I really enjoyed this graphic novel!
Set in Bologna,Italy, Flavia Biondi narrates the story of Mia and Manuel,a young couple living in a shared house with students and flatmates ,trying to face every day challenges and the ups and downs of their relationship.

Being Italian, I have found the atmosphere of Bologna perfectly represented..The use of a palette of blue and white colours is an excellent choice to depict the uncertainty and the sense of being lost in life.

The love story is the representation of wanting to fulfill dreams,to be free and enjoy life on one hand and on the other the desire to have a home,a marriage and kids.

The ending was perfect and I believe it is an actual representation of real life,with its difficulties and little joys.

Brava Flavia!

I grabbed this from Netgalley as soon as I saw it because last year I read another book by this author/artist which was excellent.

This book did not disappoint me either.

Manuel and Mia have been living together for eight years. They live in a shared house with students and flat mates. Manuel is ready for the two of them to find their own place. He wants the whole caboodle; marriage, children and Mia.

Mia is grappling with the reality that she will never be a sculptress and that her life may consist of going from one menial job to another. The passion she has for Manuel is not like when they first met. She doesn't know what to do with her life.

Manuel has dreams. He works hard as a waiter and works on his online novel in the hope that one day a publisher will pick it up. He knows Mia is unhappy but when Mia gives up her job as a shop assistant, the two of them have to face up to the difficulties in their relationship and the reality that this is life and being together doesn't mean stars and roses every day.

Meanwhile the couple are surrounded by friends and fellow flatmates and they have their families. As the crises deepens Mia is forced to really look at the way she is drifting and when the crunch comes she has to stare the possible loss of Manuel in the face and take a good look at herself.

This is an excellent story about grappling with the reality of life. Sometimes the dreams and desires don't bear fruit and then what do you do? Relationships wax and wane but how do we weather those changes without losing everything?

The artwork is in blue and white which gives it a haunting kind of feel but it just seemed very appropriate for the melancholy parts of the story. The ending is great. I enjoyed all the characters although there were times when I didn't like Mia very much. The story has a great cast of supporting characters and their roles complement the main characters so beautifully. The best part of the story is the way Manuel weaves his own online writing into the main story.

Overall this story is beautifully told and beautifully illustrated and is going on my list of exquisite reads for 2019!

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I think it is strange to read a graphic novel that is written in Italian as a translated book, but still I like Flavia Biondi and I couldn't miss this opportunity and I am glad that I did! "Just enough" is a very reliable summary of what happens after the Happy Ending, the reason why romance books always stop at the wedding and I could give you many other examples. but she did it, she went on and tells a tale of a true love and all that it means.

Penso che prima di tutto sia strano leggere una graphic novel italiana in una versione tradotta, ma siccome non riuscivo ad ottenere altro non sto certo a guardare in bocca il caval donato, e per fortuna! "Just enough" é il riassunto di quello che succede una volta che i libri arrivano al "lieto fine", la ragione per cui i romanzi rosa finiscono sull'altare e potrei fornire altri esempi, ma Flavia ha fatto di meglio ed ha raccontato del vero amore e di quello che significa superare la fase dell'innamoramento e delle farfalle.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

I loved the art in this graphic novel. At first it seemed like an odd choice to have it all in blue tones but it actually fit the story somehow.

The story of the relationship between Manu and Mia is an all too common one for many people in their 20s - they want to be happy but also need to work to earn a living and those two do not always match up. As a result there is a sense of dissatisfaction and the feeling of being unfulfilled. I found the portrayal of this relationship so realistic and believable. I'll definitely be looking for more by Flavia Biondi.

A warm story about a girl and her boyfriend, about growing up and the hardship of long term relationships. The art is gorgeous. Would love to read/see more.

Interesting and surprisingly accurate story about life and relationships in your 20's. Beautiful artwork. Definitely going to look for some of Biondi's other work.

Interesting perspective on the ideals of what relationships should be like. Lots of emotion and depth to the characters. A good light read if you are struggling with a partner after the 'puppy love' stage.

Lovely art combined with a moving story about love, struggle, and growing up. Life doesn’t fit nicely in a box and sometimes art inspires action in surprising ways.

This was a really refreshing book. Everything from the commentary to the relatable characters to how realistic and emotional the drawings were, made this book feel perfect.
It all felt so real and the author did a wonderful job at making it that way. Watching Mia and Manuel struggle with the ups and downs of every relationship and just the everyday mundane that life can be was unlike anything I can even describe. I resonated with Mia’s feeling of “what now?” and feeling stuck where you are in life all too much. It’s nice to see topics like this talked about in such an honest way.

I loved so much about this story and it has definitely inspired me to pick up more graphic novels in the future!

