For a few months during his twenties, Adam Sharp, British database consultant and passionate music aficionado and piano player, worked in Australia where he met and fell in love with Angelina, an Australian actress. But it wasn't to be. Now about to hit 50, settled back in England, and in a long-term but stale relationship with Claire, Adam is surprised, when out of the blue, Angelina gets in touch via email. What starts off as a bit of harmless flirting and wistful reminiscence, takes a completely different turn when Angelina invites Adam to spend some vacation days with her and her husband, Charlie, in France.
After The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, this was the third book I read by Graeme Simsion. I loved The Rosie Project, didn't feel quite as enthralled by The Rosie Effect and this ended up a tale of two halves for me. It was quite a departure from the Rosie books. While there was still some humor albeit darker than in the previous books, the storyline had a more solemn and poignant tone. The entire book is written from Adam's first-person POV and Simsion's examination of relationships, regrets, and loss from a male perspective is certainly well done and not difficult to relate to if mid-life crisis means anything to you.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of this as we hear all about Adam's time in Australia and his whirlwind romance with Angelina. During the second part, when Adam is reunited with Angelina in France, I started having problems relating to some of the characters' actions. But that's more a personal issue rather than an indication of the author's writing or plotting. On the whole, Adam was a very endearing character, but throughout the book, I couldn't understand why men were so infatuated with Angelina. But what do I know about the male psyche? To me, she was simply self-centered and extremely high maintenance. I didn't warm up to her at all and I never felt the love between Angelina and Adam. So to be honest, I wasn't emotionally invested in their "love story". The ending was solid though and I was quite happy with it. What really elevated this to a 4-star read for me though was the music connection. There's a Spotify playlist with the songs featured in the book http://tiny.cc/zjzmey. I guess most of us have certain songs that will take us back to our past and/or make us think of certain people as soon as a particular song comes on. If you love music and pay attention to lyrics, you'll probably be more enthusiastic about The Best of Adam Sharp.
So, this wasn't perfect, but it was a solid story about 'the one who got away'. It reminded me a bit of Nick Hornby novels. If you enjoy audiobooks, I can definitely recommend the narration by David Barker, who really brought Adam to life in a very enjoyable manner. To be released in the US 05/02/17, already available in the UK.

Hi, I seem to have two copies of this book on my NetGalley shelf. I have already sent a review for this book. Thanks, Juliet

I would like to thank St Martin's Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Best Of Adam Sharp’ by Graeme Simsion in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
The story is narrated by Adam Sharp, database architect and part-time pianist, who in 1989 went on a year-long world tour whilst in his 20s and when in Melbourne fell in love with Australian TV actress Angelina Brown. Four months later Adam continued with his tour and didn’t see or hear anything from Angelina until 22 years later when she sends him an email simply saying ‘Hi’.
Graeme Simsion, well-known for ‘The Rosie Project’ and ‘The Rosie Effect’, has produced a beautifully written novel as Adam contemplates whether to follow his heart and make a life with Angelina or go back to partner Claire and work at their relationship. The nostalgia arising from the music Adam plays on the piano fits in very nicely with the story which interchanges from when he first met Angelina to the present time.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book which had me captivated from start to finish.

This was delightful look at relationships and life through the eyes of a computer consultant- by day - pop singer / pianist by night. Very insightful, quirky, and cute read. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I think that most of us who have been in long-term relationships (more than 10 years) can relate to Adam Sharp. As much as we may love our partner, the thrill and infatuation that comes from new love recedes and we are left we the monotony of everyday life. That's where Adam sharp finds himself when a long-lost love reaches out to him, making him evaluate who he is and who he loves. This is a story of rediscovery, figuring out who we are in middle age and whether we are satisfied with who we have become. While I did not enjoy this book as much as THE ROSIE PROJECT because it is not as whimsical, I found the characters to be real and truthful and worthy of my empathy.

I did not finish this book as I did not engage with this story at all.

I chose this book solely because I adored both of the Rosie books. Going into this, I wish I had read a summary. I wasn't expecting a book with such heavy content. Other than that, I did really appreciate again Simsion's control of character. Adam was a well rounded and interesting character, so lifelike in his portrayal that I could see him being a real person. I also found myself utterly floored by the week in France and how that whole situation played down. Angelina was definitely not the woman he fell in love with and it made me wish I could get in the book and say, no Adam, don't do it! Overall, a fairly solid read, but without some of the whimsy that I loved in the Rosie books.

Overall I enjoyed this book, the tie-in to music, and the narrator's unique perspectives, but it was so slow!

