Wonderfully unique with Music playing every part a character as the protagonist himself. Simsion has done it again bringing us a flawed and desperately likeable man, almost as memorable as Don Tillman. You will read this one in as close to one setting as you can manage, trying to keep your heart from commanding what should, (or perhaps certainly shouldn't!) happen next. Enjoy.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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If my life prior to February 15, 2012, had been a song, it might have been “Hey Jude,” a simple piano tune, taking my sad and sorry adolescence and making it better. In the middle, it would pick up—better and better— for a few moments foreshadowing something extraordinary. And then: just na-na-na-na, over and over, pleasant enough, but mainly because it evoked what had gone before.


That's the first paragraph, and I'm betting 80% of reviewers will be quoting that -- how can you not? You get a sense of Adam, his musical taste, how much music means to him/the way he thinks -- and you get the novel's mood. In the next few pages, you get an idea what Adam's life is like in February 2012 -- his relationship, his relationship with his mother, the nostalgia (and maybe more) he feels towards a country he lived in while he was young and his first great (greatest?) love.

Then we end the introduction with this paragraph that pushes us into the novel:

No matter now. I would soon have more immediate matters to occupy my mind. Later that day, as I continued my engagement with the past, scouring the Internet for music trivia in the hope of a moment of appreciation at the pub quiz, a cosmic DJ—perhaps the ghost of my father—would lift the needle on the na-na-na-nas of “Hey Jude,”say, “Nothing new happening here,”and turn it to the flip side.

“Revolution.”


On the flip side is an email from The One Who Got Away ("got" isn't necessarily the best term -- "slipped away", "blindly walked away from", "made the greatest mistake of your life with" -- come closer). Angelina was a night-time soap actress that Adam had an affair with while he lived in Australia while working on a contract job in 1989. Over the next couple of chapters Adam reminisces about his time with Angelina -- it's a heckuva love story. It's an even better doomed-love story since we all know it's coming to an end, and he's able to tell it that way.

This email is the first communication she's attempted since she informed Adam that she was getting married before he had a chance to come back.

We also get a compressed history of Adam and Claire (his might-as-well-be wife), their 15+ year relationship -- the ups, downs, and obvious commitment. Even if the romance is largely gone, there's something strong under-girding their bond. Right? Maybe? Probably? And I do mean compressed -- their decade and change is given less space than the few months Angelina and Adam have. We also see what's going on in the Spring of 2012 with their relationship, and how this new email correspondence fits in with Adam's life.

Part II of the book is focused on what happens when Adam and Angelina reconnect in person for a few days months later. Which is really all I can say about that. Well, it takes almost the same amount of space as the first part (ecopy, so I can't do page counts, so these are just estimates) -- so it's obviously a lot more detailed.

I loved Part I -- totally. The feel of it, seeing the changes for the better that Adam goes through thanks to the confidence boost that emailing Angelina gives him. Watching his relationship with Claire improve at the same time. All the while enjoying the 1989 story, too, sharing that feeling of nostalgia and more with him. It's just so well done.

But Part II? I had serious problems with. I cannot detail them without ruining the book for you all. But people just don't act the way most (if not all) of our primary characters do here. There are just too many psychological, emotional, spiritual and moral problems with what happens, how people react (both in the heat of the moment and in the cool light of day) -- people, real people, just can't do this and survive in any meaningful fashion.

We also do meet Angelina's husband, Charlie, and I have so many conflicting opinions about him -- on the one hand he appears to be good guy, generous, gracious (and other positive adjectives that don't start with "g") . . . but he's dishonest with everyone (possibly including himself), manipulative, cold, calculating . . . I want to state that he's not physically or mentally abusive, because my description of him almost sounds like it. Things would be less murky if he was.

Angelina is equally troubling -- both in how she acts toward Charlie, her children and Adam. I'm not incredibly certain that I'm pleased with the way she treats herself (or if she's true to her chosen vocation or character). I can understand a lot of how Adam comports himself, but at some point, I needed him to call the whole thing off (anyone else could've, but it wasn't in their character at the moment).

