Review: Just Say (Hell) No

Just Say (Hell) No by Rosalind James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

381 pages of awesome!

I feel like some evangelical preacher. I want to walk around shaking this book in the air (difficult as I read on a Kindle) bellowing "that's how to do it!". Rosalind James has fit so much into this book that in lesser hands it could have been trope soup but she manages to effortlessly weave her story-lines together into an epic narrative of love but more importantly unconditional support. Yes, there were tears (of happiness) but there was laughter and family and lots of rugby.

Marko Sendoa is a rugby player for the Auckland Blues and for the All Blacks. He's 32 years old, responsible, always had his feet squarely on the ground, calm, a credit to his family. I won't spoil the opening of the book for you because I thought it was eye-wateringly funny, but Marko gets photographed in a bar at two o'clock in the morning in a fracas not of his own making. The, when he gets home he finds his 16 year old cousin on his doorstep, she's spent all day travelling from their home in the Southern Alps to announce that she's pregnant and wants to live with him, rather than her drama queen mother, until the baby is born.

In order to do some damage control after the fracas he agrees to be photographed with some animals that need rehoming with a local animal shelter. The photographer is Nyree Morgan. Marko doesn't know it but Nyree is the step-daughter of Grant Armstrong, his former coach with the Highlanders. Nyree had a crush on Marko which was totally unrequited, she also has a healthy dislike of rugby players having been humiliated by one as a teenager and having grown up with a step-dad and two step-brothers in the business. Yet when she meets Marko's cousin Ella she wants to help this young girl to get through a difficult time, she and Marko come to a deal, he will pay her and let her live rent-free in his house if she will act as Ella's friend and companion.

Everything about this was awesome, from the almost dreamy way Marko and Nyree spoke to each other, Marko's mum and her daily tarot card reading, the exciting rugby commentary, the humour, the hot-hot-hot smexy times, the drama, the friendships - just everything.

Best book of the year so far, no question.

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