Review: Ask Me What I’m Reading

Ask Me What I’m Reading by Eleanor Goymer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two lost souls each make a resolution to shake off their funk - but can they do it together?

After Sophie lost her BFF Lucie while at University she felt lost, crashed out of her degree, and wound up in an admin job for the NHS, living in a poky one-bedroom flat. When her friend Anna suddenly reappears after spending years in Japan, Anna persuades Sophie to try and recapture some of the things she used to love doing ... like reading. To help her, Anna creates a bookstagram for Sophie called 'Ask Me What I'm Reading', which just happened to be the thing Lucie always said to Sophie every time they saw each other.

Max is a poor little rich boy. His mother left him suddenly while he was at boarding school and his father was more interested in making money than his son. Then, when his father died, as a condition of the will, Max had to give up his job as a teacher and run his father's Private Equity investment house for six months in order to inherit. In those six months Max lost his girlfriend, the job he loved, and his self-respect. Eighteen months later, Max is living a dissolute life of late night drinking and one-night stands. Until one News Years Eve he decides enough is enough, he'll start taking control of his life and what better way to start than getting up early and catching the train to work instead of getting a taxi.

When Max spots Sophie across the crowded carriage she has her nose buried in a book and charming, quick-witted Max can't seem to find a way to get to know her, which has never happened to him before. So in desperation he remembers that he has a book by the same author on his bookshelf, so the next time he manages to get up early he brings along the book. But by that time Sophie has moved on to another book, each one recommended by a local bookshop owner who is trying to help her find her reading mojo.

As time goes on Max and Sophie are engaged in a game of book tag, which only they know, meanwhile photos of Max's hands holding a book have featured prominently on Sophie's Instagram page, in fact her followers have nicknamed him Buff Book Boy.

Will these two ever speak? And if they do, can they overcome their baggage?

This was a sweet book with the added bonus of some interesting book recommendations and a host of loveable side characters who I wouldn't mind seeing again.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley,

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