The whole thing at the point became the car wreck you pass by on the Interstate and try to not gawk at.

I can't find the exact quotation, but Nora Ephron said something about Sleepless in Seattle not being a love story, but a story about movie love (Rosie O'Donnell's character says something similar in the film). About the only way I can handle huge portions of this book is thinking of it in similar terms -- Part II isn't about actual love, romance/commitment between two human beings -- but it's about love in fiction, romance/commitment between two fictional characters. If I think of Adam and Angelina (and Charlie and Claire) as actual people, I feel a mix of pity and repugnance for all involved (well, no repugnance for one of them, but I'll leave it at that) -- along with a strong desire to get a pastor and/or psychologist to their doorsteps. But if I think of them as fictional characters -- which, I guess is what they are, as much as one doesn't like to admit that -- I can feel that revulsion and sympathy and just hope that they're able to have decent lives.

But the writing? Simsion's craft here is what kept me going through my distaste -- and what's going to compel me to give it a higher rating than I initially thought I would. Everything I thought/hoped he was capable of after The Rosie Project is on full display here -- and, honestly, Adam Sharp is probably a better novel than it's predecessors. Yes, there are comic moments, but this isn't as funny as the Rosie books, so don't look for a similar experience. But the emotional palate is richer, more varied -- deeper.

The use of music throughout -- as Adam's refuge and outlet, the way that he bonds with people, and the songs used for various purposes -- is just dynamite. Well, almost dynamite -- Cher's "Walking in Memphis" rather than Marc Cohn's? Really? (both in the playlist and novel) One of the problems with musicians in novels who write their own material (Alex Bledsoe's Tufa, Andy Abramowitz's Tremble, Hornby's Tucker Crowe, etc.) who use other's songs, is that you have to imagine the music, imagine the skill, imagine the feeling. But with Adam (or Doyle's The Commitments) you can take a shortcut through that and know exactly what feelings, sounds, rhythms, and so on are to be conjured up (Simsion gives us the exact album version sometimes so we can't get it wrong). I'm sure there are articles to be written about the music here and how it serves, propels, shapes the plot -- but I don't have that kind of time.

Oh, I can't forget to mention -- the official playlist for this is killer. I wish I'd have had an Internet connection available while I was reading it, I'm sure it'd have been a bonus. It's definitely helping while I write -- but there's some good stuff there for just good listening.

I was genuinely excited to read this book -- while I wasn't especially taken with The Rosie Effect, I loved The Rosie Project -- I'm pretty sure it made my Top 10 that year, and I recommended it to everyone I could think of online and in person. So when a new book by Simsion was announced -- and not another Rosie book -- I preordered it, and jumped on the opportunity when I saw it on NetGalley. And then that Introduction hooked me hard. Part I was wonderful. But man . . . I just couldn't handle Part II. Which leaves me in a pickle when it comes to this post, you know?

I admired this book more than I enjoyed it -- though I need to stress I really enjoyed parts of it. I'd love to heartily recommend this, I wish I could -- but I can only do so with reservations. There's so much I object to going on in these pages that I can't, while I can respect Simsion's work -- and I know this book achieved everything he wanted. I'll give it 4 Stars on merit, not my own enjoyment.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post -- thanks to both for this.
N.B.: As this was an ARC, any quotations above may be changed in the published work -- I will endeavor to verify them as soon as possible.

I read this in a matter of hours, but I didn't think it was as good as The Rosie Project, the author's debut.

I did, however, like how music and characters singing together was such a constant theme in this book. Several of the songs mentioned were familiar to me - "Someone Like You"; "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You"; "Uptown Girl"; "Both Sides Now"; etc. - and some were not.