It’s been years since I’ve read a graphic novel. However, when I came across Flavia Biondi's 'Just Enough', I was instantly drawn to the art style. The cover, thankfully, did not disappoint. The illustrations were beautiful and modern, perfectly depicting the characters and the emotions they felt throughout this slice-of-life novel.

'Just Enough' tells the story of a couple in their late twenties trying to navigate through life — as well as through their relationship. Being in my late twenties myself, I found this story to be very relatable — and I found myself relating to Mia, especially, in a very real way. Biondi did an incredible job of presenting the reader with a flawed main character who was still likeable and very easy to connect with. I feel the situation Mia finds herself in — feeling lost in regards to her career and her relationship; feeling like she hasn’t achieved what she thought she would have by that point in her life — is something that we’ve all been through at one point or another in our own lives, and it made 'Just Enough' feel all the more realistic.

The thing I loved most about this novel, however, was the way in which Biondi wrote the relationship between Mia and Manu. I’m so used to reading fiction that dramatises every aspect of falling in love, and deals solely with the early stages of romance, but this felt like reading about a relationship I had been in myself. Seeing these two characters trying to navigate their way through the challenges presented to them from being together for a very long time — to the point where their relationship had become stagnant and lacking in the sort of love and romance they both clearly needed to be happy — honestly made my heart hurt. I found myself rooting for them so much, not only because I’m a bit of a romantic, but because it felt so realistic that I really wanted to believe that people could get through the kind of struggles they found themselves fighting against, and come out of it stronger at the other end.

It’s also worth mentioning how well the other relationships were written in the book, too. Biondi has observed the way in which we exist alongside others in an incredibly touching and beautiful way. Every relationship — friendship, romantic, family — felt so real to me when reading 'Just Enough'.

I absolutely adored this story, and it’s definitely encouraged me to pick up more graphic novels in the future. I’ll definitely be reading this one again very soon. I can’t get over how much I connected to the characters and the story. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes realistic graphic novels, or who is willing to give them a try. It deserves to be read.

★★★★✰ 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5)

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with the chance to read this stunning work
Although I'm Italian, before coming across Just Enough on NetGalley, I'd never heard of Flavia Biondi. As soon as I saw her artwork I fell in love.
I can best describe this as a 'slice of life' that depicts the 'what now?' that might come at the end of your twenties, when you feel the pressure to 'settle down' or start a 'real' career and become a 'real' adult. I liked the realistic dynamics between the various characters, the way their silly conversations could turn serious—and vice versa—and the imperfect and down-to-earth portrayal of love (romantic and platonic).
The story captures the dissolution felt by Italy's younger generations yet there is a sense of hope for happier—or more 'stable—times that made this into an easy read. The artwork and writing perfectly convey the nostalgic atmosphere of the story. I thoroughly loved this graphic novel and I am already looking forward to reading in again and again and again.

It's hard to put into words how much I loved this comic book, but I'll try my best.

This story had so much depth and was so emotional for me. Mia and Manu became my favorite couple this year so far, and I wish I could meet them in real life or to be transported to inside the book and have a chat with them that would last for hours.
Their couple's journey was so fantastic and had so many layers... You can see it happening with everybody. They're real problems, real situations that people can go through and the humble way that Flavia Biondi decided to tell us this story, was the thing that made me fall in love with it!!!

I loved the fact that in here, Mia was the character that had most flaws and who went there making certain "mistakes" that we most see the men doing it. I'm not used to seeing that in a romantic story and the fact that we could understand all aspects through her eyes, was really nice.
I felt so connected to Mia, that it was just unbelievable. Perhaps because we are practically the same age and I've been in a couple of life crises myself. She was so real to me, that even when she made a stupid decision, I could totally comprehend her reasons and relate. Manu was the kind of guy that everybody wants to be friends with and every girl wants to have as her boyfriend... and again, when he also made decisions that for me were not ok, I completely understood him.

I should, of course, mention their friends but I'm gonna give a shout out here to Tito, who I really really want to be friends with. I actually think that every woman should have such a down to Earth gay friend like that, he was an awesome character!

All in all, this comic book is amazing and has such a truthful story, it deserves to read by a lot of people. Highly recommend it!!!

This was such a wonderful commentary on love and relationships. I was fully invested in Mia and Manuel's relationship, and was rooting for them the entire time. I related so much to Mia and her struggles with her life and feeling stuck and unworthy. The art style was a nice refreshing style, and I liked it a lot. I would definitely recommend this!

This was a really refreshing book. It felt so real and the author did a great job making the characters and story relatable. So many couples go through this and it didn't sugar coat the reality of the situation. I particularly loved some of the drawings and I could look at them for ages as there was so much emotional depth to them. There were many parts of it that I could read over again and it could easily be quotable as it is written so well.

The artwork was absolutely to my liking, the blue hue made it seem like a dream, whilst the story was lovely; delicate, fragile, ageless.