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Graeme Simsion: The Best of Adam Sharpe, 9780718179502, paperback, Penguin Random House UK, available

When I was still active in the publishing world, “The Rosie Project” by debut author Graeme Simsion became a huge success for Penguin, and went on to become a bestseller by S. Fischer in Germany. I noticed he had written a new novel and when the world looked particularly bleak, grey skies, winter, a dire political world, I downloaded “The Best of Adam Sharpe” hoping for an easy, entertaining read.
I do not read a lot of so called women’s fiction, so I may be a little too critical. The first part of the book I enjoyed but the second part is a little too schmaltzy for my taste.
The book is told from the perspective of Adam Sharpe, a greying, just 50tish IT consultant from Norwich, with a love for music and an accomplished pianist himself. His uneventfully content life with long time partner Claire is suddenly interrupted when an email from the past pops up unexpectedly. Angelina Brown, the love of his life, the woman all his musical choices are connected to, was a very sexy actress starring in an Australian TV when they met. Adam was on an extended world trip in his twenties when their path crossed in Melbourne and they fell madly in love despite Angelina being married. What follows is a string of flirty emails and the feelings she still arouses in him make him realize how emotionally stale his current relationship has become. When Angelina proposes a week’s visit when she and her husband vacation in France, Adam is torn but he knows he has to make a decision. Does he have a second chance to correct what now feels like a mistake?
Adams current life, his relationship with Claire and his memories of the three month with Angelina in Australia make up the first part of the book. The second part is set in France where he is spending a very eventful week with her and her husband Charlie which is where Graeme Simsion lost me.
I am sure many readers will find this book highly appealing but for my taste it was a little too simply constructed. The sex parts felt a little like let’s add a dose of “Fifty shades of grey” magic. Songs and music play a central role in the novel; I thought the reference to the song list on Spotify at the end of the book a clever idea by Simsion. Other than that, make up your own mind whether this is for you or not, reading the book is care free entertainment for sure.

"The Best of Adam Sharp" is a deeply unsettling, at times creepy, yet compelling novel of love, marriage, and the effort it requires to fall in love, stay in love, and maintain a relationship. Adam and Angelina fell in love in Australia while in their early twenties, but between the pull of careers and the tangle of other relationships, they move apart and relinquish their relationship. Over twenty years later, Adam gets a text message from Angelina, who invites him to visit her and her husband in a vacation home in France. Complications set in as the two men, Adam and Angelina's husband, Charlie, vie for her affections and the pleasure of sleeping with her. As with nearly all relationships, there are secrets and nuances hiding under the surface, and reading the book is a bit like watching a slow train wreck - it's hard to look away.

Without the charm or humor of "The Rosie Project" and its sequel, this is a darker novel but perhaps one that is more ambitious and memorable. The plot can be compared to Hollywood's "La La Land" -- but again, "The Best of Adam Sharp" puts a darker spin on the tale. What holds the book together is the soundtrack of Adam's life and his loves, not just as it plays in the background, but as it foreshadows and reveals the deepest secrets of his intertwined affairs.

I really liked this novel from the author of The Rosie Project. I found Adam charming and relatable as a narrator, and I found the situation of wondering about a long lost love relatable as well. Thank you to netgalley.com for the early review copy.

Having enjoyed both The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, I was interested in reading what Graeme Simsion delivered next, stepping away from the world of Don Tillman. This time he turns his focus on Adam Sharp, an average Joe in his late 40's who appears to be embarking on a textbook mid-life crisis - reconnecting with Angelina, AKA the actress formerly known as the love of his life.
Unbeknownst to his long-term partner Claire, he forms a flirtatious cyber connection with his ex, culminating in an invitation from Angelina to come and hang out with her and her husband in rural France. There then follows a somewhat bizarre menage a trois that left me feeling a little uncomfortable - it just felt like I was intruding into one of Simsion's own sexual fantasies, and that I shouldn't be reading it. The characters, while well formed, became less and less plausible as the story progresses, culminating in an unnecessarily long and drawn out denouement.
Even the much vaunted soundtrack to the book feels like a male muso bore patronising his way through a list of artists you should listen to, rather than songs you'd actually enjoy. Maybe, as a woman, I'm not the target audience for this book. Maybe it's only targeted at nerdy IT guys having a mid-life crisis. Either way, this was a novel that started well and lost its way somewhere deep in the French countryside.

Not nearly as sweetly endearing as the Rosie Project/Effect. This book is full of songs and sex and infidelity. So, take that as your warning (not against the songs, of course, those were fantastic). I love the IDEA of this main character, Adam Sharp, but couldn't stomach his actions and motivations. It was entirely too gratuitous.

Since I adored both The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect, I was excited to read this one! While the voice is entirely different, there is still the wry sense of humor and wonderful story. When almost-fifty Adam receives an email stating simply "Hi" from his long lost love, Angelina, he begins to question his long term, albeit stale relationship with Claire and wonders if he should make contact. Still seeing her as "the one that got away," he simply has to know if there is a future for them after so many years. What ensues is a story weaving the past with the present, allowing Adam to re-live the memories and determine if the past should remain in the past. With heart-wrenchingly beautiful prose, Simsion does not disappoint as we witness grief, love, heartbreak, betrayal, and forgiveness. I absolutely loved it!