This is the story of Adam Sharp and his lost love, an actress named Angelina Brown with whom he had a passionate affair about 20 years ago. After Angelina sends him a one-word email out of the blue - a mysterious and simple "Hi" - Adam goes to visit her - and her husband! - his first time seeing her since their split. That's when things start to get a little weird...

Nothing special here, lackluster and maybe a bit bizarre. Probably a novel that I will easily forget. Read The Rosie Project/The Rosie Effect instead.

Thank you, Netgalley, for this arc.

I am a huge fan of The Rosie series, however if you are expecting a light, fun and flirty book like those two books, you will be disappointed. However, you might like the something different that is The Best Of Adam Sharp.

This is a book about love, loss, the one that got away. However it is also a story that has you wondering, is the one that got away really the one you want?

Adam and Angelina's story is told in 2 parts 22 years apart. I am not going to lie, it felt like it was 2 different stories at times, and that I really don't think I liked the second part of the story (the present day) that much.

I really enjoyed the first half set in 1989, with Adam and Angelina finding each other and falling in love. However the second half of the story, I don't know. I just didn't feel it. I particularly disliked Angelina in the present day, tome she felt selfish and narcissistic and I am not sure if I liked her at all. But this could just be me.

To me, Adam felt more real. His feelings and actions were more realistic, and there was so much more growth in his character than Angelina.

That being said though, I did struggle to feel the connection between A & A as well. We were told they were in love, but I just couldn't see it. It felt more like lust than love.

Ugh, this makes it sound like I didn't like the story at all, however this is far from the case - if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have finished it! It just lacked something to me that I just can't put my finger on exactly what it is.

Whilst this book did lack for me, it will not stop me reading this author in the future.

I tried to read Graeme Simsion's first book, The Rosie Project, I just could not get into it. So when this one came out, I thought I would give it a chance. While I did finish the whole book this time, I have to say that this one I did not really care for.

I think the hardest part for me, what was done in regards to the premise. I know in the blurb they say that Adam thinks about Angela all the time and that they do get back in touch. Actually, I did not need the details, especially the details that are written in this book.

Yes this book made me feel an emotion and it was disgust regarding the characters and their exploits in their later life. I also felt sad, very sad for them. I suppose that is, as I usually say, a good thing when a book makes you feel something. I guess I should consider all emotions and not just the good ones. However, this was an okay read after all, I did get through it. I guess Graeme Simsion and me are not quite such a great fit. I did get to see what all the buzz was about.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Net Galley for allowing me to read and review this book.

NetGalley ARC

I generally like my relationship oriented fiction to have a bit of moral compromise, the the idea of a character who rethinks his life after his long lost love contacts him was appealing. I think all of us have had an emotional short lived relationship in our pasts. This aspect of the book was very relatable. Adam's 20 year relationship with Claire has moved from lovers to roommates. When Angelina, an old girlfriend, contacts him, it throws his life into disarray.

While I liked the idea of the book, especially Adam's male perspective, I had hard time caring about the characters or their relationships. We only really see the later years of Adam and Claire's relationship when things have waned, and snippets of other issues in the past. I didn't feel any attachment to them as a couple, so I didn't really care when Adam takes off. Also, Angelina and her husband do not come off well. Clearly they have a very complicated relationship, but pulling a third party unwittingly into their drama was just wrong.

While I enjoyed reading this book, I would have enjoyed it more with a little more character development.

This story just wasn't for me. I liked the concept of a middle age guy who's got a huge love for music connecting with a lost love but the story itself didn't work for me. I found that I couldn't connect with Adam and I wasn't really sure why he was so willing to get involved with Angela when his life seemed pretty happy to start with. The musical references began to get on my nerves somewhat and then the scenes with Adam, Angela and Charlie really seemed out there and just kind of ick. The whole story lacked flow and with no characters to like and root for I found myself getting bored and not really caring how it ended. In fact, I was looking forward to it ending which is never a good thing

I was not in love with this book about love. Perhaps this is a way to explain...food was a character. The richness and abundance of it. But as a reader, I did not taste it. The countryside in France was described as beautiful but I did not feel it. The ending made sense but I felt hollow after finishing the book. It was a story about what could have been, about choices, about the quality of life lived in the present. I believe the book could have grabbed me, could have transported me. Could have sung to me but in real life, I read it to find out what would happen in the end.

