to eat it. You can dump me but you can't stop me eating my pudding."

 In the past, I’ve described Lucy Vines writing as a literary version of nightclub bathroom conversation with new girlfriends but with added sparkle and I stand by my statement. 

Liv just had a very public, viral breakup — she thought she was getting engaged, but instead, her boyfriend dumps her, she spirals and the waiter isn’t bringing her the tiramisu she ordered. Not so graceful for a relationship expert whose motto is “keep calm and carry condoms” this scene set the tone for the entire novel; almost too much, an absolute hot mess and unflinchingly, annoyingly relatable. Liv is a larger than life manifestation of the chaos that is being a woman today, from the desire to just fucking RAGE sometimes, the unseen mental load we take in relationships, the constant comparison, the early maturity — and also how gross daddy long legs are. 

Her narration is like butter - it really does just feel like a conversation, flowing effortlessly, every thought she has bared on the page leading us through the post-breakup, the realisation of her newfound infamy, her job as a therapist, her anger management with colleague Edward to attempt to save her book deal and tv therapy career — it’s all a maddening my flurry of learning to love herself, recover from the breakup, and maybe even realise that she can definitely have romance again with someone who doesn’t treat her like shit. 

Every character was perfectly described, but Vine never wastes a single world. In just a sentence or two, I know everything I have to (screw you, Spencer. You’re gross) I adored her friends, her roommate Samira was an absolute babe, her colleagues were a delight especially one particularly handsome fellow. I loved the healing journey, the learning moments for Liv as she found not only her own worth, but as she found unlearned how she should act as a girl, as a woman. (Read and you’ll understand, but one scene with hot chocolate and another involving two insects were easily my favourite moments) 

This book just embodied the need for your girls when everything is a bit shit. A maddening journey of self discovery, self love and delicious boozy desert with a lot of love and a feminist streak that was just perfect. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


  • Good For You will be released June 16th, I received a reviewers copy of  this title. 

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