Adam Sharp is a typical middle aged guy: he has an IT job, enjoys spending time with friends, and has been with his partner, Claire, for over twenty years. He also cannot forget about a brief affair in his twenties with an Australian soap star, and after all these years he has an opportunity to find out if she was really the love of his life and if he made a huge mistake leaving her all those years ago.

The first part of the book tells the story of Adam and Angelina’s love affair in Melbourne in the 1980’s. Adam is an Englishman who was on a months long IT consultant job there when he came across Angelina. They shared a young love of nightlife and music and each other. Angelina had married young and was separated from her husband, but she came from a conservative family and she was having a difficult time letting go of the relationship. Even though they were in love, when Adam left for the next leg of his work journey, he and Angelina did not commit. She went back to her husband and he moved on with his life, but he never forgot her.

Twenty years later and one email saying “hi” from Angelina brings him right back. Could there really still be something between them? Adam gets the chance to find out as the second part of the novel focuses on them reuniting. This part of the book is the one full of surprises and the one that leaves you thinking for days to come.

I really enjoyed this book. There were some parts that made me very uncomfortable, but it is a subject that many people have thought about – was that person the one that got away? How would my life had been different? And how dark are those rose colored glasses that we see the past with? My favorite aspect of the book was the music; the book had a soundtrack. Adam was a piano player and Angelina a singer and it was where their connection was born and the songs kept that connection alive. There were memories connected to the songs they listened to and played together that kept them reminiscing about each other for years. There is even a Spotify playlist to accompany the book!

I was Into this book. It was an easy, fun read and gave a perspective on relationships that is rarely seen.

Special thanks to Graeme Simsion, St. Martin’s Press & NetGalley for providing my copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Do you reminisce about a love affair that ended too soon? Are you a lover of pop music from the '80's? Did you love The Rosie Project? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you will enjoy The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion. The story involves a middle aged British man who had a love affair with an Australian actress when he was in his twenties. His job as a contracted computer engineer meant that he was only in Australia for a few months, but it was long enough to fall in love with the beautiful Angela. However, he decides to pursue his career and leaves Australia to take his next work assignment, effectively ending his relationship with Angela. By the time Adam and Angela next speak, they are in their forties and in other relationships. When they finally reconnect, it made me think wonder what would happen if I reconnected with a past boyfriend from when I was studying in Paris. However, the thought provoking outcome of the novel shows why some loves are best kept as fond memories.
Reading this book made me feel like the author was sitting down across from me over a few beers and telling me his story. Plus, the way the author weaves music throughout the novel is very unique. He even created a Spotify playlist to help out in case some of the songs were unfamiliar. This book is truly a great read!

N/A - didn't complete
I only review books I read in full

The Best of Adam Sharp in the newest book from Graeme Simsion, author of much loved The Rosie Project. Adam is in his mid twenties when he meets and fall in love with beautiful TV actress Angelina Brown during a three month stay in Australia. They have a passionate relationship during this time and music is incredibly important to their relationship. Fast forward twenty years or so and Adam is is a comfortable, though rather stale, relationship with Claire when he unexpectedly receives an email from Angelina simply saying 'Hi'. This sets in motion a string of emails between the two and leads to Adam wondering if Angelina is in fact the love of his life, the one who got away and the one he should try to connect with once more.

Unlike The Rosie Project, this book is not a romantic comedy filled with quirky characters. It is a book about love and there is some humour in it but it's a different kind of story. One thing Adam does have in common with Don Tillman from The Rosie Project is that they both think a lot about the dynamics of their relationships. It's very much a novel where the focus on on relationships and how they work for different people.

I particularly enjoyed the first part of the book where Adam is looking back at his time with Angelina and recounting how they met and how it all came to an end. Through rose tinted glasses he compares this relationship to his current situation with Claire. It was apparent to me that this nostalgia and not fully having processed the end of his relationship with Angelina had been affecting his life with Claire.

The book is peppered throughout with song title and lyrics which I guarantee will have you singing either aloud or in your head. All the songs have significance to various times in Adam's life. I was in total agreement with a part of the book where Adam talks about a mix tape he has made of his friends' favourite songs which he finds "utterly pedestrian and not because I had more sophisticated tastes. I was not making the connections that they were and the songs didn't resonate." That is so true - people's favourite songs and the reasons they like them are so personal. You will find out more about this tomorrow if you follow @michaeljbooks on Twitter where people will be sharing the songs they feel are important in their lives. I'll have a post about this too.

I have to admit that I didn't connect so much with the second part of the book where Adam goes to stay with Angelina and her husband Charlie in France. I felt that Angelina's relationship with Charlie was very weird and that there were some unlikely scenarios. I wasn't convinced that any man would be as tolerant and understanding as Charlie, though it did make for some very interesting conversations between the two men!

The Best of Adam Sharp is about looking back, second chances and learning to appreciate what you have. With the story underpinned by the soundtrack of Adam's life, it's a thoughtful look at what is important to us and our relationships at different stages of our lives.