I was confused by the beginning. So many references to music. I wondered what the book was going to be about. I had to press on until the music began to weave more harmoniously into the plot. And one character seemed to just fall off into the abyss at the end. What happened to her? Someone who had been important. (Spoiler alert...the mother)

I hoped to sing along with this book but I did not. Am I tone-deaf or was it the tune?

I really wanted to like this book -Loved the Don Tillman story. I will recommend to baby boomers that love music. It bounced around too much for me and I could not get all the way through. There was nothing grammatically wrong with it. It may just be not my kind of book :(

I was so excited to receive an advanced reader copy of The Best of Adam Sharp via NetGalley after reading The Rosie Project series by this author. Graeme's ability to paint a complete and complex character in his leads carries over to this novel - but in a completely different way. I got immediately sucked into the story and, as a music nerd, was excited to see that there was already a youtube playlist to accentuate the reading with the pertinent songs to the story line.

Personally, the storyline of the "one lost love" struck home. The idea of living out a fanatasy life with the one who got away is as intriguing as it is detrimental to any future relationships. The way that it played out in this story, however, got weird (thus the loss of a star). I'm not even sure what to say about the last quarter of the book...

If you are looking for something akin to The Rosie Project - this is not it. It goes into the complexity of relationships and is compulsively readable but in a completely different way.

I'm not really sure where to go with this book. Adam spends more than half of the book remembering a three month relationship with a flighty married actress. He's not an emotional person and the story goes back and forth between current time, then something causes him to go back to the time with Angelina. I had an ARC copy and sometimes the books have odd editing quirks, this one did not visually separate current from past and it would have made it easier to read. I found the references to music exhausting and not very relevant to the moment. There were times that I wanted to stop reading but the author has such high marks for the Rosie Effect books that I wanted to finish. I'm pleased that I finished because Adam turned out not to be the douche I thought. As a fair warning though, there is cheating but it works for the story. My review was written voluntarily after reading an advanced copy through Netgalley.

Read this because I enjoyed the Rosie books by this author. Although this book is in a very different vein, I still loved the writing style and the unique characters. Very true-to-life, the author touches on what it feels like to re-discover past relationships and feelings. It definitely struck a chord with me, and I appreciate an emotional exploration of what it means to experience this at an older age.

This book is a super far departure from the light and witty "Rosie Project". This story is a bit heavy with topics: love, lost love, can lost love be rekindled, adultery and filled with a lot of alcohol. The book was interesting and well written but a bit dark at times for me.

A Compositional Score on Romantic Relationships

Adam Sharp is talented piano playing musician who works as an IT consultant. At the age of twenty six, he meets Angelina, an actress and novice singer. Angelina quickly becomes “the love of his life.” Every song reminds him of her.

Though there is a separation, fast forward twenty two years and Adam has built a 20 year relationship with Claire. He still works as a consultant and still sporadically plays the piano. He is a musical encyclopedia of song living in England. Angelina’s second marriage produces three children.

As Adam approaches fifty his relationship with Claire has grown stale. Out of the blue, he receives an opportunity to reconnect with Angelina. Will he accept?

This is where things really get weird.

Adam is thrust into the inner workings of a marriage on the rocks at the same time as he is trying to figure out his own relationship and where it stands. He tries to draw from others’ experiences but falls short again and again.

Music is the vehicle that drives Adam’s and Angelina’s convoluted love story and the lifeblood of their union acting as an intensifier for emotions that become so entangled they are impossible to decipher. Watching Adam struggle with truly understanding not only his own culpabilities but the innermost dynamics of another relationship makes for a satisfying story.

