Hot Mess By Lucy Vine

‘Hot Mess’ is the debut novel by Lucy Vine.

Have you ever shown up to Sunday brunch still smelling of Saturday night? Chosen bed, Netflix and pizza over human contact? Stayed in your mould-ridden flat because it’s cheap? Meet your spirit animal, Ellie Knight. Her life isn’t turning out exactly as she planned. She hates her job, her friends are coupling up and settling down, and her flatmates are just plain weird.

I came across this book whilst listening to the ‘The Bestseller Experiment’ podcast, Lucy was chatting with her editor about how she wrote her book over a 2 month period, with a deadline of 10,000 words a week.

As an aspiring writer myself, I was curious to see if this plan could also work for me but I also had more of a curiosity to read the book itself.

The story is primarily seen through the narrative of Ellie, a young fun loving woman who’s enjoying life and meeting new people but is feeling the pressure to settle down, as it is what society has expected her to do.

The story follows her as she goes on a series of disastrous dates, tries not to fall for her hot flatmate as well as try to pave out a proper career for herself.

I loved Ellie, she kinda is my spirit animal that I empathised with on so many levels. It’s so pressurising to be a woman of a certain age that it’s expected that if you’re not settled down, married with child, then there’s something wrong. And, we get a lot of that pressure from people our own age which is extremely frustrating particularly females.

I read this book over the Christmas holidays which was a godsend as I had read it into the early hours. The story is written with humour and warmth, filled with fabulous characters that made for intoxicating reading. Ellie is a brilliant character, that I instantly warmed to with her wit and drama. I adored Ellie’s father, who was a constant positive energy in Ellie’s life and his own desire for writing made for a fantastic inclusion in the story, as he wrote his own take on the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ novel. Ellie’s older sister Jen is a tyrant, who’s quick to speak her mind and not afraid to offend at any opportunity.

A wittily written story of self discovery that made for fabulous reading. A truly recommended read that reassures that we all travel our lives at our own pace.

You can buy ‘Hot Mess’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.