Simsion dives deep into the analysis of a marriage at risk as he simultaneously moves the players in this love triangle until it all makes sense.

After reading and loving both The Rosie Effect and The Rosie Project, Simsion is cemented as a gifted storyteller with a book that totally stands on its own merit.

BRB Rating: Read It

It's a bit challenging for me to rate this book, because I didn't *really* like it much but I did read it in two sittings, so there's that. Overall, I found the characters a little bit flaky and the whole plot to be a bit unrealistic/unbelievable, although maybe it's just not something I can ever picture in everyday life, or maybe it's cultural. I'm not sure. The musical references and the main character's love of music was great. In no way does this rate near to The Rosie Project for me which was much more funny and endearing, in my opinion.

The book is written in quite a fast pace and the character development is spot-on. Also, I liked that there weren't too MANY characters to really keep track of. It really just focused on 3-4 main characters and that was nice. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. I will likely still pursue future works from this author and I know a lot of people will definitely really like this book but it fell a little bit flat for me personally.

I generally love books with heavy music influence and references, so I was excited to combine that style with the writing of an author I'd previously enjoyed. Unfortunately, this felt like I was just reading the musings of a man who was experiencing an agonizing, juvenile, and poorly handled midlife crisis. I don't expect an author to constantly write the same kind of story over and over, but, the writing in this book just lacks all the quirk and charm that made The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect endearing and memorable is completely absent, leaving instead a melancholy and somewhat creepy story of loss and supposed love. Perhaps if Angelique and Adam were more understandable characters, or if their relationship felt more real, the story would have been more understandable and had more heart. Instead, it just felt sad throughout, and like getting a front seat to someone's odd fantasy times.

On the cusp of turning fifty, Adam Sharp likes his life. He’s happy with his partner Claire, he excels in music trivia at quiz night at the local pub, he looks after his mother, and he does the occasional consulting job in IT.

But he can never quite shake off his nostalgia for what might have been: his blazing affair more than twenty years ago with an intelligent and strong-willed actress named Angelina Brown who taught him for the first time what it means to find—and then lose—love. How different might his life have been if he hadn’t let her walk away?

And then, out of nowhere, from the other side of the world, Angelina gets in touch. What does she want? Does Adam dare to live dangerously? -Goodreads

If you haven't noticed, I love reading Graeme Simsion books. There is something about his writing that is honest and reliable even from a male's perspective. This is still the case with The Best of Adam Sharp, however, I didn't really enjoy this book.

Firstly, this book was different and I can see the author taking a risk. I don't mind the risque scenes; they were surprising but I don't mind them. What bothered me about this book was Adam and how boring he was even when his past was discussed. His tone never changes... not even once throughout the book. Because of that it made it extremely difficult to read this book (took me a week).

The book was slow and it dragged. There was no real life or passion within this book. It was hard to tell if Adam was actually in love or if it was more infatuation. It didn't feel real at the beginning nor at the end. Overall that is what the book was lacking; deep emotion, real heartbreak, real anger etc..

Another issue I had was Adam is selfish and the love of his life was just as selfish and became even a worst person as she got older. This told a lot about Adam. He wasn't the hero you want to love and I was disappointed in him and the weak characters around him. I say weak characters because no one really fought for what they wanted. I can't even say Adam did because he went with whatever was allowed.

The music element was cute. It added some character to the book but the music didn't define Adam nor was it as important as I thought it would be. The music was defined based on his relationship. Yeah, he did trivia at the pub but he music wasn't his life nor was he missing it.

I wanted better from this book. I wanted to be moved because it was different from The Roise Project. I didn't feel this was a bad book but it wasn't something I would read or recommend unfortunately.

2 Pickles

The Best of Adam Sharp contains some important messages about the folly of pining after a "lost love" and also the importance of recognizing and appreciating what you have now. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to deliver the message.

Adam Sharp works in IT in England and is an amateur musician. In the late 1980s, he's sent to Australia for a temporary work project. While there, he is playing piano and singing in a bar one night when a young woman comes up and begins singing with him. It seems she is an actress who is currently appearing on a soap opera, so she's well-known to everyone in the room -- except Adam. He eventually begins an affair with the woman, Angelina, even though she is currently married (although unhappily).

When Adam's job assignment is up, he moves on to the next assignment in Singapore, and feels like he is in no position to ask Angelina to leave her job and marriage to follow him. Nor is he willing to give up his job and move across the world to be with her. Eventually he begins a long-term relationship with a woman in England, Claire, and they settle down into domesticity. But of course, he never forgets Angelina and always wonders "what could have been."

Fast forward 20 years. He and Claire have become rather bored with each other. He works now and then on temporary IT contracts, but it's really Claire who brings in the money. They tried to have children, but were unsuccessful and didn't want to to the IFV route. Now Claire's company is possibly going to be purchased by a larger company, and if that happens, she will have to move to the USA, at least for a few years, to complete the transition. Once again, Adam is unwilling to uproot himself (although there doesn't seem much to give up) and so he pretty much decides that if Claire goes to the USA, that will be the end of their relationship.

At the same time, out of the blue, he begins receiving messages online from Angelina. In the years since their relationship she has divorced, remarried, had 3 children, and become a lawyer. With his own relationship in something of a decline, Adam again begins to fantasize about having a relationship with Angelina. It just so happens that she and her husband are coming to France for a vacation, and she proposes that Adam might like to join them -- for old time's sake.

The second half of the book, when Adam and Angelina reconnect, is quite long and drawn out, and veers into very unlikely territory. Both Adam and Angelina's husband, Charlie, fall all over themselves to wait on her hand and foot. What is really going on in Angelina's marriage is also a question that takes a long, long time to resolve.

All in all, I found the book to be quite annoying. Not only the complicated relationships, but the fact that Adam, wherever he goes, finds a piano and immediately sits down and starts to play and sing is quite far-fetched. Not only that, but whoever happens to be around (friends, significant others, general strangers) beg him to continue playing and shout out requests. Also, he knows just the right song and just the right lyrics to sing (while giving significant and meaningful glances) for any situation. If I knew this person I would be MORTIFIED and refuse to go anywhere with him. And why are there pianos at every bar, house and airport he visits???

While the book may contain some important messages, it takes so long to get there, with so many musical asides, that at the end I was just grateful it was over, rather than enlightened!

I thought this book was “meh” at best. The two main characters, Adam Sharp and Angelina Brown, are incredibly self-centered. Twenty-two years ago, they fell in love in Melbourne where Angelina was in an unhappy marriage and Adam, working on contract, was in the area. They mutually agreed that when it was time for him to return to Manchester, England, they would break it off.

They seem to have fallen in love based on a shared love of the same music, about which the author writes at length. The problem with music is that it does not evoke the same reaction in all people; so much is dependent on when you hear it, or whom you are with, or what your life is about at that moment. Thus, for example, Adam going on and on about the Dylan song “Farewell Angelina” clearly would be relevant for him but does absolutely nothing for me. Analogously, eating a madeleine only makes me think of Proust the author, rather than the 4,215 pages of memories it inspired him to write about.

When the story shifts to the later period in their lives, Adam is 48 and Angelina is 45. They haven’t changed much. Adam is still endlessly in the throes of introspection about Angelina and their relationship, and Angelina is (also) still all about Angelina.

Thus, I found much of the book boring and often alienating. The immature characters just didn’t interest me in the slightest. This may be because the author didn’t really choose to tell us much about them besides their musical tastes, and their manipulative actions.

There are two side characters, who are (inexplicably, in my view) devoted to Adam and Angelina in spite of their flaws and in some instances abusive behaviors.

In the end, not much has really changed, at least on the interior of each of the characters, or rather, what interior there is.

Evaluation: Fans of Simsion’s “Rosie” books may be in for a letdown; I certainly was.